Why Not?

Hazelnut Honey Mustard Chicken

So tonight, I kind of just winged it for dinner. Not kind of, I completely winged it, no recipe, no idea, just started putting things together. I actually used to do that as a little girl. I would grab my stepping stool so I could see over the counter, grab a pot and all our condiments and spices. Then just start dumping everything together and mix it all up with a spoon, until my mom would catch me. Then of course, I would get my cute on, smile and say in the most adorable way, "I cookin' mommy!"

Ahhh those were the days! The days when I thought I was cooking, but it didn't really matter because mom was going to do the real cooking later that actually tasted good. Where now I actually have to cook and make sure it's good because I'm a big girl now :)

So I started mixing honey and mustard, and thought to maybe add some spice to it. I looked up and there happened to be a jar of Cumin in front of my. Why not? Sprinkled some of that in. Then I minced some ginger root and threw that in. Again, why not? Afterwards, I knew that I wanted to coat my chicken breast in something after dipping it in my honey mustard. So I looked around my section of the pantry, and could only find slivered almonds or crushed hazelnuts. Hazelnuts, why not?

So after I dipped the chicken in the ginger honey mustard and then coated it in hazelnuts, I put it in the oven at 400 until completely baked. While that was baking, I needed a side. Asparagus! So I cut off the ends and put them in a baking pan, but they looked so lame. So what did I do, I experimented! I somehow decided that it was a good idea to pour probably 1/4 cup of apple juice into the backing pan with a dollop of butter, laid my asparagus down in the "apple butter" if you will, then topped it with sliced onions, and sprinkled a little bit of garlic powder on it all. I mean, why not? So then I threw those in the oven with the chicken.

I would give this dinner a 6.5 out of 10. It was definitely good, and I will definitely make the chicken again with some alterations to the recipe. Maybe less Cumin spice or a completely different spice. The asparagus didn't retain much flavor as I would have hoped but I want to try again. Maybe put foil on top so the apple juice will get caught and will be sucked up by the vegetable. We'll see because why not? Right?