Saturday night J.P. and I invited one of our couple friends over for a dinner party. I LOVE cooking for friends, particularly because it’s a great opportunity to use all our fabulous wedding gifts. It’s also wonderful when your gracious guests bring lots of wine!
Planning the Dinner Party
I decided to create a low-maintenance meal, where I could prepare most of it ahead of time, then throw it on the grill or in the even just before our guests arrived. Since this particular couple are both hard-core health nuts, red meat was banned from the menu, and all the recipes had to be relatively low cal and nutritious as well. Here’s what I came up with: grilled rosemary chicken with garlic and lime, spicy peel-and-eat shrimp, roasted provence potatoes, grilled asparagus, and an arugula salad.
We began the evening with simple appetizers and cocktails: Humus with pine nuts and baked pita chips, and a triple creme brie with assorted crackers, nuts, and dried fruit (not exactly the healthy part of this meal) :)
I found most of the recipes online, tweaked them a bit, and all were excellent. I will definitely be making them again.
Rosemary Grilled Chicken
- 6 medium skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 3/4 pounds total)
- 1 teaspoon finely shredded lime peel
- 1/2 cup lime juice
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
Directions
1. For marinade, in a small bowl, stir together lime peel, lime juice, rosemary, oil, sugar, garlic, and salt. Pour over chicken. Seal bag; turn to coat chicken. Marinate in the refrigerator for 1 to 4 hours, turning bag occasionally.
3. Remove chicken from marinade, discarding marinade. Season chicken with pepper. For a charcoal grill, place chicken on the grill rack of an uncovered grill directly over medium coals. Grill uncovered for 10 to 12 minutes or until tender and no longer pink (170 degrees F), turning once halfway through grilling. (For a gas grill, preheat grill. Reduce heat to medium. Place chicken on grill rack over heat. Cover and grill as above.)
Nutrition Facts: Calories 162, Total Fat 3 g, Saturated Fat 1 g, Monounsaturated Fat 1 g, Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g, Cholesterol 77 mg, Sodium 135 mg, Carbohydrate 2 g, Total Sugar 1 g, Fiber 0 g, Protein 31 g.
Spicy Peel-and-Eat Shrimp
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Cajun or Creole seasoning
- 1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning (found in most grocery stores)
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- Pinch of cayenne pepper
- 1 pound uncooked large shrimp, shelled, deveined
Directions
1. Combine first 7 ingredients in 9×13-inch baking dish. Add shrimp and toss to coat. Refrigerate 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 450°F. Bake until shrimp are cooked through, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Garnish with lemon wedges and serve shrimp with French bread for dipping.
Roasted Provence Potatoes
- 1 pound small red-skinned potatoes (about 1 3/4-inch diameter), scrubbed
- 1 pound small white-skinned potatoes (about 1 3/4-inch diameter), scrubbed
- 2 tablespoons herbes de Provence, plus extra for garnish (*SEE BOTTOM NOTE)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Put the potatoes into a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk the herbs, garlic, and oil together until blended, and then pour over the potatoes. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper and toss to coat. Transfer the potatoes to a heavy large baking dish, spacing them evenly apart.
3. Roast the potatoes until they are tender and golden, turning them occasionally with tongs, about 1 hour. Transfer the roasted potatoes to a decorative platter and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and herbes de Provence, if desired. Serve hot or warm.
*NOTE: My grocery store did not carry Herbs de Provence, so I improvised by making it myself:
- 3 Tablespoons dried marjoram
- 3 Tablespoons dried thyme,
- 3 Tablespoons dried savory,
- 1 teaspoon dried basil,
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary,
- 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
- 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
Arugula Salad
Whenever I do salads, I tend to toss in things I already have in the fridge. These flavors mixed so well, they are definitely worth remembering:
- Baby arugula
- Cucumber, sliced
- Carrots, sliced
- Grape tomatoes, quartered
- Avocado, cubed
- Crumbled goat cheese
- Candied walnuts
- White balsamic dressing
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everything sounds amazing! I am going to try some of it very soon!