Rosemary Garlic Chicken

Yes. It’s finally here: a recipe for meat on a pescetarian’s blog. I cannot personally tell you how this recipe tasted, however, my mom vouches for the chicken. She tells it like it is and she said it was delicious and moist and… well she is still my mom.

I’m going to let you use this recipe if you PROMISE that you will go find organic, free-range, minimally packaged chicken. I’ll give you the low down on the way to “greenify” your chicken after the recipe but seriously. If you do those three things you can really improve your chicken foodprint.

Serves 2

• 1 ORGANIC, FREE-RANGE Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast
• 3 sprigs Rosemary, chopped
• 2/3 cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. Paprika
• 1 tbsp. Garlic, minced
• Salt and Pepper, to taste
• 1/2 Lemon

Place chicken breast in a plastic bag and beat it until it flattens to 2/3 it’s original width. Take chicken out of the bag. In order to be eco-friendly, reuse the bag and put into it the flour, rosemary, paprika, and salt and pepper. Mix that all up and then place chicken back in the bag to coat it. Meanwhile, put some EVOO in a pan and add the garlic. When that has just begun to cook, place the chicken in the pan. Cook for 4 minutes on Side 1. Flip the chicken to Side 2 and add the lemon juice. Cook for another 4 minutes or until cooked through (chicken cannot have pink in it because it is a huge disease carrier!). Enjoy!

How to “Green” Your Poultry

(I really wanted to rhyme and say “How to “green” your lean protein”… but I thought it might be a little corny)

• Poultry is about 3x as energy efficient as beef and 5x as energy efficient as pork (so cut back further on those two sources of animal protein and less on the birds) because they do not have the flatulence problems of these other animals.
• Poultry also needs less water and food to get to full size.
• If you’re eating poultry (or any meat) you really should be shelling out the extra money for organic and free-range. Any animal protein labeled organic has to eat solely organic feed its entire life (plus no growth hormones or other icky stuff like that). So you’re getting a double-bonus here. You’re avoiding land degredation and water source pollution through the use of pesticides AND you’re eating a bird that doesn’t pollute your own system with growth hormones and pesticides! The government is still figuring out what free-range should mean, however, it does mean that the chickens are allowed to be outside which is more humane. And if you add in the organic, it probably means they have a vegetarian diet (super eco-plus–>a huge waste is growing animals to feed them to other animals).
• Every farmers market I’ve ever been too has local farms selling chicken. Ask about their practices and if they are labeled organic or have organic practices (and can’t afford the title) buy your chicken there! Then you also cut back on food miles (though in the case of chicken this is not the most important thing so always spring for organic over local unless you can get both).
• As with my recipe above, add veggies and sides to your chicken so that you can stretch one breast to feed two people (by beating it down it’ll also look like a normal portion per person).
• Cut your meat diet down. Even by one day. If everyone could do that it would really be great for the environment.
• Make sure you’re using produce that’s super eco-friendly when you do cook chicken. They don’t cancel each other out, but it will keep your foodprint down for the meal.

Garlic Parmesean Mushrooms and Asparagus

Serves 2

• 1 tbsp. Garlic, minced
• 3 tbsp. Fresh Parmesean
• 1/3 cup Mushrooms (seasonal), sliced
• 1/2 bushel Asparagus

Place EVOO in a pan and add the garlic. When it starts to cook, add the mushrooms and asparagus and place a top on the pan (this steams the veggies while they cook–>and makes the asparagus a delicious texture). Mix the veggies around a little and then place top back on. Cook ~5 minutes (or until tender) then add the cheese. Wait until the cheese melts and you’re done!

P.S. You can use any veggies you want for this. I think broccoli, brussel sprouts, etc. would be great as well.

ECO-BENEFITS

1. The chicken is served with brown rice (better than white rice) and veggies plus it was pounded until thinned out so 1 breast can feed 2 people!
2. The chicken’s coating used whole wheat flour instead of regular all-purpose bleached flour.
3. The asparagus and mushrooms are in season and I bought them local and organic!
4. The chicken was organic and free-range (I didn’t buy it local although that would’ve been an added plus point).