Mediterranean Chicken

Yay, I love Wednesdays and since it's almost Thursday on a 3 day weekend I am even more excited. School has been ridiculously a little bit crazy and with 12 special ed kids out of 28 total students, my work load is just getting bigger and bigger. I think I figured out that may be why I am not sleeping well.  I just feel like there is not nearly enough time in my day to help all of those kids with what they need in every subject area.  It's very stressful and frustrating to feel like you can't help them enough. Even know I try my best it's just not good enough with 12 kids in my room.  In the past I've had between 8-10 and 12 is just over the top.  I need to come up with a better plan to work with to try and make this work. Okay, I'm done complaining and I'll get to the thing that matters most to me good part of my day, food. 


Going with my resolution of trying out new recipes, I tried out a recipe from Rachael Ray's Book of 10. It is an awesome cookbook filled with her top ten favorite recipes for different categories.  It has over 300 recipes in it and the only down side is that there aren't a lot of pictures and I like to see what I'm cooking (it's the visual learner in me!). This chicken dish was super easy and really had a different kind of flavor than what I normally cook with. I did change it around a bit, but I basically stuck to the recipe. 

Mediterranean Chicken with long grain brown rice


Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
4 6 ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used organic- thin sliced)
salt and black pepper
4 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 large red onion chopped
1 tbs thyme
1 15 ounce can artichokes (quartered)
2 tbs white wine vinegar
10 kalamata olives
1 small can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup button mushrooms


Preheat a large skillet over medium high heat with the extra virgin olive oil. Place the flour in a shallow dish and season and chicken with salt, pepper and cayenne. Put the seasoned chicken in the flour and toss around until coated. Shake off the excess flour. Add the chicken to the skillet and cook for 5 to 6 minutes on each side.


When the chicken is finished add the chicken broth, onion, chopped garlic, thyme, salt and pepper Cook, stirring often for about 5 minutes.  Add the artichokes and vinegar to the pan and bring it up to a simmer. Add the diced tomatoes and the olives. Return the liquids back to a simmer. Taste the sauce to see if you need additional salt and pepper.  Enjoy!

I enjoyed this meal with a warm, whole wheat roll and "spaghetti" zucchini make with my spiralizer. 

Also had these with it....

I think we liked it....

So I am off to have a better night of sleep after watching Modern Family...love it! Good night!