Tag Archives: food

Roasted Chicken and Some Other Deliciousness

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Gooooood Morning!

I have to say that I’ve been so excited to get back into a routine and now that I’m finally getting there, all I miss is sleeping in! I just have to make up for it with weekend napping.

Anyhooo. Last night I ran to the grocery store after work and decided to roast a whole chicken. I got this recipe from a good friend of mine. I cooked her dinner one night and we got to talking and trading recipes. This one has withstood the test of an amateur cook (me!).

The organic chicken I bought was $12 for 3 lb at our local Kroger’s (it’s like Stop and Shop or Vons). It’s rather expensive but so worth it for the lack of toxins, mistreatment, and better taste! And roasting a whole chicken is really cost-effective. The 3lb I bought will last us at least three days with chicken for one meal a day.

NOTE: the recipe seems long but it’s SO easy and has very basic, very flexible ingredients.

Ingredients for the chicken:

one whole, organic chicken (if frozen, let thaw for 24 hours)

few sprigs of rosemary, chopped into 2 inch pieces

half a lemon

1 tbsp sea salt and 1 tsp ground pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 garlic bulb

Additional, optional ingredients:

sweet potatoes

normal potatoes

butternut squash

broccoli

onion

bell pepper

Prep the Chicken:

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Remove the innards if they came with the chicken (this is the grossest part). Place chicken on a baking pan. Cut 4 or 5 tears in chicken skin and stuff some chopped rosemary and a garlic clove in each one. In a small glass mix sea salt and pepper, olive oil, juice from lemon (save the skin), and rest of the garlic. Use your hands to rub the scrub mixture into the chicken. Flip it over to get the underside as well. Stuff the bum of the chicken with the used lemon skins and more rosemary.

Add the fun stuff: 

I also bought a butternut squash and some potatoes and had some leftover onions in the fridge. I’d never cooked with squash so I was kind of nervous but I just went for it. Cut your add ons into bite sized pieces and scatter them around the edges of the chicken. No need to season, everything you just put on the chicken will make it SO delicious.

^ The chicken and add ons before roasting. Don’t put it on wax paper, it ended up sticking.

To Roast:

Scroll down to find “Roasting Temperatures and Times”: http://www.helpwithcooking.com/cooking-poultry/roast-chicken.html < I definitely keep the temp at 450° for the first 10 minutes then lower it for the rest of the cooking time. You can pretty much leave it alone after that.

I regret to inform you that I was so excited about the chicken that I didn’t take a picture before carving it. But here it is all plated with cabbage salad (not so yummy)! Mike and I both agreed that it was delicious. And the squash turned out better than I could have imagined.

^Bon a petit! *from now on pictures will be taken on a real camera instead of my iPhone. no more blurriness.

Yummy Breakfast in 10 minutes

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This morning I woke up 10 minutes before my alarm. So instead of dawdling like I would normally, I made Mike and I a delicious “to-go” breakfast.

Ingredients:

4 eggs

3 potatoes, chopped to home fry size (this leaves enough for leftovers)

1/4 onion, chopped

handful of spinach

splash of milk (I used almond milk)

coconut oil (most other common cooking oil, including olive oil, turns rancid at high heat)

salt and pepper

Instructions:

Heat pan with a little bit of coconut oil. Saute onion and spinach on medium heat until spinach is wilted. While that stuff is cooking, beat together eggs and milk. When spinach has wilted, add eggs, salt, and pepper. Scramble in pan until eggs are cooked. Put the eggs in a Tupperware and cover but don’t bother washing the pan yet (it’s a waste of water).

Heat pan again to high heat with approx. 1 tablespoon of coconut oil. Add chopped potatoes. Fry them in the pan until cooked just a little crunchy on the inside. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and any other spices you think would taste good (I learned to smell the food cooking then smell the spices; if the smells combine well, so will the spices). Add the mostly cooked potatoes to the Tupperware and cover. The moisture in the Tupperware will saturate the potatoes and make them soft when you’re ready to eat them.

It’s yummy to reheat but I try to avoid microwaves because they suck all the nutrients out of the food. So maybe just eat it at your desk when you get to work?

Hope you’re all having happy days!

Airport Eating

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Today I am slowly making my way back to Peoria from San Diego. Yesterday we spent 8 hours in the car driving from Santa Cruz and today I will spend 11 hours on planes and in airports. Those of you that can’t afford flying direct everywhere you go will understand how time-consuming travel can be. I feel like I could have driven to Peoria faster!

Anyone that has traveled through airports knows how difficult it can be to make healthy eating decisions. Everything is either very unhealthy or very expensive. The other problem is that you never know when you will have the chance to eat again. What, if anything, will be offered on the plane? What if my flight is delayed and I don’t have time to check out eating options during my layover? I’m not particularly hungry now but what if I get ravenous  in the middle of my five airborne hours?

Here are some facts that we all know but don’t much think about when we’re stressed and getting ready to fly:

– there will ALWAYS be food available

–  you are going to be hungry during the flight but it may just be because you’re bored

– it may just be necessary to choose the lesser of the evils

I am a little ashamed to say that I completely forgot all of these rules this morning. I was in a big rush before I left the house so was forced to get breakfast to eat on the plane. Instead of grabbing a piece of fruit to stave off the hunger until my next layover, I chowed down a croissant with egg, cheese, and ham. On the plus side I felt like crap within ten minutes and remembered, as I have to every once in a while, that its better to be a little hungry than put that gluten, dairy, and processed meat into my system.

So I have forgiven myself for that little slip up and here are some tips for you (and me) to follow from here on out:

1. Try as hard as possible to pack some easy food in a Tupperware to bring on the plane. It can add bulk to your carry-on but it only gets smaller as your day goes on! Also, it’s so much cheaper. For example: chopped raw veggies, popcorn chips, raw nuts, a sandwich (I do Udi’s gluten-free bread with almond butter and natural jelly), and a couple of pieces of fruit.

2. If you can’t pack food and are in a big rush, grab a few quick, unprocessed (if possible) things from whatever places are available. Stagger them throughout your trip so you’re never too full and never really hungry. For example: a salad or veggie platter if you can afford it, raw almonds, popcorn chips, fruit, etc. The closer to raw, the better.

^ There is always a news stand to pick up some quick eats.

 

^ The lesser of the evils but they always come in huge packages! Make sure you eat them in small portions and just save some for home.

3. If you’re having a long day of travel and want to sit down for a meal, choose something green and leafy, or if you just aren’t in the mood for salad, make sure whatever you eat is not fried. Also include some protein in there. For example: greek salad with grilled chicken, burrito bowl (no tortilla), non-dairy based soup, a burger minus the bun (a lot of places will wrap in lettuce so you can still manhandle it).

 

^ A typical airport meal is often the same price as a few packaged goods from the news stand.

It takes a lot of will power to do these things. With so many options for deliciously bad food and a great seat to sleep for multiple hours, it can be very tempting to chow down. But you will pay for it in more ways than just lethargy and its never really worth it. Being healthy feels so much better than food tastes. And I love food!

Questions: How many of you have struggled with this recently? Did you succumb or hold out? How did you feel after?

Gluten and Other Food Sensitivities

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When my brother was 11, my parents because so confused and frustrated with his lethargy (he never went outside, just sat and played video games) that they took him to the doctor. Every one of the five western medicine doctors they spoke to told my mom that it was “just puberty.” But she kept at it. Finally, through some string of conversations with friends, she was led to Acacia Wellness Center in Solana Beach, CA. They specialize is chiropractic and natural medicine and, as soon as my brother walked through the door, diagnosed him with gluten intolerance.

Gluten is a protein found in processed wheat and related grains. Research is still emerging but, in laymans terms, Gluten intolerance is much milder than Celiac disease but causes a lot of the same symptoms. For the real breakdown, the Wikipedia page is very accurate and comprehensive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten_sensitivity

After administering some tests, the naturopathic doctor concluded that my brother didn’t have Celiac but did have a serious gluten sensitivity. A lot of times, if one family member has it, so do the others.  After more visits and more testing, we found out that every one of us four kids as well as my dad are gluten intolerant. This was when I was 16. So my mom, being incredibly devoted to the health of her family, converted our entire house to gluten-free territory. Pasta became rice pasta, bread was now sprouted wheat bread (like Ezekiel), and baked goods had to be made from scratch from some very expensive ingredients.

^ this is the GF (gluten free) cake my sister made me for graduation. Now there are a bunch of cheap, easy, GF cake-from the box, it’s so delicious.

Thankfully, gluten intolerance has become somewhat common place and most grocery stores carry an array of goods to make our lives easy (the best, by far, is Trader Joes). Cutting out gluten meant that instead of sleeping 12 hours a day like I did in high school (no exaggeration) I could get by on 8 hours. It was incredible! I also lost a ton of weight and gained better muscle function so I was better at sports! But my digestion was still really off. I was still fairly bloated and got cramps after eating certain meals. My mom has a great nutritionist so I went to see her but you can find out what you’re allergic to by keeping a food journal and working to eliminate foods that may be causing your symptoms. My nutritionist and I came to the conclusion that I am also intolerant to cow dairy, red meat, soy, and refined sugar.

That was two years ago. Since then, I’ve pretty much cut all of those ingredients out of my diet although my sweet tooth makes the sugar thing very hard. My apartment is only stocked with food I can eat so my boyfriend get the residual benefits too. In general, he doesn’t mind because I’ve become a pretty good cook. We don’t really eat out too much at restaurants (it saves so much $) but when we do, I usually get a rice based or poultry dish. Contrary to what you may be thinking, I don’t really love salad. I eat it when I feel like something light and to stave of hunger, but I consume my vegetables through juicing, blending, and chopped up snacks mostly. But that’s another post entirely.

^ this is one of my lunch time snacks. Almond butter (the sea salted kind is the best) and Nutella (a little too sugary but that’s all I had) on rice cakes and some salad leftover from last nights dinner. Surprisingly filling and yummy.

But that is another subject that I’d like to have frequently in this blog, eating for specialized diets without feeling like you’re missing anything. It was hard at first but now I actually love my food better than all that processed stuffed! Get excited because there are more recipes to come.

Question: Is anybody else gluten-free? Or suspicious they are? Is anybody interested in trying but not sure how to start? Just ask!