Roast chicken

 

OK so I confess. I didnt roast a turkey. I dont like turkey and I dont think my friends do either. But more importantly the thought of roasting a turkey scared me. What if I failed...my thanksgiving would have been ruined. So I took the safer way out and decided to roast a chicken instead. And I am glad I did because the chicken turned out to be pretty darn good.

And it was so simple. Here is what I did:

Ingredients

• 1 whole Chicken, Rinsed And Patted Dry
• 3/4 cups Butter, Softened
• Lemons
• Rosemary
• Salt And Pepper, to taste

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Zest lemons. Strip the leaves off of one of the rosemary sprigs and chop it up finely.

In a bowl, combine softened butter, lemon zest, rosemary, and salt and pepper to taste.

Use your fingers to smear the butter mixture all over the chicken, under the skin, and inside the cavity. Cut the lemons in half and squeeze the juice of one lemon all over the chicken. Place the lemon halves (if they'll fit!) and the some rosemary leaves into the cavity of the bird.

 

Place the chicken into the oven and roast it for 1 hour, 15 minutes or until done.

 

I put the chicken directly on the rack. I used the drippings to make gravy (drippings on veggies, flour, chicken stock and fillings from one sausage...boil until it thickens).

Both delicious.

 

And so simple.

 

 

Quinoa Salad

As a part of my Thanksgiving dinner I also made Quinoa salad. It was simple but quite good. Paired well with the other food that I made.

This is how I made it.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 1/2 cups cold water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup snow peas, shell peas, celery, or green beans
• 2 small carrots, peeled and sliced thin
• 1/2 green or red pepper, sliced thin
• 1 medium ripe tomato

Dressing:

• 2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

Quinoa can be made ahead of time and refrigerated. Put quinoa with the water and salt in a pot. Cover the pot, bring to a full boil, turn the heat to low, and cook for 15 minutes. You know that the quinoa is done when there are small white threads coming out of the quinoa. Remove from heat and set aside to cool

You can either steam the carrots and green veg for 5 minutes or until tender-crisp, drain, rinse in cold water and drain again or you can have them fresh. Which is what I did. Chop the tomatoes. 

Blend dressing ingredients with a whisk.

Gently combine veggies, quinoa and dressing in a large bowl

Cover and chill, or serve immediately

Delicious healthy food

Simple Easy Cranberry Sauce

It was Thanksgiving week last week. I had some friends come over. And how can I have Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce? So I made some. And it was good. Simple and easy Cranberry Sauce.

 

I used:

1 packet of Trader Joes cranberries (about 2 cups of it)

1 cup orange juice. I juice Tropicana.

1 cup white sugar.

 

Bring sugar and OJ to a boil. Put in cranberries and let it boil till they pop. Cranberry sauce will thicken as it cools.

 

Serve.