Clean Eating Recipe: Honey-Cranberry Chicken with Orange-Paprika Rice

Honey-Cranberry Chicken with Orange-Paprika Rice

I know I started this Clean Eating section quite a while ago but I’ve been traveling all around the world and working as well and things just got away from me. Now I am settled in (for now) and have started getting really serious about the Clean Eating thing. I’ve been exercising for the last two weeks (since we landed in our new place in Canada…for now) and we’ve been really watching what we eat. I have my second weigh in tomorrow morning (I am trying to lose 15 pounds and get in shape) so I can’t say for certain how much I lost this week but last week I lost 3 pounds by just working out for an hour a day, eating clean, and watching my portion sizes. I also have a cheat day where I can have whatever I want but I’ll tell you that once you put in all that good work all week you don’t want to do anything too bad so it keeps you in check.

The first recipe I am going to highlight in this Clean Eating section is one that I got from, appropriately enough, http://www.cleaneatingmag.com and it’s Honey-Cranberry Chicken with Orange-Paprika Rice. It was good too. The thing to keep in mind when doing this recipe or any Clean Eating recipe is that the measurements matter. I know when we cook for the sake of cooking we tend to estimate ingredients and change things to our liking but when you’re trying to keep things clean and under certain calorie, fat, etcetera counts you really need to measure everything exactly how they tell you to in the recipe. Otherwise you could (and most like are) adding calories, fats, and sugars where you really shouldn’t be.

Also note that the recipe tells you exactly what the serving size is and that’s REALLY important. In this day and age portion sizes have gotten OUT OF CONTROL and if you look around the general population you’ll see that it really shows. So when they say 4 ounces of chicken is a serving that is about 1/2 of a chicken breast and the 3/4 cup of rice is easy to measure. I literally used a measuring cup and then popped it on the plate. The end result is that you KNOW exactly how much you’re eating and it makes the dish look so professional like you are at a really nice restaurant.

Now some of you might be saying ‘Well what does this recipe taste like?’ This dish was really tasty. It had a perfect combination of savory, sweet, and tart and left me satisfied and not looking for anything else to eat. Which is exactly what you want when you have a great meal. I would give this recipe 4 out of 4 stars. Check back next time when I let you know how my progress is going and give you another great recipe to try.