Today started out with my five year old daughter having a fit because I told her that her pants were too big and she needed to change. When she refused I started singing “Pants on the Ground” and that’s when all hell broke loose. So now my older daughter calls her Pants on the Ground which doesn’t exactly make for a peaceful household at 7 am and it’s all my fault. Guess my attempt to use pop culture to teach my kid a lesson backfired.

So now I have “Pants on the Ground” stuck in my head. Which is worse than yesterday’s song from Ke$ha, “DJ Turn It Up” (I don’t even know if that’s the right title). It was blasting in my house at 5 pm when an interview called so I had to do the candy on the floor and smooth jazz transition pretty quickly. I was amazed with how quiet my house got in about ten seconds. You should try it sometime. It’s automatic zen. Go from blasting some stupid song on the radio like Miley Cyrus or Taylor Swift (okay, I kinda like her) to the sound of Hershey Kisses hitting the floor and soft trumpet. Boom. Quiet. It’s brilliant.

I have to be honest. I haven’t really been making anything too yummy lately. Lots of random pasta mixes that didn’t turn out too well. Some abominable frozen meals (I really hate those) and one too many nights of take out. So it’s time. But now that the weather’s finally getting nice, I really have no excuse. So I’ll look to my trusty friend, the BBQ, for a little help.

Best thing about the BBQ is that you can put your entire meal on there at once. Meat, veggies, potatoes. Crank up the music outside and stand there holding tongs looking like a fool with your pants on the ground. Oh, sorry.

Marinades are king. So tonight’s marinade will be something that’s left over from breakfast seeing that it’s still sitting on the table. Orange juice, brown sugar, honey, ketchup and soy sauce. Well, the first three are still sitting there. Mix it all up and you have an amazing chicken marinade. Throw in a little ginger if you have it. And for all of you measurement freaks, I’ll try to be more specific…even tho I was trying to make your life easier!

Soy Marinade Chicken

You can pretty much pour on anything but your coffee and it'll taste good.

Ingredients:

• 1 Package of Chicken (great with wings, too!)
• 1/4 Cup Soy Sauce
• 1/8 Cup Orange Juice (or pour remainder from kids’ glass who left it full on table at breakfast)
• 3 Squirts Ketchup (how’s that for a measurement?)
• Drizzle of Honey
• Few Spoons of Brown Sugar
• Sprinkle of Ginger
• Zucchini and Squash

Directions:

1. Mix up all ingredients.
2. Add chicken.
3. Let marinate for the day or at least one hour.
4. Slice up some veggies (Zucchini and Squash) and toss in olive oil and kosher salt.
5. Grill everything at once.

Tags: Chicken, Pants on the Ground, Soy marinade