Better Citrus Salad (and Roasted Asparagus Spears)

Tonight, I roasted asparagus--

2 lb. fresh asparagus, break ends off and put spears into a plastic bag,

squeeze 1/2 a lemon into bag and add

3-ish Tbs. olive oil,

1/4 tsp. salt

Close bag and twirl the top, so it's tight. Holding it tight with one hand, squish the spears so the oil and juice coat all the spears.

Put spears into a 9 x 13 sprayed baking dish, and drizzle oil/lemon juice from the bag over them. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Crisp tender spears. Sprinkle with the lemon zest, if you like. It's really good!

Anyway, back to the salad! I published another citrus salad with herbs and stuff, but this one is much better!

1 pomelo, halved and scoop out the sections, like a grapefruit. (Chelsea looked this up. It's a Chinese grapefruit, ancestor to our ruby grapefruit. Chelsea did this, because Marste and I were on the phone, speculating about which fruits were combined to make this one! Ha!)

1 5-oz. bag fresh spinach

1 ripe avocado, diced

1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced

Juice of 1 lemon

Equal-ish amount of olive oil

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

A very small pinch of stevia powder. One of those tiny spoons that come in the jar of stevia, filled scantly, is about the right measured amount.

Dice the pomelo sections, so the pieces are about 1/2 inch "square." (I realize "square" is a reach, shape-wise!) Add the spinach, avocado, and green onions.

Mix the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and stevia--add the stevia a bit at a time and taste in-between. The dressing needs to be not-quite-tart, as opposed to sweet! The pomelo is sweet and in those bites, sweet dressing would be bad! Ha!

Toss the salad with the dressing, and enjoy! Obviously, I served this with the asparagus. It looked like a lot of food, but I didn't have any leftovers! Ha!

Fennel and Onion Chicken in the Crock Pot

This is adapted from a 30-minute-meal recipe by the much-loved (or much-hated, depending on who you ask) Rachael Ray. It was an easy thing to do in the CrockPot, and it was SO good.

The Recipe:
Serves 4-6
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I used frozen from Trader Joe’s)
1 large head of fennel, sliced (or 2 small-medium heads)
1-2 medium onions, sliced (you’ll want about as much onion as fennel)
3 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbs bacon bits or chopped cooked bacon (optional)
2 tsp fennel seeds
¼ cup flour
1 ½ cups dry white wine (I used chardonnay)*
1 cup chicken broth
½ tsp salt
2 tsp pepper

*If you don’t want to use the wine, you can use 2 ½ cups (total) of chicken broth. But the wine adds a LOT to the dish, just FYI.

Put the sliced onion and fennel in the CrockPot and top with the frozen chicken. Sprinkle/pour/distribute the remaining ingredients (liquid last) over the vegetables and chicken. Cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 3-4. (If the chicken is thawed, cook on low for 3-4 hours or on high for 2-3 hours.)

The best way to eat this? With a generous serving of bread and butter and a glass of the wine you used in the meal. YUM.