Marinades!

Okay.. so while I have really enjoyed writing this blog, sometimes I am almost dreading writing because I feel like I have to share all of my kitchen disasters, and I am embarrassed! I won't let all of these failures stop me though because I am learning so much, and eventually, I will be an okay cook!

So.. that brings me to today. After a rough weekend, I am thinking that I may possibly be lactose intolerant. It makes me SO sad to think that may be true. I've decided to cut out dairy for a week or two to test it out. To help, I wanted to make soy milk in my +Vitamix!! When we went to the store this weekend, I bought soy nuts to make soy milk. Unfortunately, you need SOY BEANS to make soy milk, not soy nuts. Fail #1. I'll still eat them, and I'll go find soy beans. Sigh.

+Jimmy Ho and I decided to have cilantro lime fajitas this week. I decided to make the marinade today, so the chicken could marinate overnight. Because I was going to make that marinade I thought "well, maybe I should marinate myself a chicken breast for dinner tonight!" Jimmy was eating leftover pizza, and I was not about to eat any more cheese so I was excited about my idea. For the marinade for my chicken breast, I threw in a lemon, a clove of garlic, a sliver of onion, and pepper!

I blended it up, and put it on the chicken and put in the fridge for about half an hour.

Here's what I did wrong. The chicken was not completely defrosted. It was mostly thawed, but it was obvious it was still a little frozen. DON'T EVER DO THIS. I should have defrosted it before baking the chicken. It took so long for the chicken to get to 165 degrees internally that the chicken was tough and completely dried out. The marinade was REALLY good, but the chicken, not so much. Never doing that again. Fail #2.

Even with the failures,  some really good things have also happened. I am super excited about the cilantro lime marinade! I really can't wait for tomorrow. For this marinade, there is lime, cilantro, garlic, olive oil, pepper, salt, and oregano. I blended it up, threw it on the chicken, and it is in the fridge. I tasted it, and it was so good! I'm thinking about using the same recipe as a salad dressing. Yum.

The other exciting news today is that our seeds are beginning to sprout!! So far tomatoes, cilantro, parsley, and basil have sprouted. It is really cool to see something you planted come to life. I'm looking forward to watching them grow and eventually planting them.