Now that you have the back story I now have to share with you one of the most amazing meals that I think I have ever had (and it wasn’t even prepared by me lol).  Well she totally surprised me one night with this dinner and I was totally blown away and have been craving it ever since… Soooo last night she made it for me again and this time I got a picture.

Ok let me share the recipe with you, hopefully just the sound of the ingredient list will make you drool as much as it does me.

Ingredients

4 boneless chicken breasts
12 strips of bacon cooked and drained
4 slices of baby swiss cheese
1/2 cup favorite BBQ sauce
garlic salt
black pepper

Directions

So since the ingredients state that the bacon should be cooked I am going to assume that you know that you need to cook the bacon and hopefully you know how to do that.  By the way, just in case you were not aware this chicken has BACON!  Season the chicken with the garlic salt and black pepper and place on the grill on high heat or directly over your coals for just a couple of minutes.  We want to get a little char on the chicken, then brush each breast with BBQ sauce and turn.  Once turned lower the heat or move to a cool spot on the grill and top each breast with 3 strips of bacon and cover that with a slice of swiss cheese (the benefit of swiss is that it melts but doesn’t run all over the place, plus it tastes great).

Continue to cook on low heat until chicken is done (usually about an additional 15 minutes) then brush the top with a little more BBQ sauce and remove from the grill.  Allow this to set for just a minute so that the juices stay in the chicken when you start to eat it… I mean this makes for some very tender, juicy and amazing chicken.

To plate you simply need to place the chicken over your favorite green vegetable, on this night we had green beans and it was a great match.

Give it a shot, it’s a super quick and easy meal that your family will absolutely love.  I mean who doesn’t love BACON?

Well I really have been working very hard at changing how I eat, how I cook and how I think about food.  I’ve been much more focused on the science behind foods and how your body processes the foods that we eat.  (By the way this was all brought about by stupid Diabetes)  But since I have started to focus on different ways to eat I have learned that no many places offer healthy choices for a diabetic that are also tasty although there are a few exceptions.  The other night my girlfriend and I met up with some friends for dinner and my buddy recommended the fire grilled chicken and yams, now that may not be the absolute best option but was surely headed in the right direction so I tried it and HOLY CRAP THIS IS AWESOME!

Now I later found out that they do add sugar in a few areas so it’s not the most diabetic friendly meals but was much better than pasta or white bread…  But me being me decided that I would just make my own recipe that is diabetic friendly and incorporates everything that I wanted in a meal.  So the next day it was off to the grocery store with a specific list of items and here is what I ended up doing!  Oh by the way, even the kiddos enjoyed it so get ready to blow everybody’s mind even the youngins’!

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 sweet potatoes
1 cup pecans
1/4 cup melted butter
2 tblsp sugar free maple syrup
2 tblsp Splenda brown sugar
2 tblsp Granulated Splenda
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp cinnamon
Cayenne pepper
Garlic Salt
Cajun seasoning
Black Pepper

First things first: Candied Pecans

If you have ever had yams or sweet potato souffle then you know that it’s usually topped with candied pecans, well those are always covered with sugar but I still wanted them.  So, I mixed half of my melted butter, the sugar free maple syrup, splenda brown sugar and vanilla extract into a bowl.  I then added the pecans and mixed until each pecan was fully coated, and poured onto a baking sheet.  Don’t forget to add your non stick spray to this pan or you will be forever trying to remove candied candy stuff from the pan.  I then put the pan in the oven at 350 for about 25 minutes and then let cool.  These things came out as a delicious snack all by themselves but that’s not why I made them.

Sweet Potatoes:

I wrapped each of the potatoes in foil and placed on the grill on low heat for about an hour until very soft to the touch.  Once removed I sliced them open and used a spoon to remove all of the sweet potato pulp and place into a nice big bowl.  I then added the cinnamon, granulated splenda, and the rest of the melted butter to the potatoes and mixed until fully blended and then covered to cool a bit.  (As a side note, I think this also may be the way you make LAVA because the inside of these things were so hot that I think it would have melted a hole to the core of the earth had any of it touched the ground.)

Grilled Chicken:

This was the easy part of the meal… I just added garlic salt, cajun seasoning, black pepper, and cayenne pepper and fully covered both sides with this mix.  You can pretty much season the chicken any way you want but I have found that the spicy chicken works best with this meal.  I think grilled the chicken over direct heat until done, it took about 20 minutes.

Once everything was done, I plated it all up and crushed a few of the candies pecans and put them over the sweet potatoes with the spicy chicken on the side.  All in all there were very few simple carbs in this meal and the complex carbohydrates and fiber make it a very healthy and diabetic friendly meal, not to mention that it was absolutely delicious to boot.  I’m pretty sure this dish will end up being a regular thing around our house!

There I admitted the face that this is not the prettiest meal in the world so can we get past the picture now?

Ok, now that we are beyond the looks of my horrible photo we can talk about the flavor.  By far this is now one of my favorite simple, delicious meals.

For some reason I just had a craving for pork, pasta, and cheese and came up with this.

The key to this dish was the boneless chops which were fantastic.  I took the chops and threw em on the grill since I thought I needed some grilled flavor with this dish.

This meal should serve 4 normal people or 1 HankBob and 1 Ogre…

What you need!

4 Boneless pork chops

1 lb spaghetti noodles cooked al dente

Your favorite pasta sauce about 16 oz.

1 can Rotel Tomatoes with Green Chilis

Shredded Mozzarella and Parmesan Cheese

What to do!

Get the grill hot and throw the chops on until fully cooked.

Take the chops off the grill and place into a roasting pan, cover with pasta sauce, and tomatoes.  Sprinkle the cheese over the top.  Cover the pan and you can either add the pan back to the grill or put it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.

While the chops are in the oven or on the grill go ahead and boil up the noodles.

After 35 minutes just scoop ya a chop out of the sauce and place it on your pasta.  Add a little more sauce if you want and enjoy.

I had mine with a Caesar Salad and Garlic Cheesy Ciabatta bread

One of the aisles that I have the most trouble with is the huge wall of sauces and marinades.  I can never just pass by grab a bottle of something in motion and continue on.  No, not me, I have to spend about 45 minutes scouring over the wall of deliciousness until I find something that I have never tried before.

In all honesty this just doesn’t happen very often and I end up just grabbing something plain and leaving.  Not on this day, as I stood there looking up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, select, start, I saw a light shining down as if it was a ray of light shining from the heavens.

It could have been a rainbow but I’m pretty sure it was just a beam of light… Sorry, that’s not the point, the point is that I saw West Indies Spice Co.  Just the name itself had me intrigued so I picked it up and low and behold I had found the treasure.  Pirates Gold Inferno Hot Marinade was now in my hand and was going to be used on these awesome London Broils.

I just couldn’t wait to get my new find to the house and start up a nice marinade with it but first…To the Beer!

I figured this was going to be a Caribbean style steak so I grabbed beer with “lime” in it and a bottle of Pineapple Soda to add to the marinade.  Now, I might get a little sweet and spicy out of this deal.

Grabbed some potatoes and mushrooms, and a few ears of corn and headed to the checkout.

As soon as I got the groceries in the house I opened the bottle of Pirates Gold, dipped my finger in it and tasted it immediately… HOLY CRAP MY FACE IS ON FIRE!!!!  That marinade is not kidding, just a little bit on the tongue and I could immediately feel the heat.  They say on the bottle the longer you soak in it the hotter it’s gonna get so I figured to make the marinade immediately and let it soak for 7 hours.  That should be plenty hot.

I mixed up the marinade, added the steaks, placed in the fridge and started playin Rock Band to pass the time.

After finally grilling the steaks I just have to say that these things were delicious.  The flavors were subtle enough that you could tastes them but could also still taste the steak.  It had a bit of heat on the back-end which was a really nice touch.

All in all if you can find this marinade I really recommend trying it out but using it as a base for a full marinade is the only way to go in my mind.

To Make the Marinade

You just want to make enough to cover your meat completely so play with the amounts until you get it the way you want it.

Pirates Gold Inferno Hot Marinade

Pineapple Soda

Lime Flavored Beer

Garlic Powder

Onion Powder

Salt

Black pepper

Mix all ingredients well until you have a nice flavored liquid.  Add the meat and marinate in the fridge for a few hours, best results would be overnight.

Throw it on the grill and enjoy!

This gave me a chance to grill some ribs and slow cook on the grill even though I couldn’t slow smoke em.  They turned out nice and tender and tasted fantastic.

Be careful because once your tongue hits 88 bites per hour you might just travel back in time…

I had the neighbors over for dinner last night and wanted to throw a few twists at em so I grilled these chops, grilled a few balsamic glazed peaches, made some faux potatoes and sweet peas with baby portobello mushrooms and it really turned out pretty impressive.  I also made an awesome sugar free dessert but I’ll save that for another post.  The really cool thing was that my neighbors daughter ate the “potatoes” and said they were the best she had ever had.  I just didn’t have the heart to tell her that it was cauliflower I think it would have just crushed her dreams of not eating veggies haha.

Well, give it a shot, let me know what you think…

This recipe works perfect for about six chops, if you need more just make more!

For the Chops

1 package of pork chops

garlic salt

lemon pepper

Take the chops and season with garlic salt and lemon pepper to taste, make sure to season both sides and place in the fridge for a few minutes while you get the glaze ready.

For the Glaze

3 tblsp Balsamic Vinegar

1 can sliced peaches (in syrup)

2 tblsp Honey

2 tblsp Maple Syrup

1 tblsp lemon zest

1 tblsp Worcestershire Sauce

If you like a little heat (which I do) you can mince up 1 roasted jalapeno to add to the mixture.

This is easy, just combine the Balsamic Vinegar, the syrup from the can of peaches, two peach slices, and all of the other ingredients in a bowl.  Mash the peaches in as you are mixing all ingredients.  You don’t even have to cook this, it’s ready to glaze as is.  Now that wasn’t so tough was it?

Oh yeah, set a little bit of this glaze aside because you are going to want to use it after everything is cooked.

Ok, it’s time to grill

Place the chops on a hot grill for about 3 minutes on one side.  About a minute before flipping them brush the glaze over the chops and let them sit for another minute on the grill.  The goal here is to get everything nicely coated and only flip the chops once to get nice grill marks.

Now, flip the chops over and immediately brush the new side with the glaze.  Notice we didn’t brush this side before putting them on the grill?  Well, there is some sugar in the syrup that we used to make the glaze and we don’t want that sugar to burn as the chops grill.  So, now that they are flipped let them cook for another 3-4 minutes.

Turn the chops over as you remove them from the grill, this will have the freshly cooked side up, add just a little more glaze to the chops just to make em sparkle.  Oh, God, no I didn’t say sparkle, stupid Twilight!!!

Anyhow, go ahead and plate up the chops, now that they are on the plate, use the glaze that you set aside to drizzle over the chops for a perfect presentation.

This a pretty simple and quick fix to add to any side that you want to do.  Keep posted and I will put up some info on the faux potatoes, sweet peas, dessert, and grilled peaches pretty soon.

I hope you enjoy, remember, be safe and get out of the house and grill somethin!

Now, that that’s out of the way, lemme get down to business with this thang. I really couldn’t resist puttin this together. I know, I know, this isn’t BBQ but I can promise that it is 100% good. I even had “fish haters” eat this and decide that they might add fish to their lives now. It was really that amazing, I am getting requests for this again today so might do it again this weekend.

The scariest thing for a couple of people was the Chutney, they just weren’t sure about putting fruity stuff on the salmon but after trying it have asked me to make up the Chutney to use on everything. This stuff is so spicy, sweet, amazingly delicious that I’m sure it will go great on just about anything. Give it a try and I promise you will not be disappointed.

Salmon:

4-5 .25 lb steaks
3-4 tlbsp of curry powder
1-2 tblsp of ground cumin
zest from 1 lemon
juice from 1 lemon
salt
lemon pepper
olive oil
soaked cedar planks

Brush salmon with olive oil. Spread the lemon zest over the steaks. Squeeze lemon juice over each steak. Cover steaks with Curry powder and ground cumin. Add salt and pepper and let rest. Place soaked cedar planks over hot coals on the grill for several seconds to warm. Flip the planks over and then place the salmon skin side down for 20-25 minutes or longer for a more well done salmon. Remove salmon from the grill and top with the chutney.

Chutney:

3 tblsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 sweet onion (finely chopped)
2 roasted jalapenos (finely chopped)
2 peaches (skinned and diced)
1 cup blackberries
2 tblsp honey
3 tblsp brown sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 teasp salt

On medium heat add olive oil, garlic and onion into a saucepan, sautee until onions are completely soft. Add in the roasted jalapenos and peaches with the honey, brown sugar and cider vinegar. Stir and allow to simmer for 5-6 minutes until the peaches are soft. Add cup of blackberries and salt. Continue to stir mashing some of the blackberries as you go. Allow to slowly simmer for 6-7 minutes stirring regularly. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Asparagus:

1 lb of asparagus
olive oil
garlic powder
salt

Brush the asparagus with olive oil, add salt and garlic powder. Place on the grill away from direct heat for 4 minutes, checking frequently. Turn once and allow for another 4 minutes. Once the tips begin to darken remove from the grill.

Potatoes:

3 Idaho Potatoes
olive oil
2 cloves garlic (minced)
Rosemary
1 stick butter
salt

Cut the potatoes into 1/4 inch thick medallions. On a square of aluminum brush with olive oil. Add six medallions on the oil. Add salt, garlic and rosemary. Place two pads of butter on top of the potatoes. Completely seal the potatoes in the foil and place on the grill over direct heat for 15 minutes.

Also there is an additional topping for the potatoes a lemon sour cream which is optional but works extremely well. Take 4 tblsp of sour cream, add the zest from one lemon and the juice from 1/2 lemon, stir until blended, place 1 tblsp on top of the potatoes for a summertime fresh lemon topping.