Moroccan Chicken with Fruit and Olive Topping

In going through my bookmarked recipes that I've recently made but haven't filed, I found this recipe that I thought I'd share.  Both Gavin and I found it to be very tasty!  And since it's a Cooking Light recipe, I guess it's also better for you!  (Recipe taken from here)

Prep time: about 15 minutes

Total time: about a half hour

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 TBSP olive oil, divided

1/2 tsp salt (I use Diamond Kosher Salt, which I love)

1/4 tsp black pepper (I eyeballed this with a pepper mill)

1/4 tsp dried thyme

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1/2 c. onion, chopped

2 tsp bottled, minced garlic

3/4 c. dried mixed fruit (Gavin and I have a lot of dried fruit in our pantry.  When I made this, I used a combination of: apricots, cherries, white peaches and prunes)

1/2 c. dry white wine 

1/2 c. chicken broth

1/4 c. chopped pitted green olives (I used some with pimentos in the olives and didn't bother removing the pimentos)

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp black pepper

Preparation

1. Heat 2 tsp oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Sprinkle 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper and thyme evenly over chicken (I didn't bother measuring out--just eyeballed it).  Add chicken to the pan; cook 4 minutes on each side, or until done.  Remove from pan; cover and keep warm.

2. Heat remaining 1 tsp oil in pan (use the same pan you cooked the chicken in).  Add onion to pan; sauté 2 minutes until tender.  Add garlic to pan; sauté 30 seconds.  Add fruit and remaining ingredients to pan; cook 5 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates.

3. Place chicken on plate or in bowl and spoon the fruit mixture over the chicken.  (I can't remember what I served this with, but it would go nicely with rice, quinoa, or couscous.)

Flank Steak with Parsley-Garlic Sauce

This is a truly tasty recipe that I've made a few times!  Thank you very much, Martha Stewart!  I found the recipe here, but I'll reprint it below for you.  Most recently, I served this with Aunt Trisha's smashed potatoes (recipe here) and some watermelon...except I only made half of the parsley-garlic sauce because I find that if I make the whole batch, I have tons extra.  Easy, tasty -- what more could you want?

Prep: 20 minutes
Total: 25 minutes
Serves 4

Steak Ingredients
1.5 lb flank steak (you could also use skirt or hangar steak cuts)
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 TBSP olive oil

Parsley-Garlic Sauce Ingredients 
1/4 cup olive oil
1 or 2 cloves garlic
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, stemmed (about 4 cups) (this is pretty important -- take the time to remove the stems from the parsley...if you leave them in, the sauce will taste too much like parsley)
3 TBSP oregano leaves
3 TBSP white wine vinegar

2 TBSP water

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

Preparation: 

1. (Step 1 is for the steak)  Generously season both sides of flank steak with salt and pepper.  Heat 1 TBSP oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Cook steak 5-8 minutes per side for medium-rare.  Transfer to a board; let rest, covered, 10 minutes.  Thinly slice against the grain.

2. (Step 2 is for the sauce)  Meanwhile, make sauce: In a food processor, pulse garlic until finely chopped (I start with it chopped, so I skip this step and just pile everything in).  Add parsley, oregano, vinegar, pepper flakes, 1/4 c. olive oil, water and salt.  Pulse until herbs are finely chopped.  Serve with steak.