Mojito-Marinated Chicken

With lots of extra mint lying around, I couldn't resist when I saw this recipe for mojito-marinated chicken. I made my own mint syrup (and even have some left over to make real mojitos!), and marinated the chicken overnight to give it some extra flavour boost. Today, I baked it in the oven for ten minutes then stuck it on the grill. Came out great; perfect with a quick salad.

Spinach-mint chicken penne

It's so great having all these vegetables in my fridge-- not needing to go to the grocery store with a whole list of ingredients to buy, but instead basing my dinner around what I already have. I wanted to use up some spinach and mint tonight, since it already looked a little wilty, but didn't want something too complex, time-consuming, or needing too many ingredients I didn't have. So I started browsing Epicurious for spinach recipes, and got inspired by a simple spinach pasta salad with some chicken for protein. I figured I'd use mint instead of rosemary, and both the tops and bottoms of my spring onions. I was a little hesitant about the mint-spring onion-spinach combination, but it turned out great-- garlicky with a little extra kick and very fresh and green tasting.

What I did: Sauteed the spring onions and a few cloves of garlic in olive oil, then added chicken-- one breast cut into fairly small chunks. Once the chicken was cooked, I added my whole batch of spinach, mint, and some chopped greens from the spring onions. Everything smelled incredibly fresh. Meanwhile, I was cooking half a pound of penne, and dumped it straight into the pan of greens when it was al dente. I added a little chicken broth and let the whole thing simmer for five minutes, then covered liberally with parmesan. Served it still steaming hot-- made about 3 servings, I'd say, so will last for me for lunch and dinner tomorrow.