I hope you relish it as much as I

If you are a true Star Trek fan, then you know those famous lines, uttered by none other than Clint Howard, or if you are talking to Jorgie, then, ‘the ugly Howard’.

Anyway, in the episode, Clint plays a freaky little alien who offers the crew ‘Tranja’ which is some sort of a drink.

I’ve decided to adopt the name for my new favorite dish, which is a variation of the Mexican dish Arroz con Pollo. I've found that there is no standard way to make Arroz con Pollo, so I figured I could take my variation and change the name to something more interesting. Here is the recipe for anyone interested in eating something that is pretty quick to cook, is low on sodium and fat and well, I think its downright tasty.

Mary’s Tranja

Cut approx 1 to 1 1/2 lb of chicken breast into smallish cubes or chunks.

Chop up 1 medium to large sized Onion- I like Red onion best

slice a few carrots up- slice them into little disks

Get out your big giant skillet and commence to heating it up with some olive oil.

Throw in the onion and carrot and cook until the onion is translusent - sprinkle on some Garlic Power for fun and some pepper...go easy on the salt because this is supposed to be low sodium and if you check the sodium contents of the canned ingredients you add later, you will be picking up your dose of sodium for the day

Add the chicken and cook it until it looks about done

Add a little more olive oil along the way to keep things lubricated.

Add a cup of long grained rice (don’t use the wild rice stuff until you pre-cooked it, or it will be too hard)

Stir it all around until the rice starts to brown

Add 2 cups of liquid- I usually use 1 can of Low Sodium Vegetable broth, a half cup of white wine and a half cup of water.

Stir around and turn down heat to medium-ish, then throw a lid on the thing for about 15 minutes. Check it at 15 minutes- if the rice is done, cool, if not, wait another 5 minutes or so.

When the rice has absorbed the liquid then add 1 can of black beans (rinse them like crazy in cold water first) and 1 can of diced tomatoes (low sodium if you can get them)…use the tomatoes that have diced chiles in them, unless you are a wuss and don’t like a little heat in your food.

Turn the heat to low and put the lid back on for a few minutes, then you can serve and eat.

Anyway, I hope you try making this dish- its really good

Oh yeah- this recipe supposedly makes 6 servings, but its more like 4 or 5.