Hawaiian Chipotle Roast Chicken Dinner!!

Mmmmmm, ok so my husband and I are total food nerds.  We love food!! Which unfortunately for his metabolism does not equal a slim trim figure.  I still have a pretty good metabolism but still, looking good and feeling great are two very separate columns these days.

But I digress, for Christmas I won a shopping spree with a friend of mine who sells Steeped Tea and little did i know that Steeped Tea isn't ONLY Tea!!  They have hot chocolate and cheese ball mix and tons of dip mixes and dry rubs and stuff.  Sure they all have Tea IN them but ohmygosh my foodie heart just exploded when i was perusing the catalog.

One item we got was the Hawaiian Chipotle Topper, which has pineapple bits in it and actually smells really light.  Definitely a key ingredient.  Here's the recipe for the chicken;

Total Ingredients: 7 

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook Temp: 225 Celsius

Cook Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

1 Whole Thawed Chicken

1 clove garlic

2 celery stalks, coarsely chopped

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

Rosemary (fresh is best)

Paprika

Hawaiian Chipotle Topper (from Steeped Tea)

Do the usual beginnings, you know, preheat the oven, chop your veggies etc.  Than sprinkle your paprika and rosemary on the chicken.  With the topper it does work like a salt and pepper grinder so you have to spend a minute or two grinding it out until you have as much or as little on your chicken as you want.  It is a very light taste so the stronger you want it the more i suggest using.  Using fresh pineapple to include with your veggies never hurt either if you like it really Hawaiian style.  (I couldn't do that cuz my husband doesn't share my pineapple obsession and it was his night to cook)  Add the coarsely chopped celery and onion around your chicken in the dish.  Cover in tinfoil, put in oven, set timer, and walk away!!

Chop Porks, like the kids say

As a parent to a threenager its a constant battle of "what do you want for dinner?" leading into "But i don't WANT dinner!!"  And if its my household than usually that little tiny tyrant really wants Pizza or Chocolate.  Mind you, wouldn't we all love to eat just junk food all the time?  Sadly no can do.

Tonight we made "Chop Porks" as my oldest daughter calls them.  I think she demanded them for dinner specifically because she liked saying Chop Pork over and over again.  Oh well, we were more than fine with it, after all, at least for once she wasn't having a meltdown over wanting pizza!!  We even managed to sneak some Red Quinoa on there and she only refused to eat most of it.  Total win in my books.

So here's the recipe for these awesome "Chop Porks"

Total Ingredients: 4
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time 30 Min

2x medium pork chops (in our case we used 3 because our 2 kids shared one)
1 tbls Avocado Oil or Extra Virgin Olive oil
Seasoning salt (we got ours from Epicure)
Apple Bacon Rub*

Preheat oven to 325F, line a baking tray with tinfoil.  Rub the chops down with the oil than the salt & apple bacon rub.  Bake for 15 minutes than flip, bake for another 15 minutes than take out of the oven and let them rest for 5 minutes.

**Apple Bacon Rub, here is my little secret, i got it from Steeped Tea! Who knew they had meat seasonings?? Absolutely delicious, seriously, it was great!**

For the Quinoa all i did was throw some finely diced yellow onion and celery into the pot about 5 minutes before i had to fluff and serve.  Great way to sneak the veggies into my kids.  The Quinoa totally distracted them.

Can't wait to try out some other recipes!!