Vibrant, beautiful, refreshing spring; it's our Creator's amazing gift of an opportunity to begin afresh, and to add another potentially wonderful layer of experience to our ever-evolving lives.
There is a vast array of all sorts of life sprouting up all around us, an abundance of living happening right before our eyes.
If we open up our hearts and our souls, we may just get beautifully pulled right into that realm's extraordinary and powerful vortex, get spun around in its glorious light just a little.
Spring is a wonderful time to reflect upon the previous year and all of the experiences and nuances that it held within it; a time to allow ourselves to then dive down deep into ourselves and find out what we'd really like from the upcoming year, and perhaps how we'd like to improve upon what is, thus far.
This season is a glittering opportunity to witness the many delicious layers that years gone by have deposited that make us who we are today, and to explore any desires we may have of who we'd like to become tomorrow, and what more we can contribute to the world we live in.
For me, each spring that comes around reminds me that I continue to grow and to change—evolve—and that I am a renewed human being, with more layers of experience under my belt in the present, more seasoning, than I had in my previous years.
It's the amazingly zesty flavors of those layers of life that I so enjoy tasting and examining, because they are the very things that make up who I am in the now, make up the total picture of where I currently stand.
And I love the idea that with each new spring that comes around, there's a new layer of life, a new layer of flavor added, which only aids in my development and growth.
Just as these colorful, deliciously crispy and perfect-for-spring Grilled Lemon Chicken Greek Nachos contain so many scrumptious layers of flavors that give them a certain complexity and complete taste, so do the many layers that we add over time to our lives make for an extraordinarily flavorful existence.
And what a gift it is to be able to continue to grow and to develop, to renew ourselves, even through our entire adulthood.
It is what spring beautifully and symbolically represents, and reminds us of.
So may we continue to fervently pursue adding those divinely flavorful layers to our lives in the way of experiences, so that we may become complete, whole, human beings with rich lives, and lots to share with one another.
And may we enjoy the flavors that those very layers bring, because, after all, they become a part of the very fabric and makeup of who we are.
Taste what's good and pass it on.
Ingrid
Grilled Lemon Chicken Greek Nachos
by Ingrid Beer
Yield: Serves 2
Ingredients:
• ½ pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts or breast tenderloins (about 4 tenderloins)
• Olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, pressed through garlic press
• ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
• Pinch salt
• Pinch black pepper
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 6 ounces whole grain pita chips
• 2 cups, heaping, shredded whole-milk mozzarella cheese (about 8 ounces)
• ½ cup chickpeas, gently smashed a little bit with a fork
• ½ cup finely diced tomato (about 1 medium-large tomato)
• ¼ cup pitted kalamata olives, sliced
• ¼ cup crumbled feta cheese
• Chopped fresh dill, flat-leaf parsley, or green onion, for garish
• Lemon zest, for garnish (optional)
Preparation:
-Place your chicken into a small bowl, and drizzle in about 2 teaspoons of the oil; add in the garlic, the cumin, a pinch or two of salt and pepper, plus the lemon zest and juice, and toss to coat.
-Place a small grill pan (or skillet) over medium-high heat, and drizzle in a small amount of oil; once hot, add in the chicken and sear on the first side for about 3-4 minutes, or until golden-brown, then flip and cook on the other side; remove from pan and set aside just until cool enough to handle, then slice the chicken into bite-size pieces; keep warm.
-Turn your broiler on, and place a piece of either parchment paper or foil onto a small baking sheet.
-Place your pita chips in a little pile on the parchment or foil on the baking sheet, and drizzle them lightly with some of the olive oil; then, sprinkle on about 1 cup worth of the mozzarella cheese, and add about half of the sliced chicken and half of the chickpeas, then top with the remaining half of the mozzarella.
-Place under the broiler just until the cheese is melted, then finish the nachos by sprinkling evenly over top the remainder of the sliced chicken and the remainder of the chickpeas, the kalamata olives, the tomato, and the feta crumbles; garnish with the fresh herbs or green onion, and a touch of additional lemon zest over top, and serve.
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