Spices

It is really important to make sure that your foods are interesting, or you will soon give up on your diet.

I eat boneless, skinless chicken breast almost everyday, and you can bake it, boil it, broil it, saute it, but it always ends up tasting like well.....chicken.

Spice it up! Today I took my chicken breasts and liberally sprinkled them with smokey Spanish paprika, some red pepper flakes and just a dash of chili powder.

This gives them heat and great flavor. I bake them, then pop a whole tub of them in the fridge. My husband will slice some thinly and make sandwiches for himself and my son. This is a much healthier alternative to luncheon meats, as they are all loaded with sodium and preservatives, there is no healthy lunch meat, I don't care what the package tells you about it.

I will cube up mine, weigh it out and combine with rice and vegetables.

A great addition is freshly squeezed lemon juice, this adds moisture, zip and no calories, and it gets the darn things off my trees so they don't end up in the middle of the street all squished.....hmmmm, how does that happen? Do they commit suicide?

This is a picture of paprika (called pimenton in Spanish) at a wholesale pimenton shop in Barcelona. I bought a kilo of it and brought it home with me, my favorite is agri dulce, which is approximately three quarters sweet (dulce) and one quarter hot (picante).

You don't have to go all the way to Spain though, you can but excellent Spanish paprika online, or in better grocery stores, my local store carries the same brand I used to buy online.

If it won't be eaten within three days I will cube it, weigh it and put the weighed portions into zip lock bags and freeze for later in the week.

I will also use this same treatment for fish or prawns, only I will place the fish in a glass bowl, add some white wine, broth or water (about a 1/3 cup), cover and cook through. Prawns I will quickly sear in a small amount of coconut oil.