Shortcuts work!

Tuesdays and Thursdays are super busy for me. I chauffeur the kids to and from their Taekwondo class and by the time we get back home, it is time for dinner. I usually try to keep it simple and quick. Actually pretty much all my cooking is under 30 minutes (if you have been following my blog). Hey! I sound like Rachael Ray! ;)

I do use a lot of shortcut in my cooking...........I mean, I don't have the time and patience (mostly the latter) to spend hours together in the kitchen! Following my shortcut policy, I decided to grab a Rotisserie chicken from Fred Meyer, since anyway I was driving to that area for my kids' class. Also grabbed a bag of salad, one of those mixed greens kind.

I picked up a lemon pepper rotisserie chicken today. The only problem with rotisserie chicken is that the outside part no doubt is yummy because that is where all the seasoning is, but the inside part is pretty bland, especially for our taste buds that are more accustomed to spicy food. But hey, once in a while it is OK to skip the spice, right?

Mmm, look at all that yummy pepper!

Next I jazzed up the salad by adding some tomato, almonds, "pixie" orange, salt, pepper and lemon juice. I added some pure OJ in the end and it was one heck of a salad! Fresh and crisp lettuce, radicchio and carrots all mixed up with crunchy almonds and tangy tomatoes with a note of sweet citrus--- YUM!

I found this "pixie" orange at Uwajimaya the other day. It tastes like any other orange and more resembles a tangerine. I have no idea why they call it a pixie orange. The skin is sort of wrinkly compared to a regular tangerine/orange--- maybe that's why they named it a pixie orange..........?  Must ask Alton Brown. I bet he has a good explanation!

Salad from a packet- all jazzed up!

I made some excellent brown rice to go with the chicken and the salad. Took 2.5 cups of brown rice, washed it a couple times and added 5 cups of water to it including a cube of veggie stock and a tablespoon of soy sauce. This was just to add some flavor to the rice. Pressure cooked for 20 minutes. Turned out perfect!

 Meal created using a couple shortcuts!

Now we did find it all a bit too bland, but that's why we have that special habanero sauce in our refrigerator!