Chick and Champ

Tonight's dinner was one of those easy to throw together kind of meals you need for a Monday night.  In about 30 minutes, dinner was on the table.  It was flavorful and comforting.

The menu: Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Tenders (Cooking Light), with Green Onion Champ (Cooking Light) and green beans.

For the Spicy Honey- Brushed Chicken, I swapped tenders for the recipe-called-for chicken thighs because I got a great deal on tenders this week at the market.  After getting half of my tenders in the rub mixture, I went ahead and cooked some plain ones alongside the ones for the recipe so I can use it for a recipe later in the week.  The only thing I changed about this recipe is the glaze that is brushed on at the last minute.  The glaze calls for honey and apple cider vinegar.  I wanted to kick it up a notch on the spice, so I added about a teaspoon of Siracha to it.  Drew likes his food really spicy, and the results were definitely spicy.  They had a great flavor.  I would definitely do this treatment for chicken tenders again, using alternative spices because it adds lots of flavor without adding any fat!  Gotta love that.  Since they are very figure friendly, we thought we would add a little bit of ranch and buffalo sauce for dipping - a great pairing.

For the uninitiated (as I was before this afternoon), "champ" is an Irish term for buttery mashed potatoes.  This version is very comfort-food pleasing.  For some reason, potatoes are not often on our menu.  We both grew up in household that ate potatoes often, but I still haven't added it to our list of "often" foods.   This might be because that list is incredibly short!  If you get a chance to try this recipe, do.  It is really good and flavorful.  A new cooking technique for me was the addition of green onions to the milk, heating it up and then adding it to the potatoes before mashing.  It infuses the green onion flavor very nicely into the potatoes and could have many applications.