I am a liar! Yesterday I did a 25 minute ab workout. I said I was going to take off but I just couldn’t. Jack slept until nearly 11, I had a lot of time on my hands. I made sure to give my legs a rest though.Tonight is Barre class.

It is recipe time! Yeah buddy! I was thrilled with how last night’s dinner turned out. I forgot to take photos of it. DOH! I will be better with that, I promise. I have to get into the swing of doing it regularly.

This one takes a bit of advanced prep. But it is simple enough. Just have to marinate the chicken.

I adapted this from Shape’s recipe.I made a few changes. I love the taste of Saffron. My mouth waters just thinking about it. I have been meaning to try this recipe for a few months. I finally got down to business. I was not disappointed at all.

They called for butter, which I eliminated. I really avoid cooking with butter at all costs. I substitute with olive oil and it was still super yummy.

On their recipe they had chopped fresh basil at the end. I FORGOT ABOUT THAT!!! I had the basil on my counter and I was running around trying to get the table set, Jack’s sweet potato and rice cooled off, etc. It slipped my mind. So feel free to add it. I will the next time. If you haven’t noticed I tend to function in chaos! Ha! It works well for me. It is not a bad thing. I thrive this way. I have accepted this trait of mine and I openly embrace it!

But below is how I prepared and cooked this delicious meal.

Saffron Chicken Brochettes with Forbidden Rice

• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed
• 1 & 1/2 red onions thinly sliced. 1/2 red onion chopped into bigger pieces to go on skewers.
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• Zest and juice of 3 lemons and juice of one additional lemon
• ¼ tsp crumbled saffron threads, dissolved in 1 tbsp of boiling water
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Special equipment:

Directions:

• Please set aside 2 TBSP of olive oil, the juice from one lemon, and 1/2 of a red onion for later, when grilling.

• Put the chicken and onions in a large nonmetallic bowl. ( I used a pyrex bowl of mine) Whisk together the oil, lemon zest, the juice from 3 lemons and the saffron water. Season with pepper. Pour over the chicken and onions, mix gently, and cover. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

• Meanwhile if you are using a rice cooker, prepare the desired amount of Forbidden Rice. This rice is delicious! It is chuck full of antioxidants, fiber, and other nutrients. I use the Lotus brand. It took my rice cooker about 1 & 1/2 hours to cook the rice on the brown rice setting. 1 cup of the uncooked rice. It was perfect and tasty. So just be aware to prepare your rice as needed.

• Mix the olive oil and the remaining lemon juice together. Chop the bigger pieces of onion for the skewers. I did this because I LOVE grilled onions with my rice! MMM

• Place the chicken and onions alternately on skewers. I didn’t keep a pretty pattern. Sometimes there were several pieces of chicken then an onion, etc. I just wanted to sneak some in there. Brush with the olive oil/lemon mixture and grill until cooked. I brushed them a few times after rotating the skewers. The recipe recommended the broiler but it is summer and yesterday was perfect weather. Not too hot not too cold. I was not cooking inside more than I had to. Grill worked great.

• Serve chicken and onions over the rice and enjoy!

A little note about this Forbidden or Black rice. I loved it. I love whole grain anything. Jason is a big white enriched rice fan. I have refused to cook that for YEARS. He does not care for brown rice, but he tolerates it. I have tried a few other brown rice medleys but he saw them as just ok. THIS rice he really liked. I also mixed it in with Jack’s sweet potato. He is in that “if I don’t recognize it I won’t eat it” toddler stage. He did not even notice the difference and gobbled it up. If I can get him to eat this I will buy it as much as I need to.

We do not have gluten or wheat issues in this family but it is gluten and wheat free. Their site says it cooks in only 30 minutes. I am terrible at cooking rice on the stove top. I tried for years and never could get it just rice. I outsourced my issue and bought a rice cooker. Now my rice is fabulous! It takes longer but it is worth it for me.

Image from Lotus Food’s site