The last few years, since moving to the country and starting to grow our own stuff, and especially since we now live right up the road from the Mennonite farm market, our food choices have been changing. It's not some big political thing, or even necessarily a conscious effort, just the byproduct of living in an area where we are surrounded by fresh, real food. Last night I made one of our favoritest of favorite meals - Jerk Chicken, and it struck me how much that meal has evolved lately. As recently as a few months ago, Jerk Chicken for us looked like this:
Boneless/skinless chicken breasts
McCormick Caribbean Jerk Seasoning (4 tbsp or so)
olive oil
soy sauce
vinegar
canned corn
stovetop stuffing
This was THE meal. Every time. Our favoritest meal.
Here's what it looked like last night:
boneless/skinless chicken breasts
homemade jerk paste (peppers, spices, and a dash of vinegar)
fresh pineapple
soy sauce
honey
olive oil
saute'd squash, cabbage and onions
red beans
rice seasoned with a pinch of allspice
Nowadays, this is the meal that I crave fortnightly. Especially the cabbage. I'm on a real cabbage kick. But look at the difference in the ingredients. The Old Way always left me feeling bloated and yucky, but the flavor was just so good. Don't get me wrong, it still is. But the New Way. Oh, the New Way! It's heavenly. The change in sides came about because of my aforementioned love of cabbage, and our small town's very, very short-lived Caribbean restaurant - which served basically the same sides that I do now. The allspice rice was an epiphany I had a few weeks ago. The pineapple happened when we added it to chicken skewers and grilled them (by far, the BEST), and now I just throw the pineapple and chicken in the oven with the paste, soy sauce, honey and oil for a pretty easy, and also pretty healthy evening meal. And no fake food or processed junk!
Click here to see the jerk paste recipe I use. I substitute whatever hot peppers I have a bunch of for the habaneros and it's still amazing.
