day 3: ouch

Did anyone else get walloped with a headache today? Mine hit hard at 4:31 a.m. and has essentially been there all day long. And I am so tired! I nearly pulled a George Castanza at the office today.

And is anyone else completely addicted to cashews right now? I cannot get enough, which tells me that I really should not be eating them. I have told myself that I will not go to Costco and replenish my quickly diminishing supply. I won’t. I won’t. I won’t!

Let’s talk food. Last night I made PaleoPot’s Chili Cilantro Lime Crockpot Chicken.

Marinating Chicken

I had made the rub and marinade the night before while cooking the Cuban-style rice. PaleoPot said that he used a full tablespoon of cayenne in the rub. I have children. I need to decrease the heat a bit. I used one teaspoon of cayenne and also added one teaspoon of smoked paprika. I placed the chicken in a slow cooker liner, then rubbed it all over the chicken. When I poured that marinade in…all of the rub slid off. Nertz.


Oh, well. I bagged it up and let it sit overnight, then slow cooked it for six hours. I just knew that this was going to be the juiciest, most flavorful chicken ever.

Ummm…not so much.

It definitely had great flavor. That is undeniable. But the white meat was dry. And the skin was a bunch of slime. Now, chicken skin is one of my favorite foods. My sister and I only half jokingly say that at Thanksgiving we would like a plate of skin instead of turkey.

That said, the meat was literally falling off the bones and I got a nice big platter of it.

Platter o' Chicken

I chose to serve the chicken with some haricot verts. I tend to pair like seasonings with like seasonings, so I searched for “green beans and cilantro” and found Green Beans and Carrots in Charmoula Sauce on FineCooking.com and made a bunch of changes. Here is my version:

Roasted Green Beans and Carrots in Cilantro Charmoula

adapted from Green Beans and Carrots in Charmoula Sauce on FineCooking.com

one handful (~1 cup) of cilantro, including stems

one handful (~1 cup) of Italian parsley

1/4 cup EVOO

Juice of 1/2 lemon and 1/2 lime

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 pound carrots, peeled and cut into sticks about the same size as the beans

sea salt and ground black pepper

2 garlic cloves, peeled

one pound haricot verts or green beans


What I did:

Preheat oven to 450°.

Put the first seven ingredients into a food processor and process until saucy.

Toss the carrots with ~1/3 of the sauce and roast for 10 – 15 minutes.

Add the green beans to the carrots and toss with another 1/3 of the sauce. Roast for 10 – 15 minutes, depending on how roasty you like your veggies. We like ours super roasty.

When roasted to your liking, remove from oven and toss with the rest of the sauce.