curried chicken.

Before Nate moved here, I ate cereal for dinner. But since September, I've been cooking actual meals and I love it! It's so much fun to try new recipes. Nate comes over any evening he's not working, and so far in six months there has only been one recipe that he's admitted to not liking. Usually he takes his first bite and says, "Top 10." But I'm pretty sure there are at least 30 recipes in the top 10.

Apricot preserves + 1 T. curry powder

Tonight I made orange curried chicken. I've made it once before. It's a really easy way to spice up some chicken without getting really spicy.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a small bowl combine the marmalade, curry powder, salt and water. Mix together. Place chicken pieces, cut side down, in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish and spoon marmalade mixture over chicken.
3. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes, spooning sauce over chicken several times. (Note: If sauce begins to stick to the baking dish, add an additional 1/4 cup water). *I use aluminum foil to keep my pan clean.
4. Remove chicken from baking dish and skim fat off of the sauce. Serve sauce hot with the chicken.

I served the chicken over couscous and with steamed broccoli.

Money-saving tip: Kroger only had Smucker's brand orange marmalade, and the price was outrageous for the itty bitty size of jar. I followed a suggestion from the recipe ratings and substituted apricot preserves, which you can pick up at Aldi for a very affordable price. The chicken tasted great.

For dessert, I made chocolate chip cookies. Nate helped, but mostly he helped eat them. :)

Nate is all for an always-full cookie jar. He has such a sweet tooth. Two nights ago I actually had a dream that I gave him a bunch of candy and told someone next to me, "He doesn't realize it's sugar free!" But I'm pretty sure in real life Nate would notice.

Nate has declared that this particular batch is the best cookie he's ever eaten. He said, "From now on, make cookies only like this!" He's not even interested in peanut butter or snickerdoodles. I think it helped to use mini chocolate chips. It spreads the chocolate out so you get a nice ratio of chocolate to cookie.

Other things: We ended the night by watching The Karate Kid (the newer version with Jaden Smith) on Netflix. I actually stayed awake for the whole movie!

Aldi was running a special recently on tortellini so tomorrow night I'm mixing up some Italian sausage, spinach and cheese tortellini, broccoli, and alfredo sauce.

All day I had in my head that today was Thursday, so this week is taking longer than usual. Big weekend ahead ... my spring cleaning weekend! Or at least Round 1. I might clean up and move junk to the attic and then really go through everything before Nate moves in.

We're getting married in 4 MONTHS! Yikes! Woo hoo! Some awesome women have stepped up to help me with wedding planning, but it's so hard to find time and the weeks slip by so easily; I feel like I'm way behind. I think I need more weekends.