Grilled Chicken, Rice, Broccoli, and Applesauce

Grilled Chicken, Rice, Broccoli, and Applesauce

Tilapia and chicken are the basis for two of the fastest meals I know how to make, and meals that I know my kids will eat.  Tonight it was chicken, and, just like my past few Mondays, I had an evening meeting, and my husband was coming home late.  These are the nights that tempt me to get take out or buy something frozen that I can reheat.  But I will not give in… My goal is to prepare something just as “tasty as take out”, just as fast (I include travel time to get the food.), and much more healthy. So I prepared dinner for the  2 kids and I did it fast.

About 15 minutes before I started dinner, I started rice in the rice cooker – I wish I had been more organized and made brown rice earlier in the day, as it is healthier, but I’m going to suppress my guilt and move on… 🙂

Next, I washed and cut the chicken, put olive oil, salt and pepper on top and popped it on the grill. You can also make in the oven at 350 for 10-12 minutes since it is such a small amount of chicken.

While the chicken cooked, I put the broccoli in the microwave with a spray of olive oil and salt and then portioned the applesauce on each plate.

Once the chicken was ready, I portioned the broccoli, rice and chicken on the plates, served, thanked the babysitter and left!

Recipe

Grilled Chicken, White Rice, Broccoli, Applesauce 

Serves 2 Adults and 2 Kids + 1-2 lunches

Ingredients

2 Cup White Rice (or Brown Rice if Making Ahead)

4 Cups Water

2 lbs. Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast

Olive Oil Spray (or canola oil spray)

Salt and Pepper

2.5 Cups Frozen Broccoli

2.5 Cups Applesauce, no sugar added

Instructions

Pre heat oven to 350 or turn grill on high

1. Put the rice and water in the rice cooker and turn on quick cook.
2. Wash chicken, pat dry, spray olive oil and lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper. Feel free to add other herbs- rosemary, basil, Mrs. Dash seasoning.  Or just leave plain.
3. Put chicken in a roasting pan and put in oven or put directly on grill and turn down to medium.
4. Cook broccoli in microwave 2-3 minutes. Check for doneness (fork pierces broccoli stalk easily) and microwave until ready.
5. If chicken is on grill, turn over after 6 minutes.
6. Portion applesauce across plates.
7. When chicken is done, (springs back to the touch and not pink inside), portion chicken, broccoli, and half the rice on plates and serve! (Save the other half of the rice for tomorrow’s meal)
8. Now that is fast, easy, delicious comfort food!

Pre-Prep Opportunities

1. Cook rice ahead of time and use brown rice.
2. Wash, spray and season chicken ahead of time and store in fridge.