Yum!

As procrastination (I'm studying for my boards, which I take TOMORROW), I made a big dinner last night. It involved marinating chicken overnight, some quick soba noodles, and some asparagus.

Chicken with Herb Marinade
Serves 3-4
Prep time: 15 minutes
Marinade: hours to days
Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• About 1-1 1/2 pounds chicken thighs (my default meat, though if you'd like to use chicken breasts, that would work too - marinades always make the breast turn out really juicy instead of dry).
  
• Herbs of your picking. I had fresh rosemary (from my apt complex), fresh oregano (from my herb garden!), and fresh thyme (also from my garden!). Not very much of it, since fresh goes a long way, and I knew that the chicken was going to sit in the marinade for over a day. If you're short on time, go more on the herbs. Or, if you have dry herbs, add more than just a little. In the end, I had only about a teaspoon or two of chopped herbs.
  
• Salt
• Pepper
• Teaspoon or two of vinegar.
  
• Shallots (or garlic, if you'd like).
  

Steps:

1. Toss all the ingredients, place into a plastic bag. Mix thoroughly and place in refridgerator. Marinade for at least a few hours, up to a day or two.
   
2. Line baking pan with foil. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, flip over at the 10 minute mark.
   
3. If you'd like, you can put under broiler for a minute or two, to get a char to it.
   

While the chicken was baking, I washed and prepped some asparagus, sprinkled some season salt and fresh pepper on top, placed in a foil wrapper and placed in the oven to bake along with the chicken.

Soba Noodles with sesame

Prep time and cook time: 5 minutes

Steps:

1. Boil soba noodles according to instructions, usually around 3-4 minutes.
   
2. Rinse and drain thoroughly.
   
3. Toss with a generous amount of sesame oil and sesame seeds (I liked the contrast of the black ones with the white noodles).
   

In the end, it took me the time of one episode of ER to cook and eat everything. Not too shabby. Now I have some leftover chicken that I can chop up and eat with a quinoa and raisin "salad" that I'm planning on bringing to my boards (no fridge, no microwave required).