Eyeballs and Chicken

I know, an odd title. The wording gods are apparently not with me today.

So this post is about eyeballs. And a delicious chicken dish. But not together. Thank God, right? No, I have not finally jumped in a pile of crazy.

I went to my yearly opthamologist appointment today. (Are you guys tired of hearing about my myriad of doctor's appointments yet? I am, too.)

I gotta tell ya, this appointment was depressing. Not because of a bad physician - this guy actually knew what he was doing!! And talked to me like I was a human being!! And not because there is anything wrong with my eyes whatsoever. Actually, Dr. NiceGuy, who had a resident with him, commented, "Hey! You want to see normal eyes??!! Check these out!" Sadly, in his line of work, "normal" doesn't happen much.

It was depressing because the good doctor, being an actual good doctor, felt the need to do the typical diabetic warnings. Which, include:

Doctor: "You've been diabetic how long?"

Me: "12 years."

Doctor: "Ok. Well, by 15 years, 90-95% of diabetics have some form of retinopathy. And by 17-18 years, that goes up to about 100%. Just so you know what to expect. That's normal."

Um. Oh. Ok.

So basically, even under the best circumstances possible, I have about 8 years left before my eyes begin to deteriorate. (I sort of get this picture in my head of my eyes melting out of my skull. Nice, I know.) Mr. NiceDoctor, I know you are probably legally bound to tell me such things, but let me let you in on something. When you tell a young diabetic that - even one that spends her days watching laser procedures for diabetic retinopathy at work - you completely KILL any motivation that person has to take care of herself. I mean, what's the point??? It's gonna happen anyway, right?

Funnily enough, as I got in my car with my mondo sunglasses and burning eyes, I thought,"I'll show YOU. Eight years my ASS, buddy!"

So maybe I was wrong about that motivation thing. :)

So I used my motivation a la Rachael Ray. I made a somewhat fru-fru (to me) chicken dish involving something I've never done before - making my own tortellini. With the lemons and the peas, it ended up being a great spring dish, fresh tasting and bright - if a tad tedious. (I'm usually a throw it all together, one pot dish kinda girl.) I have a current love affair with fresh ricotta - the real, fresh, whole milk stuff - so this, of course, was perfect. The chicken, however, ended up moist, flavorful, and absolutely delicious, thanks to leaving the skin on during baking. You can, of course, remove the skin before eating, if you are health conscious. Or, you can, like I did, sneak one little bite of that irresistibly crunchy, crackly goodness.

Aren't they cute?

I actually dug this recipe out of a very thick binder I have labelled, "TO TRY"... I very seldom ever make it over to the "to try" notebook - obviously a mistake, as I learned after making this... I must dig some more recipes out of here very soon!

Lemon Chicken and Sweet Pea Tortellini

(From Everyday With Rachael Ray)

1 lemon, 1/2 thinly sliced crosswise, 1/2 squeezed in to juice

(I ended up using close to 1 whole lemon sliced, partially because I had some humongous chicken legs, and partially because I can't seem to slice anything super thin.)

4 skin on chicken leg quarters
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

salt and pepper

1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed

1/4 cup ricotta cheese

1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon

24 wonton wrappers

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Arrange the lemon slices in a single layer down the center of a roasting pan. Rub the chicken with the oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the chicken skin side up on the lemon slices and bake for 35 minutes. Transfer to the broiler and cook until the skin is crisp, about 3 minutes. Drizzle the chicken with the lemon juice.

2. Meanwhile, using a food processor, mix together the peas, ricotta, 1/2 teaspoon of tarragon, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

3. On a work surface, working with 2 wonton wrappers at a time, spoon a teaspoon of the pea mixture onto the center of each wrapper. (I found that I first had to moisten the edges of the 2 wonton wrappers and press the edges together to get them to stick.) Moisten the edges with water and fold the wrapper in half diagonally to for a triangle, pushing out any air pockets and pressing the edges firmly to seal. With the long side of the triangle facing you, fold the top point back toward you, then fold the right and left points to meet it and press all 3 points together firmly, securing with more water. (I also pressed the upper corners at this point. I was pretty petrified that they would come apart while they were boiling!)

4. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the tortellini until they float to the top, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the tortellini to 4 plates. Divide the chicken and the roasted lemon among the plates and top with the pan juices. Sprinkle with the remaining tarragon.

I calculated this out a little sloppily - but for about 4 pieces of tortellini and the chicken I came to about 37 grams of carbohydrate. (Note - I didn't actually eat the roasted lemon, so I didn't included that in the calculation.)

And sorry about the pictures. One of these days, I will manage either to use a real camera other than my iphone, or I may actually take a good picture with the iphone. Someday. :)