Easy Roasted Herb Chicken

We eat a lot of roast chicken around here. When I say a lot, I mean like once a week. I think my husband would eat roast chicken, roast potatoes, and broccoli everyday if I let him. Usually I just throw some salt and pepper on the chicken and that's it. A friend of mine posted this recipe on Facebook and I thought I'd give it a go. It was dee-lish-ous!!! The ingredients were things I have in the cupboard, so I didn't need to buy anything special. My friend suggested doubling the amount of marinade and I added some different vegetables. Next time I'll make more veg since it was our favorite part! It smelled delicious when it was done and even my husband was like, you need to take a picture of this!

Roasted Herb Chicken

1 (4lb) whole chicken (you can do larger if you need to feed more than 4)
2/3 cup soy sauce
6 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp ground black pepper
Vegetables to roast:
I used 2 carrots cut into 2-in pieces, 2 sliced onions, and about 10 new potatoes. I'd definitely do more onions and carrots next time as it was barely enough for the two of us. Also good would be parsnips and mushrooms. Just do as many veg as you can fit in your roasting tin!

Preheat the oven, following the directions on the chicken packaging for temperature and length of cooking. Prepare the chicken by rinsing with cold water and patting it dry with a paper towel. Place into the roasting tin, surrounding it with all the vegetables. Mix together the ingredients for the marinate and baste the chicken (inside and out) and baste the vegetables generously. Place into the oven and continue to baste the chicken and vegetables at least every 30 minutes. Stir the vegetables around at the same time. Once the chicken is finished, allow it to rest for 10 minutes before carving.

Enjoy!

The easiest meatloaf recipe ever!

I love meatloaf. I love meatloaf so much that I told the meatloaf that I loved it while it was cooking. Then I felt guilty and had to tell my husband that I love him too. Fortunately he shares my love of meatloaf. He never had it before he met me and he proclaimed, 'it's like a giant meatball'. Yes, yes, it is.

The kicker is that I only like my mom's meatloaf. I don't ever order it in restaurants because it could have green peppers baked inside or ketchup smeared on top. These are two things that can instantly ruin a meatloaf for me. That's okay though, because meatloaf is simple to make. My mom has two recipes, one that requires chopping and eyeballing. Maybe one day I'll make that one. Instead I make the super simple recipe that requires ripping open packets and opening a can. Now, I have no idea where she got this recipe. She certainly didn't make it up, but we've been making it for years. If I were REALLY good I'd serve this with scalloped potatoes. Alas...I cop out and make it with mashed potatoes.

Super Easy Meatloaf

2 lb ground beef
1 egg
1/2 c dry bread crumbs
1 packet dry Lipton Onion Soup mix
1/2 can condensed Cream of Mushroom soup* (reserve other half for sauce)

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Mix all of the ingredients together well and form into a loaf in a 2-qt baking dish. Bake for 1 1/4 hour. For the sauce, in a small saucepan heat up the remainder of the soup, 1/4 c water, and some of the fat drained from the meatloaf.

*Don't like mushrooms? Use cream of celery or cream of potato soup instead.

Enjoy!

Chicken Ropa Vieja, Cilantro Lime Rice, and Southwestern Black Bean Salad

Another night of dishes from Gina's Weight Watcher's Recipes. I was just going to make the chicken and rice, but then I realized I had all the ingredients for the salad, so I just made all three. I'm a big fan of recipes where the ingredients compliment each other, allowing you to do all of the chopping in one go. Then you just throw them all together in the end. Often times I feel rushed at the last minute to have it all come together, but that wasn't the case with this meal at all.

If you're working you could cook the chicken (either in the crock pot or on the stove) the night before, refrigerate it overnight, then shred it and cook with the peppers the next evening, making it a quick workday meal. The salad can also be made ahead, just adding the avocado right before you serve.

Here are the recipes:

Chicken Ropa Vieja

3 chicken breast halves, on the bone with the skin removed
1 small onion, quartered
1 tomato, quartered
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 green pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced
1 red pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/4 c dry white wine
1/2 c tomato sauce (it's passata if you're in the UK or Ireland)
Reserved broth*
1 tsp cumin, or more to taste (I used a heaping tablespoon)
Garlic powder (I didn't have any, so I left it out)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Place chicken, tomato, carrots, onion, and two cloves of garlic in a crock pot or large sauce pan. Cover with water. If using the crock pot, cook for 4 hours on high until the chicken is tender. If using the sauce pan, bring to a boil, then turn it down to medium allowing it to simmer for 30-40 minutes. Remove the chicken and shred it using a fork. Reserve the liquid.

In a large, lidded skillet heat the olive oil on medium heat. Add the peppers, onions and garlic and cook for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the chicken, tomato sauce, white wine, and about 3/4 c of the reserve liquid. Season with cumin, garlic powder, and salt and pepper. Cover and simmer on low for about 10 minutes, until the peppers are soft, adding more liquid and seasoning as needed. Makes 4 cups.

Makes 4 servings at 4 ww points each. 

* I didn't do this, but in hindsight I would have strained out the vegetables and used the remainder of the reserved liquid for soup. It had a delicious flavor and would have made a great chicken soup! Next time!

Cilantro Lime Rice  - Start cooking the rice when the chicken is simmering.

1 c extra long grain or basmati rice
Juice of 1/2 lime
2 c water
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp fresh, chopped cilantro
4 tsp vegetable oil

Everyone makes rice differently. My mother uses the evaporation method which is what this recipe suggests. She includes one tsp of the vegetable oil while the rice is cooking. I stink at making rice, so I prefer the 'cook in large quantities of water and drain' method. Regardless of how you make your rice, once it's finished cooking (and drained if that's how you do it), add the lime juice, cilantro, and 3 tsp vegetable oil. Stir everything together and serve.

Makes 4 servings at 4 ww points each. 

Enjoy!


Southwestern Black Bean Salad - I am a sucker for anything with avocado, but you can leave this out if you're not a fan. It would still be delicious!

1 15.5 oz can of black beans, rinsed and drained
9 oz frozen corn, thawed
1 tomato, chopped
1 small avocado, diced
1/4 c red onion, chopped (I didn't have one, so I just used a white onion)
1 scallion, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp cilantro
Salt and black pepper

Combine the beans, corn, tomato, onion, scallion, and cilantro. Mix in the olive oil and lime juice. Add salt and pepper to taste. Marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Stir in the avocado right before serving.

Makes 12 servings (if you eat small servings) at 2.5 ww points each.

 

Enjoy!

Garlic shrimp in coconut milk, tomatoes and cilantro

Another successful recipe from Gina's WW's Recipes! For me, the biggest success of this recipe is that I actually peeled and deveined the shrimp all on my own! The peeling bit was easy (even though pulling the heads off was disgusting), but it was the deveining that I was most uncertain about. I believe they even make specific tools to do this and all I had was my $1 Pampered Chef Quikut Paring Knife. Fortunately I have watched enough cooking shows and eaten enough shrimp that I could handle it without the special tool! It took me a little while, but the whole process was actually quite cathartic.

Preparing the shrimp was the most difficult thing about this recipe, so if you find already prepared shrimp this is a quick and easy meal. The recipe says to saute the red peppers over low heat until they're soft (about 4 minutes). If you can manage to get something to saute on low heat, then well done to you! I couldn't. So after about 10 minutes of looking at raw peppers in the pan, I jacked up the heat to get some action. I turned it back down before adding the tomatoes and coconut milk. Wes doesn't like things too spicy, so I only used about 1/4 tsp red pepper flake. It wasn't spicy at all, so next time I'll use the full amount. Also, don't be put off by the amount of garlic in this dish. It wasn't overly garlic tasting at all.

Sorry about the quality of my picture. I had forgotten to take one and Wes reminded me when I had already put the leftovers in the container for him to take to work!

Here is the direct link to the recipe and I've also typed it out for you below:

Garlic shrimp in coconut milk, tomatoes, and cilantro (coriander if you're not in the US!)

1 1/4 lb jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
4 scallions, thinly sliced, white and green parts separated
1/2 c cilantro
4 cloves garlic, minced
Salt
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flake (to taste)
14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
14 oz can of light coconut milk
Juice from 1/2 of lime
Steamed or boiled rice

In a medium pot, heat oil on low (again, you might want to jack this up). Add the red peppers and saute until soft (about 4 minutes). If you have turned up the heat on the skillet, turn it back down to low, let it cool off a minute, then add the whites of the scallions, 1/4 c of the cilantro, and the garlic. Cook for about 1 minute.

Add the tomatoes, coconut milk and salt to taste, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. The sauce should start to thicken up a bit.

Add the shrimp and cook for 5 minutes. Add the lime juice.

Serve over rice, sprinkled with cilantro and the green onions.

Serves 4 and the WW points is 5.5 (not including the rice)

Enjoy!

Baked chicken with dijon and lime

I'm not sure how I found this food blog, but it's my new favorite! There are sooo many recipes on it that look delicious! I made my first recipe from the site tonight and it didn't disappoint. We both thought it was delicious. The only change I made was that I used wholegrain mustard instead of dijon because that's what I had on hand. I imagine any mustard would work except that disgusting yellow kind. Also, I didn't want leftovers which is why I cooked 5 thighs instead of the 8 the recipe calls for. I served this with sauteed courgettes (zucchini) and boiled rice.

Here is the direct link to the chicken recipe and I've typed out the recipe below:

Baked chicken with dijon and lime

8 small chicken thighs, skins removed
3 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp light mayonnaise
1 garlic clove, crushed
3/4 tsp black pepper
Juice and zest from one lime
Salt
Dried Parsley

Preheat oven to 400 F (204 C). Rinse the chicken, remove the skin and fat, then pat dry. Place in a large bowl and season generously with salt. In a small bowl combine the mustard, mayo, garlic, black pepper, lime juice and zest. Mix well, then pour over chicken, tossing it to coat.

Spray a large baking pan with cooking spray. Place chicken to fit in a single layer. Sprinkle the chicken with dried parsley. Bake until cooked through, about 30-35 minutes. If you want the chicken to look more brown, place under the broiler for a few minutes (I didn't do this). Serve chicken with pan juices drizzled over the top.

Serves 4
If you're counting WW points, it's 4.25 per serving.

Enjoy!

Summer-In-Winter Chicken

A couple of weeks ago KD posted the BBC GoodFood recipe for this chicken dish on her blog. Looked tasty to me! So I decided to try it for dinner. I'm not including a picture because KD's looked MUCH better than mine. I didn't have cherry tomatoes, so I just chopped up 3 small tomatoes. I think I cooked them too long, causing them to break down too much, so the sauce got really dark. We had it with mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. The sauce was really nice with the mash! It had good flavor and Wes really liked it, so I would definitely make it again I'll just be more careful with the tomatoes!

Here is the direct link to Summer-In-Winter Chicken.

Teriyaki Pork Stir-Fry

This is another tasty low fat recipe from Pampered Chef's It's Good For You cookbook. Once the meat is marinated this recipe is super quick to make, so it's a great workday meal. You could make the marinade in the morning, then just throw the pork into it as soon as you get home. The meat only needs to marinade for 15 minutes.

I used to follow the recipe to the letter, but one day I went to the store and they didn't have fresh snow peas, but instead had mange tout (is that the same as a snow pea?) and baby corn, so I got that instead. You know, that kind of thing. I never thought I liked those little baby corn, but well, I do. Why? Because I love all things corn. Tesco has these great stir-fry packs and I love the variety of vegetables that now go onto this stir-fry.

The original recipe calls for red pepper flake, but since the fresh pepper is included in the pack I use that now. I love this recipe with brown rice. It really does give it a nice nutty flavor, but white rice is a fine substitute. The cookbook suggests substituting chicken if you don't like pork. I have made it both ways and both are great!

Teriyaki Pork Stir-Fry

2/3 c reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp peeled, finely chopped fresh gingerroot (I use the Very Lazy stuff that comes in a jar)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, or 2 tsp chopped fresh pepper, veined and deseeded
1 lb boneless pork loin chops, cut into 1/8-in strips
2 c uncooked rice, preferably brown
1 medium red bell pepper, cut into 1/4-in strips
6 oz fresh snow peas, trimmed (or any stir-fry combo you like)
1 bunch green onions with tops, cut into 1-in pieces (about 6-8)
1 tsp sesame oil, divided
1 can (8 oz) bamboo shoots, drained

1. In a medium-sized dish, combine soy sauce, brown sugar, and cornstarch; whisk until blended. Add the chopped gingerroot, garlic, and red pepper.

2. Slice the pork into 1/8-in thick strips. Add pork to soy sauce mixture; toss to coat. Cover; refrigerate at least 15 minutes to marinate.

3. Cut the bell pepper into 1/4-in strips and cut green onions into 1-in pieces. Start cooking the rice according to package directions.

4. Heat 1/2 tsp of the oil in a large skillet or wok until hot. Remove pork from marinade using a slotted spoon; add to skillet, reserving marinade. Stir fry a few minutes or until pork is no longer pink. Remove from skillet and keep warm.

5. Heat remaining 1/2 tsp oil in same skillet. Add bell pepper, the stir fry vegetables, and green onions. Stir fry 2-3 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Return pork to skillet. Stir in reserved marinade and bamboo shoots. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir 1 minute or until sauce is thickened. Serve over rice.

Pampered Chef says this makes 6 servings, but I'd say it makes 4-5 depending on who is eating it.

Enjoy!

Sausage and Peppers Pasta

This is one of Wes' most requested dishes. I like to make it because it's hearty, low fat, easy, and there is no way to screw it up. You can adapt the recipe easily if you're feeding a lot of people or there is just two of you.

There's a similar recipe to what I make in the Pampered Chef It's Good For You cookbook. I've changed it a bit, mainly because I can't find hot Italian turkey sausage in Ireland so I had to adapt. I use Marks and Spencer's reduced fat pork sausages, but you can use any sausage you like.I used penne pasta because that's what I had on hand, but I've used rotini and farfalle. Whole wheat pasta also tastes really nice with this. Any short pasta will do!

Sausage and Peppers Pasta

400g uncooked pasta
300g reduced fat sausage (I used 5 links from the M&S pack)
1 each red, yellow, and green pepper cut into large chunks
1 medium onion cut into large chunks
2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
1 can (400g) chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tbsp olive oil
1/8 tsp red pepper flake
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
Salt and black pepper to taste

This will make enough for 4 generous servings. 

1. Chop the garlic and vegetables and put to the side.

2. Heat a large, lidded skillet with the olive oil over medium-high heat. Either cut the sausage into 1 in. pieces or just blob them out of the casings into little 1 in. balls. That's my preferred method. I think the little meatball shapes are cute. I got about 5 blobs from each sausage. Cook the sausage until it's lightly brown on the outside.

3. Once the sausage is brown, throw in all the chopped vegetables. After this cooks for a few minutes, throw in the garlic. If you put it in too early it will burn. Actually, when I made it on this go around I almost forgot to put the garlic in, so it went in after the tomatoes. No problem. Still tasted great!

4. Add the can of tomatoes, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, red pepper flake, salt and pepper. They didn't have chopped tomatoes at the store, so I used peeled whole tomatoes. I just crushed them in my hands as I was pouring them into the pan. If you like really spicy, just add a little more red pepper flake. Stir everything together, put the lid on it, turn it down to medium (or 3 out of 6 on my stove). You'll let this cook for 20 minutes or until the peppers are soft.

5. It takes forever for my stove to heat up, so as soon as I put the lid on this, I start heating up the water to cook the pasta. If you're lucky enough to have a fast stove, wait about 10 minutes to start your water. Follow the directions on the package, but you should cook the pasta al dente since it will soak up some of the sauce. Over cooked pasta is yucky. The sauce can sit for a few minutes with the lid on, so it's better if your sauce finishes before your pasta and not the other way around.

6. Drain the pasta and pour it into the sauce. Stir together well and add the cheese if you'd like.

I serve this with garlic bread I've made using ciabatta bread, chopped garlic, olive oil, and italian seasoning.

Enjoy!