amazing roasted chicken

this is one of my favorite fall-back meals. super easy, very moist, and impressive for guests on a sunday evening.

oh, it's cheap, too.

so, here's all you do.

buy a chicken. you can get the fryer or roaster kind. it does not matter one bit. plus, it's like, less than $5.
open it. clean out the inside (they sometimes keep the, um, organs? in there). rinse it. drain it.
separate the skin from the breasts, carefully. add a few thin pats of butter between the meat and the skin.
tie up the legs if they are spread too far. aka, if your chicken is a floozy. joke. but seriously, tie those babies up.
cut into big bit-size pieces some onion, carrots, potatoes. celery if you want. add that all to the space around the chicken.
sprinkle the whole thing with seasoning. whatever kind you want. i think i used a sort of parmesan herb seasoning? use anything.

put in a 400 oven for an hour. maybe an hour and a half. depends on the size of your bird.
sorry i don't have an "after" photo.

it's done when you poke the breast with a toothpick and clear juice runs out.
more specific? stick a thermometer in the thickest part of the breast and if it says the temp is good for chicken, it's cooked through. i don't know the temp. my meat thermometer says that on the holder.

good food served here: lasagna rollups

this was a pretty good weekend. we went to the outlet mall yesterday and spent the entire day there. my FAVORITE purchase was a fun sign steve bought me and hung in our kitchen. it is just perfect! as i was trying to be fancy and photograph my dish and the sign, he thought he'd be funny and this is what i got:

one of my favorite pictures to date, actually. it captures some of the things that i heart most. wunderbar.

so, these lasagna rollups are pretty yummo. i actually freeze these and they taste fresh even after being reheated.

this recipe comes from one of my favorite go-to cookbooks- better homes and gardens: easy everyday cooking. this is the cookbook with all of my post-it flags. ..we all have one! i use the main recipe and toggle it to my liking. here is my version:

ingredients:

1lb ground turkey (this time i used my costco pack- 1.25lbs)

1 medium onion, chopped

2+ cloves minced garlic

(the recipie suggests 1cup sliced mushrooms here...ew)

1 cup water

1 14oz can diced italian tomatoes +/- more if you want more (i used 1.5 cans)

2 6oz cans tomato paste

italian herb blend- to taste

fresh or dried basil (fresh! fresh!)- to taste

salt- to taste

12 packaged dried lasagna noodles

2 beaten eggs

1 30 oz carton ricotta

1 10-12 oz package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

3 cups mozzarella

1.5 cups grated parmesan cheese

sauce:

in a large skillet cook turkey, onion and garlic until turkey cooked thru; drain fat.

pre-cooked. obvs.

add tomatoes (undrained), tomato paste, italian herbs, basil and salt.

bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat- simmering for 25 minutes.

it's impossible to not eat this while it's simmering.

in the meantime, cook lasagna noodles according to package. drain, rinse with cold, drain again.

filling:

in a mixing bowl- OR your kitchenaid mixer (hear the angels sing)- mix together:

egg, ricotta, spinach, 1.5 cups of the mozzarella and 3/4cups parmesan cheese.

assembling of the rolls:

lay a few noodles out for filling

 spread enough filling down each noodle, probably about 1/2 cup

roll noodles with filling (start from a short end if there is one)

place rolls seam down in a glass baking dish (i lightly sprayed mine with oil, you dont have to)

pour sauce over rolls

cover with foil and bake in 375 degree oven for 25 minutes.

after 25 minutes, remove foil and sprinkle remaining mozzarella over top

bake 5-10 more minutes, let sit for about 5 before serving. sprinkle remaining parmesan cheese over top, serve with garlic bread.

note: after baking, i separate into smaller, freezable dishes for different meals. these are very filling, 2 at a time are usually more than enough for us (well, 1.5 for me). when reheating, cover dish with foil and warm at 375 for about 10-15 minutes.

haluski

last night, i made one of my comfort foods.
husband and i both took the day off because we weren't feeling great.
sidenote: i'm still feeling ucky, but have a busy day. phooey.
so i made a really easy meal that makes a TON of food. so if there's some days this week that we don't have enough leftovers for lunch the next day, there's plenty of haluski left.

what's haluski?

lemme tell you something-- don't google it. as much as i heart google (seriously. i'd have google's lovechild in a split second), he's wrong about this. there's apparently 47 different ways to make haluski if you ask him.
there's only one way. mom's way.

so, i made my comfort food. it happens to be one of husband's favorites, too-- which is surprising because it's a fairly bland meal and he doesn't like bland as much.

without making you wait any longer, here's the recipe:
cook bowtie pasta. a whole box. or bag. however you buy it.
chop and cook a whole onion.don't brown it. just soften it.
chop (in big pieces) an entire head of cabbage. it's easy. and it's not science.
add the cabbage to the big pot with onions, and some salt and pepper. put the lid on it so it can sort of steam itself.

cook the cabbage down. it gets down to about half this size.
when the cabbage is cooked down (i dunno, 30 minutes?), add the noodles.
also chop up kielbasa. we used turkey kielbasa. i didn't look at the packaging, but it is bound to be a little healthier, right? plus, it tasted just like regular kielbasa.
stir it all together, and that's it~ no sauce or anything. it's a very light meal, considering. plus with my nice nonstick pan, i didn't use but just a sprinkling of oil with the onions. that's it.

last night, we served it with delicious steamed broccoli. i heart steamed broccoli.