Made For Us
A newly married 20-something High School English teacher from New Jersey (currently lost in the Midwest) who likes to read, cook, listen to jazz, write, design, & dream of world travel with my graphic designing husband.
I am all about trying to eat/cook healthy, have date nights, and enjoy life on a humble teacher's salary. This is a hodgepodge of recipes, teaching anecdotes, dreams, and budget ideas of a young educator.
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Have some vegetables about to go bad in the fridge?
Cut those bad boys up, drizzle with EVOO, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then roast. After about 45 minutes in a 400 degree oven, toss most veg in a food processor with chicken/veg broth and puree. Add to a dutch oven/large pot along with few whole pieces that weren’t blended and heat through. It’s delicious just as is then, but you can add other spices, or even coconut milk if you like. The easiest soup, Voilà!
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Roasted Brussel Sprouts & Sweet Potatoes
Preheat oven to 400.
- 1lb brussel sprouts
- 1 medium to large size sweet potato
- 1 medium onion
- bacon pieces
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt & pepper
- herbs provence
- savory herbs
Dice Vegetables. Put in large baking dish. Add bacon pieces. Drizzle oil. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and seasonings. Mix with spatula. Bake for 1 hour. Use as a side dish with entree, or fry up a sunny side egg and lay on top for a filling breakfast/brunch.
Enjoy.
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Roasting a whole chicken isn’t as hard as it seems.
Growing up, I don’t remember my mom ever roasting a whole chicken. Sure, there was a whole turkey on Thanksgiving, but never a whole chicken for a weekend meal. After living on my own (after college) for over three years now, I realize just how expensive it can be to go grocery shopping when you want to cook/make your own meals (for two with leftovers for lunch) from scratch. Seeing a whole chicken for the same price I usually buy chicken breasts or tenders made me want to try my hand at roasting one myself.
If you’re anything like me, the idea of handling a whole headless bird may be a bit too much. Also, if you’re anything like me, you will re-think not being a vegetarian every.single.time you cut extra fat off of it or like I’ve been doing lately spatchcocking it (crazy verb, I know). Spatchcocking just means cutting the back bone out, which makes the chicken lie flat so that the bird gets evenly browned.
Easy, Simple Steps:
- Preheat oven to 400 Degrees
Make a bed for the chicken:
- Cut up your favorite roasting veggies — onions, potato, carrot, celery, green pepper, brussel sprouts, tomato, whatever you like, and fill a 9 x 13” pan.
- Drizzle some olive oil over them and add salt, pepper, & other spices such as herbs provence or rosemary.
Prepare your chicken:
- Remove from the bag it came in and discard bag (you may want to take off jewelry before we get to this point).
- Rinse entire chicken in cool water.
- Dry off very, very well with paper towels (If not spatchcocking).
- I always remove tail (I know, I cringed when I typed that).
- Then remove huge pieces of fat likely hanging around the cavity of the chicken that’s probably had its innards removed already.
- If you’re wanting to spatchcock the bird, you need to “sit the chicken up” with its back facing you and with a very sharp butcher’s knife (I need a better one), cut the bone right out. You will be braking ribs and other smaller bones so be careful when grabbing or you could hurt your finger tips.
- At this point, I re-rinse the inside of the bird and pat dry thoroughly with towels.
- Salt and Pepper the inside of the chicken well.
- Lay out some garlic and lemon slices in the middle of your veggie bed so that they will be right under your chicken.
- Lay the chicken over with the breast facing up.
- Salt, pepper, and season the top of your bird well.
- Cut 3 TBS of butter into thin slices and lay them on the breast, abdomen, and legs of the chicken.
Put in preheated oven.
- If you did not spatchcock your chicken, you may try the precarious task of literally flipping the bird over every twenty minutes (maybe just twice to get the breast back to the top). I found a fork near the neck and a chopstick in the rear help.
- If you did spatchcock your chicken, you can simply turn the pan 180 degrees every 20 minutes.
- Remember to baste your bird as it starts to release it juices. Basting every 20 minutes as you’re turning is just fine.*
- Depending on its size, your chicken should take 15 minutes for every pound (if 400 degrees; if 350 degrees, 20 minutes is better).
- To see if it’s done, cut the meat by the leg/thigh to see if it has cooked completely.
Allow chicken to rest for 10 minutes before cutting into it to insure that it will not dry out.
Serve with pan roasted veggies and rice if desired.
*Want to make it more savory or have much more broth at the end? Whisk 1/2 cup chicken broth with 1/4 cup white wine with a little olive oil and extra seasonings. Drizzle this over the chicken, during two of the turning/flipping points while baking.
Don’t be afraid of handling an entire chicken; you can do it!
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I’m roasting Butternut Squash,
but I don’t know which to make:
Recipe A:
or Recipe B:
Help me…
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The beginnings of a Very Green Soup
(My own recipe)
1 bunch asparagus
1 head broccoli with stalks
olive oil
salt
pepper
3 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup half & half
1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
dash of white wine - optional
Preheat oven to 400.
Cut up broccoli and asparagus to about 2” pieces. Throw in a bowl.
Add a TBS of olive oil + salt and pepper & mix gently.
Lay out vegetables on flat baking sheet.
Roast for 20 minutes. You can mix once 1/2 way through, or not, it’s up to you.
Take out of oven. Add 1/2 cup chicken broth to food processor or blender. Bit by bit pulse and blend roasted veg with broth. You may add 1/4 cup if needed half way through.
It should look like fresh light green pesto, chunky.
Heat a swirl of olive oil in big pot. If wanted, at this point you can add onions/garlic and caramelize a little before adding other ingredients, but I kept my soup simple yesterday.
Add the remaining broth. Add pulsed veg. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Taste. Add more salt and pepper if needed.
Add half and half (or cream, or milk, or even butter if you’re not counting calories this week).
Add parmesan. Whisk/Mix gently until incorporated. You can simmer a bit longer if you want to ensure that everything has come together.
Serve with bread.
