I don't know about you, but I absolutely hate to cook at lunch. I want lunch to be quick and easy. I like to grab some leftovers, a slice of quiche out of the fridge, or warm up a bowl of soup in the microwave. I teach 3 mornings a week right now, and I am usually starving by the time I get home for lunch. But this blog is not about lunch, so let's move on to dinner.
Dinner is the one meal of the day where I get to control, to some extent, what my teenaged daughters eat. So it is very important to me to make sure they get some veggies on their plates. This week, I have one daughter playing in the pit orchestra for an upcoming musical. Her rehearsals run from immediately after school until past 8pm every day. So I have been making her a dinner salad and driving it up to her school right before rehearsal begins. Maybe she is an oddball, but she loves a salad for dinner. Last night I tossed together some romaine lettuce, red pepper slices, a whole Persian cucumber, and some grape tomatoes with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Then I topped her salad with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and 3 oz. of roasted chicken breast. She loved it! And asked for another dinner salad tonight. Both my daughters abhor salad dressings, but can tolerate a light coating of olive oil with NO vinegar or lemon. Strange, if you ask me, but I comply.
Tonight I plan to roast yet another chicken! If you look closely, it is possible you might see a little bit of chicken coming out of my ears. Truly, I eat that much chicken. It is so versatile, that is the problem! I like it straight out of the oven, just roasted, when the skin in crispy and crackling. I like it in salads, and often I also make a soup with the carcass. Here is how I roast a chicken:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Remove the bag of innards from the chicken and feed them to the salivating dogs sitting patiently next to the sink. Don't even bother to rinse the chicken and pat it dry, unless you are hypergermophobic, just stick it in a cast iron frying pan. Sprinkle low-sodium seasoned salt (I like Morton's best) over the whole bird. If you don't have that, substitute plain old salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stick the pan in the middle of the oven and set the timer for 20 minutes. If you are roasting sweet potatoes with the chicken, whack each one 2-3 times with a sharp knife and imagine you are a serial killer. Then stick the whole, unpeeled sweet potatoes next to the chicken. Make sure you have aluminum foil under them as they may drip. Or you can use a cookie sheet.
After 20 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees. You can rotate the bird if you feel like it, or if it looks like it is browning unevenly. Set your timer for 1 hour. If your sweet potatoes are small, they will be done before this hour is up, so you should probably remove them before the chicken. You can keep checking them for softness, or you can forget about them. Overcooking will only concentrate their sugars and make them even more delicious, in my opinion.
If your chicken is on the small side, say 4-6 pounds, it will be done after this hour is up. If you are cooking one of those mammoth oven stuffer roasters, wait until its little timer thingy pops up. Then remove the chicken, as well as the overcooked sweet potatoes. Use pot holders and be careful as the sweet potatoes will be very soft and oozing bubbling-hot sugary syrup! Let your chicken sit and rest after its ordeal for at least 5 minutes. Also let the sweet potatoes cool a bit before trying to peel them. I usually serve this dinner with steamed petite brussels sprouts. We like the Hanover variety that you can steam right in the bag. Just throw them in the microwave for 5 minutes and they are done. The petite kind are not overly bitter tasting and my family will all eat them happily. A bit of butter on the veggies and dinner is done.
For your Zone diet portions, weigh out 3 oz. of roasted chicken (for a 3 block meal) as well as about a half cup of sweet potato, mashed, and a cup and a half of brussels sprouts. Top the veggies with a teaspoon of Irish grassfed butter or olive oil for your fat. Enjoy!
Dinner is the one meal of the day where I get to control, to some extent, what my teenaged daughters eat. So it is very important to me to make sure they get some veggies on their plates. This week, I have one daughter playing in the pit orchestra for an upcoming musical. Her rehearsals run from immediately after school until past 8pm every day. So I have been making her a dinner salad and driving it up to her school right before rehearsal begins. Maybe she is an oddball, but she loves a salad for dinner. Last night I tossed together some romaine lettuce, red pepper slices, a whole Persian cucumber, and some grape tomatoes with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Then I topped her salad with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and 3 oz. of roasted chicken breast. She loved it! And asked for another dinner salad tonight. Both my daughters abhor salad dressings, but can tolerate a light coating of olive oil with NO vinegar or lemon. Strange, if you ask me, but I comply.
Tonight I plan to roast yet another chicken! If you look closely, it is possible you might see a little bit of chicken coming out of my ears. Truly, I eat that much chicken. It is so versatile, that is the problem! I like it straight out of the oven, just roasted, when the skin in crispy and crackling. I like it in salads, and often I also make a soup with the carcass. Here is how I roast a chicken:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Remove the bag of innards from the chicken and feed them to the salivating dogs sitting patiently next to the sink. Don't even bother to rinse the chicken and pat it dry, unless you are hypergermophobic, just stick it in a cast iron frying pan. Sprinkle low-sodium seasoned salt (I like Morton's best) over the whole bird. If you don't have that, substitute plain old salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stick the pan in the middle of the oven and set the timer for 20 minutes. If you are roasting sweet potatoes with the chicken, whack each one 2-3 times with a sharp knife and imagine you are a serial killer. Then stick the whole, unpeeled sweet potatoes next to the chicken. Make sure you have aluminum foil under them as they may drip. Or you can use a cookie sheet.
After 20 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees. You can rotate the bird if you feel like it, or if it looks like it is browning unevenly. Set your timer for 1 hour. If your sweet potatoes are small, they will be done before this hour is up, so you should probably remove them before the chicken. You can keep checking them for softness, or you can forget about them. Overcooking will only concentrate their sugars and make them even more delicious, in my opinion.
If your chicken is on the small side, say 4-6 pounds, it will be done after this hour is up. If you are cooking one of those mammoth oven stuffer roasters, wait until its little timer thingy pops up. Then remove the chicken, as well as the overcooked sweet potatoes. Use pot holders and be careful as the sweet potatoes will be very soft and oozing bubbling-hot sugary syrup! Let your chicken sit and rest after its ordeal for at least 5 minutes. Also let the sweet potatoes cool a bit before trying to peel them. I usually serve this dinner with steamed petite brussels sprouts. We like the Hanover variety that you can steam right in the bag. Just throw them in the microwave for 5 minutes and they are done. The petite kind are not overly bitter tasting and my family will all eat them happily. A bit of butter on the veggies and dinner is done.
For your Zone diet portions, weigh out 3 oz. of roasted chicken (for a 3 block meal) as well as about a half cup of sweet potato, mashed, and a cup and a half of brussels sprouts. Top the veggies with a teaspoon of Irish grassfed butter or olive oil for your fat. Enjoy!
Comments
Post a Comment
Please share your helpful questions and comments here! Thanks for being part of this balanced community!