Chicken Pillard with Balsamic Onions and Kale with Navy Bean Soup & Roasted Vegetable Medley and Yogurt Bark

Well this was actually more of a challenge than I thought. Let's just say I could never make it on any time limit cooking show. I am slower than slow at this whole cooking thing. Now, this is no surprise, I make certain meals all the time and I still take longer than your average Joe to get it done. I am a very aware person so on Saturday when I bought all of my ingredients, I decided to cut all of the vegetables as well. Yams, Carrots, Parsnips... all hard vegetables. I am pretty sure I am going to have to start working out if I want to continue to cut Yams!  I seriously spent 6pm-10pm on meal prep. Now, I will admit there is Netflix distractions, and trying to find the right tool issues, and well just checking in on what Aaron is doing and talking to the cats.... I guess I could just get serious but what fun would that be?

Recipe Links:
Chicken Pillard with Balsamic Onions and Kale
Roasted Vegetable Medley
Navy Bean Soup
Frozen Yogurt Bark


I might want to mention at this point that I have about 35 food allergies... this makes my meal a little different than my boyfriends. I follow the recipe the right way for him, sometimes excluding black pepper, and then modify for my own sad unflavorful meal.

The Chicken/Onion/Kale combo was perfect together so Aaron told me, I don't eat Balsamic, but alas these recipes aren't about me they are about the Christmas gift that I promised the newly fit food fanatic. He also mentioned that the flavor was good and actually I subbed the paprika for chipotle chili powder because I thought that I had paprika but I didn't.

We both agreed that we're not fans of roasted vegetables which is awesome because they took an hour to just cook and then think about how long it took the worlds slowest chef to cut and prepare them. besides being allergic to the basil I thought they were less than average, just kind of blah, fresh steamed would have been a lot more appealing to me.

If I knew anything about beans I would have known that when the recipe states "soak for 24 hours" that actually means "soak for a minimum of 36 hours". My beans were still hard and I figured they would soften up in the soup... nope, I had to cook it for a lot longer (almost 3 hours) than the recipe said so that the beans would soften up. BUT all complaining aside this was Aaron's very favorite part of my meal this week which tickled me pink. So good that he couldn't resist having it for breakfast the next morning!

I also tried a recipe for yogurt bark ... it wasn't as good as I had planned. I would probably skip the cranberries and I accidentally bought bitter dark chocolate. The chocolate mistake and the cranberries messed up the flavor of the yogurt bark, but the coconut really helped the flavor. I think if I was a fan of yogurt then I would have actually really enjoyed it and it's a really easy quick fix (minus freeze time) for dessert.

Michelle: Main Dish & Dessert (no seasoning) - 2 Star Rating 
I probably wouldn't make this for myself again, I couldn't have the seasoning on the chicken so it was unexciting. The side was below average and I am also allergic to basil so it was really difficult to get through.
Soup: Allergic - no attempt - No Rating
Aaron: Main Dish & Dessert - 3 Star Rating 
"The chicken was good and flavorful but the vegetables were just alright and the bitter chocolate ruined the dessert for me"
Soup: 4.5 Star Rating (now you see why they are 2 ratings) We will definitely make this again!

Comment with questions and suggestions♡
Any tips on how to pick up the pace on my cooking pace? 

Until next time xoxo,
M