A bird in the oven

My friend Bruce (who hosted this weekends scary movie and sleep over extravaganza) gave me a few cook books to borrow that he thought I would like. One included "A bird in the oven and then some" by Mindy Fox - which gives 20 ways to roast a chicken, nice side recipes, and what to do with the chicken carcass so that the whole bird gets used to its best potential.

I adapted one of the recipes to fit the ingredients I had.
I used:

• 1 whole chicken (5 pounds)
• 1 lime
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 tablespoons unstalted butter, at room temperature
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/2 tsp saffron
• 1 tsp freshly ground coriander
• 1 tsp coarse black pepper
• 1/2 tsp NuSalt
• 1 cup white wine (I kept it classy with Charles Shaw)

1. Preheat oven to 350* roasting setting
2. Clean the chicken, remove giblets/ neck and set aside (I just froze mine for another day.) Dry well.
3. Place Chicken in a oven safe pot/ dutch oven.
4. In a seperate pot/ cup boil 1 cup of water, add in raisins and let soak.
5. Zest lime over chicken, and squeeze lime juice over chicken.

6. combine all spices, butter, and soaked raisins in a bowl.



7. Using your (clean) hands rub the spices/raisin mixture all over the chicken, including under the skin.  

8. Put chicken in oven and roast about 15 minutes.
9. After 15 minutes, pour ~ 1 cup white wine over the chicken, continue roasting for about 1.5 hours or until internal temperature is 165*F.

As a side I roasted up some mixed vegetables/ fruit including:

• 1 potato
• 1 onion
• 1 red pepper
• 1 red apple
• 2 cloves garlic
• olive oil
• splash of white wine
• Black pepper

No fancy or exciting prep, just chopped, put in a baking dish and roasted along with the chicken.

I also had a lot of weird looking carrots from the garden so I chopped those up and roasted them as well with just some olive oil, salt and pepper. 

Here are some of my weird garden carrots (with a cheery tomato for size comparison)

Looks like legs that have to pee!

Had a few 'baby' carrots in there
 

 

In the end I wound up just throwing all of the vegetables into the pot with the chicken and it made quite a good one pot wonder of a meal.

Baked Potato Soup

I've had some extra potatoes around and been craving potato soup, so I decided to try one out! I tried to make it some-what healthier, but this still isn't a super healthy recipe (considering the bacon and cream) feel free to substitute all skim milk or a lean turkey bacon. 

It does make a very filling and delicious soup. 

Baked Potato Soup:

• 4 strips of bacon, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped or minced 
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 cup fresh basil
• pinch salt or salt substitute 
• ground black pepper
• 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 6 medium potatoes, baked  (I peeled half of them) 
• 1 cup skim milk
• 1 cup fat free half and half
• 1/8 cup hot sauce (I used Franks)  
• Optional: extra bacon, shredded cheese, chives for topping 

1. In a large pot (or crock pot) cook chopped bacon. Remove Bacon and save for later, leave bacon grease in pot. 
2. Add onions and garlic and cook until tender. 
3. Add basil, pepper, salt and flour.  
4. Add in chicken broth slowly and bring to a boil. 
5. Add in potatoes, milk, half and half, hot sauce, and bacon. Simmer, but do not boil. 
6. Using an immersion blender, regular blender or food processor puree as much of the soup as you would like. If you left the peels of the potatoes on, you probably want to blenderize those as much as possible. 

Serve with extra bacon, chives and cheese, if desired. 

Enjoy :) 

Seasonal Soup and Salad: The Soup

My last post discussed Jon and I's seasonal dinner inspired by the bounty of my CSA box.

I had made a Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Cider Vinaigrette, and he made a lovely potato and leek soup.

I generally attempt to make my recipes healthier- but Jon was only willing to do so much tweaking to the recipe...

He used:

1/2 stick unsalted butter
olive oil
2 leeks
1/4 large onion (so.. like one small one?)
3 cloves garlic, minced
~1.5 pounds potatoes, peeled (we used russet potatoes )
1 pt chicken or vegetable broth
parsly
black pepper
salt
1 cup heavy cream (Um.... I would not have chosen this. You can substitute 1/2 or all milk, or use a light cream at least)

* wash and chop leeks, garlic and onion.
* Heat a bit of butter and oil in pan (big frying pan/ wok).
* add garlic, leeks and onions. Saute until soft. Set aside.
* peel and thinly slice potatoes.
* prepare pan again with olive oil and butter, and add potatoes. You are not trying to brown the potatoes. Add a bit of broth and cover pan. Cook until soft.
* add in the leek combo, and saute. Add the rest of the of the broth and spices as desired, and let simmer.
* place a large pot over heat. Pour the soup mixture into pot.
* add 1 cup of cream (or milk).
* use immersion blender to blenderize some of the soup until reaching a creamy consistency.
*** note: Jon blenderized quite a bit, but in retrospect we think he should have left some chunks of potatoes etc. So blend to your desired consistency.





Enjoy!

We served ours with our salad and a side of french bread.

Wrong Side of the Bed

Today I woke up in an unnecessarily bitter mood.

Jordan had slept over and had trouble sleeping, and then woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and as the saying goes "misery loves company" so he took me along for a grumpy morning.

Once he was gone, I was faced with a mountain of dishes in the sink, and dishes I had previously washed piled up in the drying rack. Some of these were mine of course, but being in a grumpy mood, I washed them all while bantering madly to myself of how I always get stuck doing everything around the house, when I am the one that has the most to do! Geez I just took the trash and recycling out last night too, and cleaned the bathroom which looks like crap again because Sookie likes to throw litter!

I then took the feminist approach and assumed the boys were leaving all of the house work for me to do because I am the only girl and clearly they must think I am only good for domestic purposes.

After settling down from my pity-party, I comforted myself with a nice breakfast of left over
home-made cottage potatoes (aka homefries :P ) and my last egg, over-easy, with some ketchup and a cup or 3 of Pumpkin Spice coffee. I think its the cold, but I have been craving really "breakfasty" breakfasts lately.




After breakfast I headed out to Framingham to get some school work done and go to class. I brought an apple and nutrigrain bar as some brain food.


Despite my snacking I was definitely in need of some more substantial lunch when I got home. I mixed up some more left over Spaghetti + mixture of frozen veggies + Vegan Chili, and some extra spaghetti sauce, and then added some 50% reduced fat Cabot Cheddar Cheese (currently on sale at Shaws.)

+
In the mix: Broccoli, Asparagus, Green Peppers, and carrots... I wish I had a few other colors in there, but the chili livened up the mix.
+

+
Vegan Chili
(Its always frozen come photo-op time!)

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Nomnomnom. It was very good.

I may have snacked on a mini bag of popcorn with chocolate chips and raisins while watching "Charlie Bartlett" and cleaning the apartment (SEE!! AGAIN!)

Tonight I am heading to Gloucester so it I wait that long to eat I'll just go get to steal J.'s food, a rare and exciting treat :)


And just to confirm, I am no longer bitter, and am in a much better mood, and now off to take my Sports Nutrition Quiz!