Amazing Herb Roasted Chicken!!!

Herb Roasted Whole Chicken

Last night's dinner was deemed "Deloycious" by Sweet Husband.  He is a man of few words, and displays excitement subtlety.  Saying dinner was "Delyocious" was the greatest compliment ever! I made the Herb Roasted Whole Chicken compliments of The Pioneer Woman  =) This is an easy - let me say that again - EASY recipe!!  You can prep in about 5 min, pop that lil chick in the oven and then be on your merry way to do as you please for the next hour and fifteen minutes.  Here is how my lil bird turned out: 

 You need to put this recipe in your Toolbox so you are locked, loaded, and ready to go on a night when things get crazy busy.  

Creamy Lemon Pasta

The herb roasted chicken was served on a bed of pasta with mushrooms.  I love the phrase "served on a bed of pasta."  However, I do not like mushrooms - I choked on one as a kid and ever since mushrooms make me skittish. I wanted to make linguine with a cream sauce so I found another pasta recipe on The Pioneer Woman and used the section for the sauce.  The recipe is under Grilled Chicken with Lemon Basil Pasta.  I did not add chicken or basil - I just made the sauce.  I changed a few things in the recipe becuase my asthma goes nuts when I have too much dairy.  You can make her sauce just like the recipe - I just substituted some non-dairy products and the sauce was delish! Here is what I did:  

1.  Heat 1/2 stick of butter 

2. Add 3-4 Lemons (I only used 3, the sauce was very strong so a 4th would have been too much but you can always add more at the end if needed)

3.  She calls for 1/2 cup half and half and 1/2 cup cream.  I used 1/2 cup cream and a 1/2 cup Soy Milk (Silk Very Vanilla).  

4. I added a cup of Rice Cheese. This is the greatest non-dairy cheese ever.  It melts like, tastes like and has the texture of real cheese.  Here is a picture of what I buy - usually only Dierbergs carries it.  It is a little pricey but you can get coupons on line by registering online.   I LOVE this cheese. 

 5.  Then you just whisk the sauce, add salt and pepper.  

Love Summer

Summer break is here!  My first semester of grad school just wrapped up and I have a few weeks to do some serious cooking!  I am excited to start exploring some new recipes! Here is what is on the menu this week!!!

Tonight:  Pan Fried Rib Eye Steak with a Side Salad, Roasted French Bread and Chocolate Chip Cookies for dessert =)

This is the steak prior to cooking.  I thought the recipe was awesome, but I am not a big fan of lemon pepper.  So I diverted from the recipe a little.  I let my ribeyes marinade for about 7 hours in olive oil, season salt, pepper, oregano, basil, and thyme.  I also put some Italian Parsley on the top while it marinated.  After that I followed the steps in the recipe to cook the steaks =) 

The rest of the week:  

Greek Salad

Herb Roasted Whole Chicken with Linguini (minus the mushrooms for me!)

Cajun Chicken Pasta

Chicken and Andouille Jambalaya

Grad School

There are many things I love about being in grad school - learning incredible information, having stellar professors, seeing Jordyn Gehret every single day.  But the one thing that I do not love about grad school is the amount of time it takes away from my ability to blog.  I think I am going to have to start blogging once a week on Sunday afternoons.  I am sad about this because I enjoy blogging - but when I prioritize based on what I need to do vs. what I want to do...relaxing and blogging come after school.  Oh prioritization.  This is only for a season though, and what a season this shall be  =)

I do need to get to studying....but before that, there is a book I would like to recommend - I think I am going to get it.  My friend John and his wife Anne Marie gave this book to a good friend of ours that does not like to cook.  The book is The $7 a Meal Healthy Cookbook.  It has 301 nutritious, delicious recipes that the whole family will love - all $7.00 and under!!! I am very excited about this book and I look forward to making some recipes from it!  

OK, study time.  

"If we had no winder, the spring would not be so pleasant:  if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome." 

Anne Bradstreet, British Poet. 

What's Cookin Good Lookin

Here is the dinner menu for this week:  

Bowtie Lasagna

Mexican "Flatbread" Pizza

Beef with Snow Peas

Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies  (This is just a dessert, not a dinner - but it would be lovely as dinner!)

Chicken Spaghetti 

Some other recipes I would love to try out:  

Via Cappuccino Muffins

Sweet Cinnamon Scones 

Tortilla Soup

Last week I made Tortilla Soup.  Sweet Husband said it best "Honey, this is amazing."   =)  I recommend you make this recipe for the sweet man in your life....

A Lovely Day

I spent the afternoon with Laura sipping on tea while I learned how to make a yummy Mediterranean meal for Sweet Husband and I.  Laura talked about ways we can make dinner beautiful - not just putting a good meal on the table but how you can make it look really beautiful with garnishes and pretty dishes - and fresh flowers! My mom and dad always made yummy meals and made them look beautiful too.  Dinner was always a wonderful time for my family to get together and just talk and enjoy one another and some yummy food.  

When I got home that night I put some fresh cut strawberries and apples on a pretty plate so Sweet Husband would have a healthy snack when he got home from a 14 hour work day.  I don't really do appetizers because I am trying to finish the main course up.  But I like to have something for Sweet Husband to eat as dinner finishes up.  So Laura suggested fresh fruit and veggies as an appetizer.  She said you might have fruit and veggies in the fridge but it takes time to cut them up - if you already have them sliced and laid out nice on a plate you can just dig right in until diner is ready =)

This was our dinner table - Water with clementine slices and a garnish for the glasses (Sweet Husband's glass is missing because he was drinking out of it!) Lilacs on the table and then in the middle I had the fruit.  I also put the flowers that Laura gave me from her garden on our ottoman in the living room - I just love fresh flowers! 

On the Menu:

Lemon Rosemary Chicken

Chicken Breasts, Salt/Pepper, Olive Oil, 

Lemon Pepper, Lemon Juice, Fresh Rosemary

Bake for about 40 min on 400 degrees

Tabbouleh 

See Recipe Below

This is DELISH you will want to make this!!

2 ¾ c. water

1 1/2 C. bulgar (cracked wheat) or couscous (we used couscous)

½ tsp. salt

Bring water to boil and put in the grain.  Turn off heat, cover and let sit on burner for 10 min until liquid is absorbed.  Cool and place in large bowl.

Add to grain in large bowl: 

1 medium cucumber, diced

3 medium green onions, coarsely chopped

1 - 2 (15 oz) cans of kidney beans, rinsed, drained (You can make this without beans if you choose)

1 cup crumbled feta cheese

1 cup chopped parsley

½ cup chopped basil

¼ - 1/3 C. fresh dill, finely chopped, (or 1 tsp. dried dill weed)

1/3 - ½ cup lemon juice (2 – 3 lemons)

¼ cup olive oil, (start with less and add more as needed)

freshly ground pepper to taste

¼ tsp. cayenne pepper

3 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped, (add just before serving so that tomatoes stay fresh)

Chill in fridge for a few hours and let herbs meld together for most flavor.

 

Vote Yes for Pig Cake

I just love The Pioneer Woman's Blog.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for your dedication to snapping photos every step of the way to show me exactly what ingredients I need and what to do with them! OK, back to the Pig Cake - I got the recipe for Pig Cake from The Pioneer Woman's Blog.   I am going to love this cake! You are going to love this cake!!!   

I say we make it this weekend =)

Homemade Pizza

On The Menu Tonight - Homemade Pizza!

I am not certain how this will turn out.  I cooked the dough but it tastes a little bitter, hopefully the sauce will help cover that up  =/  Here is the dough ball: 

Baking the dough

Sweet Husband will be home soon - I can't wait to serve him homemade pizza for the first time!!

Gettin' my Domestic On - Chicken Lemon Soup

Alright, tonight is a serious test of my cooking abilities.  I am making Chicken Lemon Soup.  This soup takes 12 hours to make and requires 4 inches of ginger of which I have no clue what to do with the 4 inches of ginger.  However, this recipe brings a lot of excitement as I needed to buy some additional cooking tools.  The first is a lemon zester - the name alone is awesome so I am excited to see what some zest can do for my cooking.  The second tool is a lemon squeezer thing that gets the juice out of the lemons without letting seeds get into the soup.  My sweet husband said, "I bet you could just use your pretty hands for that" to which I replied, "I am pretty sure I could just use my hands, but I can't resist the chefy feeling I get when I hold that shiny, yellow lemon squeezer thing!"  He smiled - I love this.  

And now it begins - my domestic is on and we are cookin some Chicken Lemon Soup =)  I will keep you posted....

Here are all the yummies cooking up together - this is my first time cooking with ginger...it smells delish  =) 

 My handy dandy yellow lemon squeezer thingy  =) It squeezes the lemons and also gives your arms a nice work out - as if we really needed it though  =)