Rice with Steamed Broccoli and Baked Chicken

After three days not cooking at all I think it is time for me to get back to the kitchen. As some of you know I have been sick for these past three days, and so many of you wished me fast recovery, I just want to let you know how much that meant to me! 

Ah life of a mother!!! 

When you have kids in school, they are bringing viruses home and that is most likely to spread to members of your family, which is not that fun at all, especially if I am sick and unable to help my kids 100% with their recovery..but you still try to give as much as you can. We eat really healthy, fresh and whole food...I must say we do squeeze dessert which is fine as long as you have balanced meals..what I wanted to say even if we eat good, fresh and home-cooked meals you can't run away from the fact that these viruses are going around and spreading like a fire. Just looking at my last 3 months, I had stomach virus 4 times already since February..it doesn't last long but I feel drained completely after and during it, and smell of cooked food just made me sick to my stomach so I wasn't cooking...I am so sorry kids, but daddy took good care of you (he was chef for these three days!)

One of the dear bloggers suggested BRAT DIET(banana, rice, applesauce, toast) and I wanted to let her know that it helped me even though I wasn't eating applesauce nor rice at that moment but bananas and toast kept me going! Thank you Jen- my favorite carrot!!!!

If you haven't already visit her blog;  she have awesome tips, advises and great healthy meals..and got to say but she is great motivator too!!!

Okay let's get back to the recipe for today, I just wanted to let everybody know how I feel and also to Thank you for thinking of me!!!!

This dish today is nothing special, but it is healthy balanced meal that your family can enjoy...it is very light and doesn't take too much time for you to get it done!!!

4 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of rice
• 3 cups of broccoli florets, steamed
• 1 Tbs. butter, *I used "smart balance"
• 1/2 teaspoon of Salt
• 2 pieces of large chicken breast
• Salt, pepper and chilly flakes (for seasoning the chicken)
• Olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven on 400F
2. In a pot put 6 cups of water, salt drop of oil and 2 cups of rice.
3. Bring it to boil and turn down the heat on med. high.
4. In a meanwhile cut the chicken in larger strips, season it, rub bit of olive oil and put them on the wooden sticks. You can also grill them, or place just in the pan and bake.
5. But in this case I wanted to bake them in the oven on a sticks.
6. Put it on a un-greased baking sheet and bake the chicken for 20 minutes.
7. Drain rice and put butter in, stir and cover the pot!
8. Steam broccoli florets and add just a pinch of salt to lightly season them as well.
9. It took me about 40 minutes to put this meal together from prep to finishing the whole meal!

I hope you will enjoy it and wishing you Happy and Healthy Wednesday!

*Tips:

-I am steaming broccoli 5 minutes before I will serve meal - because broccoli can be stinky if they sit in a pot for more than 30 minutes, also can become rubbery, and lose their color...so steam your broccoli just before you serve.

-When you just cook plain rice, you have to add 3 times more water in order rice to become nice and tender/ and cooked!

-You can separate in a containers and prepare everything ahead of time and put on the side and your prep and cooking will be more efficient!