Baked Chicken with Broccoli & Bacon

Dear Mother Nature:  Please lady –  enough is enough.  We’re ready for Spring!  No. More. Snow!  Signed, Gringo and the majority of other Midwesterners.

I came home from work yesterday, and there was the Payaso, bundled up like Randy, Ralphie’s brother in A Christmas Story, standing in the driveway with shovel in hand.  From his footprints, I could see we’d easily just received at least 9 inches of heavy snow from Mother Nature.  “Want some help?” I asked?

“I can do it, my love,” the Payaso says with a smile.   I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I’m a lucky gringo.

“Let me get my snow boots on and I’ll come help you,” I say.   After a few pushes to get my car unstuck from all the snow, I was geared up with my big coat, boots, and gloves ready to help the Payaso tackle the driveway.  Our driveway runs from the alley to the street, which is about 100’ so it’s really quite a lot to shovel.  Unfortunately, we share the driveway with neighbors.  When we moved from California, we incorrectly presumed that our neighbors would be respectful, and drive and park only on their side of the driveway; however, we have learned these last three years that they have no regard for staying in their lane – nor do their tenants and guests.  It’s a constant source of struggle for us as we often see them driving on our driveway, and we have had to tell their tenants/visitors to not park on our side.  I could go on and on about the Battle of the Driveway, but I’ll digress…..for now.

The Payaso gets the snow blower started for me, and I start slowly walking down the driveway blowing snow as high as the machine will allow, all the while the wind blowing snow back into my face.  The Payaso walks up to me and shouts, “you know if you lower this [the chute], the snow won’t blow in your face, right?!”

“But that’s not as fun,” I yell back with an evil grin.  You can really see how much fun I have blowing the snow as high as it will allow.  Could you imagine if instead of snow it was glitter flying through air?  Be still my heart.  I’d point the blower towards the neighbor’s yard to bring them joy, happiness, and thoughts of unicorns.  Maybe glitter and unicorns would give them the know with all to stay on their side of the driveway.  Again, I’ll digress….for now!

Needless to say, I followed the Payaso’s advice and finished the driveway without the constant slap of snow blowing back into my face.  Look at all that snow – and it was April 3rd!  We finished the driveway and headed back into the house.

Luckily, we had leftovers so dinner was going to be a cinch until I realized that if we didn’t cook something, we wouldn’t have anything for our lunches.

“Amor, can you please make something for our lunches tomorrow?” I ask from the couch.

“What are you making?” he asks.

“No, can YOU make it?  I’m too pooped from shoveling the driveway,” I respond.  I quickly write up the recipe in somewhat cryptic notes and hand to him.  “It’s all right here and super simple.”  The Payaso takes the piece of paper and heads into the kitchen.  About 10 minutes go by and I don’t hear anything. Not one sound.   “Are you okay in there?” I ask.

“I’m cooking!” the Payaso replies.   Again, silence and another 10 minutes go by.  “What does this first step say?”

“Preheat the oven to 400 degrees,” I say.   A few more minutes go by and there’s a whole lot of nothing happening in the kitchen.  “Do you need help in there?”

“What’s this third line say?  Blanch the chicken?  I didn’t know you could blanch pollo.  Did the cold and snow make you loco?” he inquires.  He comes into the living room, and I read it to him.

“Cut up and blanch the broccoli.  Cut and split the chicken breasts in half horizontally.” I read.

It may have taken a little longer (I still don’t know what he was doing in there for so long, like as quiet as a Mexican ninja), but the Payaso finished the dish so we would have something to bring for lunch.  It’s delicious and way more affordable than buying lunch every day in downtown Minneapolis.  It’s one of our go-to meals because it has so much flavor, and it only takes about 40 minutes from start to finish (maybe 10 minutes to cut the chicken and veggies and fry the bacon?).  I’ve adapted the recipe from one I found on Pinterest.  So many bloggers add step-by-step pictures in their blogs, and I really don’t do that much.  I’m curious if people would prefer having a step-by-step picture tutorial in my blogs.  Please let me know by adding a comment below.

So here are a few tips for this recipe.  Like so many of my recipes, this recipe is open to lots of modifications.  Trust me, it won’t hate you if you change some of the measurements.  If you like a lot of cheese, add more cheese.  If you like less, use less.  If you don’t like cheese, well, you and I need to sit down, and have a conversation.  No, really.  I’m serious, here.  If you want to add more broccoli, go for it.  More bacon?  Yes, please!  The opportunities are endless!  Now here’s a confession:  I don’t blanch my broccoli the traditional way; I totally cheat.  I add my broccoli to a glass, microwave safe bowl, add a cup of water, and nuke it for five minutes.  Then I leave the bowl in the microwave for a few minutes to cool down.  I carefully remove the bowl from the microwave using potholders and drain the water from broccoli in a colander.  The results are the same as blanching without all that extra work.  Maybe it’s the same amount work and I’m lying to myself.  There’s a book I’m supposed to be reading about the lies we tell ourselves…anyway, it’s a shortcut for me in the kitchen.

I hope you all are having a great week so far!  I also hope you didn’t have to shovel any snow this week.  The forecast says we could get a little more tomorrow and then again on Sunday.  Our poor gardens won’t know if they should bloom or go back into hibernation.  Fingers crossed they’ll be okay and it will be the rabbits that decide to stay in hibernation.   Thanks for reading.  Please subscribe and follow me on social media.  Please also feel free to share the blog with your friends and family members.  Gracias!