How to Change Your Life – Step 2 (Keep it Easy)

You know when you start a NY’s resolution to eat better? You look up 50 new recipes from all sorts of blogs and magazines and purchase $500 of fruits, veggies, all sorts of spices to make fancy dishes and tons of wheatgrass. What happens then after a couple of days? The third batch of lettuce is already wilted, your lemon juice vinaigrette is a poor substitute for ranch dressing and that wheatgrass does not taste like wheat or grass.

Here is my second tip for making your goals/resolutions for 2016 and having them stick. Keep it easy. I’m talking easy and simple – something that tastes awesome and won’t make you miss your loads of carbs and sugar. Instead of going all bland chicken breast and broccoli that first week of 2016, get some chicken thighs and sweet potatoes. You can even add some garlic aioli (fancy term for garlic mayo dip), and I bet that this meal will still have less calories than your typical meal you cooked before and definitely have less than your night out for pizza.

Herb Chicken Thighs w/ Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients for Chicken:

4-8 Chicken Thighs (bone-in and skin on)
1-2 T of olive oil
A bunch of spices – I like to use a T of garlic powder, a tsp of onion powder, a tsp of oregano, a tsp of cumin, a tsp of paprika and some salt and pepper

Mix the spices in with the olive oil and make a paste. Slather that all over your chicken thighs and get in a baking dish.

Ingredients for Sweet Potato Fries:

2-3 sweet potatoes, cut in slices about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick
2 T of olive oil
Salt, pepper, 1 T garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix the spices together with the olive oil and coat your fries. Place them on a baking sheet (I use aluminum foil so not to make a huge mess).

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and cook the chicken and fries for an hour (turning the fries over half way through).

If you want, make up some garlic aioli in your food processor (1/3 cup of mayo, juice from 1 lemon, 1 T garlic powder, 4 garlic cloves and a bunch of black pepper) to dip your fries in. Add a salad for some green on your side and presto – you have a super easy meal that tastes awesome that is less calories than what you ate before!