Sunday Supping

I'm a big fan of the fix-ahead.  Meals that can be a meal meal on Sunday, and then turn into lunches or dinners for a couple other days a week.

Enter the most cost-efficient three-meal purchase ever for a working couple:  the chicken.

The whole chicken.

Bought on sale for $6.99!  Feed a family!  For days!

I hadn't really attempted a roasted chicken before this year.  I still haven't perfected the roasted chicken.  But what have I realized?  It is really really really hard to screw up a roasted chicken.

Here's what you do.  Take said chicken.  Remove the bags of necks and gizzards, etc that are in the inside.

Cut one lemon in half and one large onion in quarters and stuff into the cavity.

Take 2 tablespoons of olive oil (or butter if you are feeling naughty) and massage it all over the chicken. 

Then mix up your favorite seasonings, I usually stick to salt, pepper, minced garlic and rosemary and massage more on top of your buttery massage.

Roast in a preheated 350 degree oven for 2-2.5 hours, looking for juices to run clear.  Baste occasionally with the butter or olive oil you used for the rubbing.

Chicken Before:

Chicken After:

Or you can crockpot it on low while you are at work!  Just put a couple of balled up pieces of aluminum foil in the bottom of your crock so it doesn't get greasy.   You won't get the crispy skin this way, but you also won't have to hang out for 2 hours waiting for it to cook.

And the fabulous thing about roasted chicken?  After you eat its falling off the bone deliciousness... shred the rest of the leftover chicken.  Use in quesadillas the next night.  And on top of salads for lunch the day after that.

THREEMEAL!

Something Fishy

I am a fish convert.

Still don't eat the white fish, or anything that comes in a Gorton's box.

But I avoided cooking fish, shrimp, crab, anything "stinky" at my home for the 1st 12 years of my independent living.  I didn't want the smell.  In my head, it was going to smell like that every time I walked in my door for the next 72 hours.

But I realized that no family can live on chicken and pork recipes alone.  Particularly no family that is trying to eat somewhat healthy

Enter, my foolproof "sweet chili salmon" recipe adapted from a recipe I cribbed from the Food Network site.  And the best part?  It involves buying a bottle of Frank's Sweet Chili Sauce, which I almost always have a coupon for, and is on sale once every four weeks at my grocery store.  (Remind me to tell you what I've learned about sales cycles and coupling them with coupons some other day).

What you need?
- Nonstick veggie oil
- half a bottle of Frank's Sweet Chili Sauce
- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon of ground ginger (or 1 tablespoon of fresh ginger, but that's too fancy for me)
- 2-4 salmon "logs" (I know they aren't called logs, but I don't know what else to call them)

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, spray with vegetable oil.

Combine sweet chili sauce, soy sauce and ginger and pour over the salmon.

Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Turn on broiler.

Put salmon in. 

Cook 7-9 minutes on broil.

Eat with some green vegetable.

My recipes?  They are idiot proof.