Earth Day 2017

Photo Credit: www.earthdayindiana.org

Earth Day was started in 1970 to show support for environmental protection. Each year on April 22, many communities hold various events to educate and support Earth Day.  

Indiana's celebration is being held at Military Park at White River State Park from 11AM to 4PM.  More information can be found here. 

Looking for a few tips to help save the environment? Why not try some of these:

• Plant an herb garden. You don't need a large outdoor area. You can do an indoor container garden, too. I've seen some super cute ideas on Pinterest and other sites.  Check out this link for growing a Mason jar herb garden here.  Photo Credit above - Mick Telkamp
• Shop and eat local. There is nothing better than supporting your local businesses. Check out local farmers markets. Many areas even have indoor winter farmers markets. 
• Purchase products with the "FAIR TRADE" label. Find out what fair trade means here.
• Pay your bills online. 
• Open your curtains on sunny days and use the sun to light your home. Natural sunlight is the best!
• Take reusable bags when shopping. If you have to get the plastic, be sure to reuse them when you can. 

There are so many more tips to be found on the internet. What are some of the things you do to help save the environment?

Happy Earth Day 2017!

Tasty Tuesday - Asparagus Stuffed Chicken

Plated Dish- Photo Credit: Erika Gregory

You know show you see all of the Tasty (etc.) videos  on Facebook? The ones with all of the delicious recipes? I usually share them with only me as not to bombard others with a recipe they may have already seen on their timeline.

Many times, I will actually recreate the recipe and this Asparagus Stuffed Chicken was one of those times.  I love chicken, asparagus and provolone cheese. Hubby could do without meat and I am pretty sure provolone isn't his favorite cheese. I usually end up improvising on the recipe, but not this time. He was actually cool with everything in the recipe! SCORE (maybe because it was during the Final Four - lol).

Anyway, I won't go into the full details of the recipe. You can find it here from "I wash. You dry."

This dish was so simple and the spices are all you probably have at home.  The recipe calls for lemon zest, but I forgot to purchase real lemons. I did have lemon juice at home and used that instead. Zest of lemon and oranges is always better than the juice. It just seems to give it an extra bit of umph. I'm pretty sure it would have tasted much better had I used the zest.

I didn't use very much salt at all. I like to use the Himalayan or smoked salts.  You can find those at just about any grocery store. I also used smoked paprika. I use smoked paprika ALL the time - even in my mac and cheese!

We love asparagus and typically have it a couple of times every week. My favorite way to fix it is steamed (a little bit of water in the bottom of a microwaveable dish and press and seal wrap to cover). 

 Something looks terribly wrong with the second piece of chicken - huh?  Well, it's fine. I just flipped it the wrong way when I was seasoning it.  These get pan seared to lock in the juices before cooking at 400 degrees.  The photo below is after pan searing. Be sure to cover with aluminum foil so the asparagus doesn't burn.  I didn't cook the asparagus before I stuffed it in the chicken. The next time I will probably blanch it for a few minutes so it's not as crisp.

Here it is after baking. The paprika gives it a very pretty color.  I would probably add more paprika next time. I will say that I didn't use any of the measurements from the original recipe. I "winged" it. 

I'd love to know if you try this recipe and what you think if you do/did. 

                   💕💕Bon Apetit!💕💕