Truvia

I saw Truvia at my grocery store, and after seeing a commercial for it, decided to try it. It is made from the stevia plant and is a natural calorie free sweetener. I use it in my tea, and it's great. It doesn't have that chemical taste that you get from other sweeteners, and it leaves a sweet, sugary aftertaste on your tongue for a while, that really satisfies your sweet tooth. I tried a little licked off my finger, and it doesn't taste that good on it's own, so I probably wouldn't use it on strawberries (as advertised), but it's really good in my tea. It is quite pricey, so I think I'm going to look into the possibility of growing a stevia plant and brewing a few leaves with my tea. Not sure if it works that way or not, but I'm going to check into it.

Finally, a new recipe!

Shelli's Island Chicken

6-8 chicken boneless/skinless chicken breasts
3 cups uncooked rice (I used jasmine rice)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
zest and juice from 2 limes
2 cups chicken broth
1 14oz can coconut milk (lite)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
1 tsp salt 1/2 cup flaked sweetened coconut

Heat oven to 425. Put rice in 13x9 baking dish. Prep your zest and set aside. In a bowl, combine broth, coconut milk, cilantro, salt and lime juice. Pour over rice. Arrange chicken across the top sprinkle with garlic, cayenne pepper and zest. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 45 min or until rice is cooked. (This actually took an hour.) Remove foil, sprinkle coconut over the top and bake uncovered for about 5 min until coconut browns.

This was a great recipe and made a lot, we had it for dinner twice! I think it would be even tastier with jerk seasoning on the chicken instead of the cayenne. If your making it for kids, don't put the cayenne on a couple of the pieces of chicken!

I steamed green beans in a skillet with olive oil, salt, Italian seasoning, then added some pecans till they were toasted up, added a few squirts of lime juice, and served them with the above recipe.