Waiting-for-Payday Recipes: Tangy Marinated Chicken

Two ingredients. That’s it. Your chicken will be moist, tender and very flavorful.

Ready? Here we go:

For two:

2 chicken breasts halves, or legs, or…hm, you get the idea. Marinate some chicken

Enough Italian dressing to cover the chicken

Procedure:

1. Place the chicken in a bowl and cover with Italian dressing. It’s okay if some chicken is peeking above the dressing, because you should flip the chicken around every so often, anyway.

2. Cover and refrigerate for 2-4 hours. Two hours is less zingy, four much more so.

3. Place in non-reactive baking dish, glass, ceramic, etc…basically non metal. I like a casserole dish with a lid to keep it a little juicier. Or you could just cover it with aluminum foil, if you’ve got any.

4. Bake at 325 degrees F (a medium slow oven) for about 40ish minute or until the juices run clear when you stab the chicken with a fork.

Serve it over a salad, buttered noodles or perhaps rice cooked with a chicken bouillon cube in the water. Or next to any kind of potato works just fine.

Pick a colorful fruit and veggie and you’re off.

Dinner is served.

Final thoughts: Don’t waste too much dressing. You want it to marinate but there’s no need to go to the poorhouse doing so. Turn the chicken.

To increase the recipe: assume one split breast per person, splash in a little more dressing or stir more often.

BTW, this is fantastic grilled!

Waiting-for-payday recipes can be found here each Thursday. Others you might enjoy are: S.O.S. (Creamed Dried Beef on Toast) or Egg Drop Soup for the Hungry

A Ton of Garden, A Tiny Space–Strawberries for the Apartment Dweller or Suburbanite

So you live in an apartment with no land, no space, nowhere to grow.

Really? Look again. You would be amazed what you could do with just a sunny window or even a good grow light.

It’s that time of year to make some decisions. I’m here to help.

Here are some ways to cram a zillion strawberries into your tiny space. Each link will show the item from one of the sources I trust for decent service. Once you know what you’re looking for, you could try one of these sources or use your favorite search engine to find a better price. Of course, I always encourage you to try the adventure of making it yourself.

Let’s get some food growing!

We will go from the smallest number of strawberry plants to the largest. You may be pleased to find you can grow up to 32 plants in about the same floor space as just a large pot.

Strawberry Jar–7 plants…some designs more or less. This link has a horrendous price, but a lovely example. The strawberries are planted in about 6 pockets and 1 maybe 2 in the top. Now that you know what you’re looking for, search for a better price.

Blossom Bag– 12 plants per bag– not very attractive but high yield in a small space. Plus, they are affordable and super sturdy.

Strawberry Patio Kit–25 plants–attractive but more expensive than just doing two blossom bags. Tiny footprint, loads of fruit

Strawberry Growing System –32 plants! That is definitely enough to can some jam. The price is… okay …but if you’re handy, couldn’t you make that yourself?

Strawberry Pyramid–50 plants. However, now you really need a 6 foot diameter circle of ground…though rooftop would be great for the apartment dweller. Still, a very efficient method, if you have much space. Don’t like the price? Take a good look at the picture and see if you could make it yourself. Here is another view of the exact same product, but not so grown over.

Next, you need to decide do if you want them to ripen all within a week or two for fresh eating and canning…or would you prefer to eat them all summer and freeze any left over. Think about it.

Next:

Choosing the Right Strawberries for You

Other beginner gardener thoughts:

Sprouting New Ideas … Your own Food

Vegetables for a 4″pot

Vegetables for a 6″ pot

Vegetables for 8 or 10″pots

Vegetables for Hanging Baskets

Windowsill Herbs

Start growing today!