A Delicious Dinner

Dinner was cooking all day today. Well at least part of it.
When I came back home from shopping and running errands the house smelled heavenly of roasted chicken. I finally tried my hand at roasting a whole chicken a few months ago. I'm not a fan of touching raw whole chicken but I finally got over it and just did it. First time I roasted it in the oven and the second time I roasted it in my best friend, the crockpot and I used olive oil instead of butter on the chicken. I was afraid the skin wouldn't brown in the crockpot but it did although the skin does not get as crispy as in the oven but that doesn't matter to me as I don't eat the skin

This time I used butter on the chicken and it didn't seem to brown as well as the olive oil so next time I will go back to the olive oil.

Also maybe the skin didn't brown so much because I kept the crockpot on low. The first time I had the crockpot on high the whole time so it would cook faster. It really was done. The legs just fell apart and the meat was all tender and juicy.

I keep my roasted chicken pretty plain. Butter or olive all over the chicken inside and out then I put two or three slices of a lemon, a sprig of each rosemary and thyme inside the bird cavity and salt and pepper the whole chicken inside and out. Oh, I forgot I added three cloves of garlic to the inside of the chicken this time.
I cut an onion in wedges and put in the bottom of the greased crockpot for the chicken to sit on and to keep it from sticking to the bottom. You should tie the legs together with kitchen string but I did not have any this time. The crockpot kind of helps keep the chicken together because of its small size.

Along with the chicken I wanted roasted vegetables and I found this recipe for roasting them. I kept to the recipe for the most part I just changed the veggies to what I had on hand: sweet potatoes, red potatoes, zucchini, summer squash, red bell papers and yellow onions.

 Love all the pretty colors of the veggies.

 Once the veggies were chopped it was time to get the oil, seasonings and herbs going. The recipe called for 1/4 olive oil but instead I used a sundried tomato and Parmesan garlic flavored olive oil and two Tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper. Mixed this well and chopped up some fresh

 thyme and rosemary and

 added that to the olive oil mixture.

 Next you pour the olive oil mixture over all of the chopped veggies and gentle stir until all the vegetables are completely covered with the oil mixture.

 Here are the vegetables on my Demarle silicon pan all ready for the oven. Set your oven to 450 degrees and put your vegetables in when the oven is preheated. It said to bake 35 to 40 minutes stirring every 10 min. I have a convection oven and I think it cooks faster so I only baked it for 22 min stirring only twice.

 They smelled and looked so yummy when they were done. They were nicely browned too.

 Roasting really brings out the flavor of vegetables especially sweet potatoes. I love roasted sweet potatoes!

 I made the chicken and roasted veggies and my son, Travis cooked up some soaked and sprouted  lentils.  We also had some Ruby Red Kraut to finish off the meal.

The kraut is raw otherwise I wouldn't touch it. I can't stand the smell or taste of cooked cabbage. I also don't care so much for beans to be sprouted (seems like your eating a plant instead of a bean) but you are able to get more nutrients from spouted so I ate them. I actually mixed the lentils with the kraut because there is so much flavor in the kraut and not so much in the lentils so they compliment each other very well. The ruby red kraut is a mixture of cabbage, beets (hence the red color) and carrots. It is naturally fermented and is suppose to help your gut flora and aid digestion.

It was a pretty delicious meal with lots of flavor and color from the veggies and kraut and best of all it is all healthy. The chicken is organic as well as all of the vegetables, lentils and kraut.
Wish we could eat like this every day.

Thanks so much for dropping by!

Teresa

Coconut Blueberry Chia Muffins

About two weeks ago my daughter, Amber and I were in Costco and she spied a bag of coconut flour and saw that it had a recipe for blueberry muffins on the back of the bag. After we looked over the ingredients I said I had everything to make them so we threw the bag of coconut flour into the cart and off  we went excited to get home and make a batch of these healthy for you muffins.

These yummy muffins are gluten and dairy free as well. 

I was short an egg but we were in too much of a hurry to run to the store just for one egg and decided to go with just five and they turned out great. 

The reason for so many eggs is that coconut flour is very thirsty so you need to add more moisture to whatever you are making or it could turn out dry and not hold together well.

 I used my Demarle silicon muffin pan so there were no problems with sticking and...

... they turned out great. Very moist and yummy! They also had a very light coconut flavor.
Everything I used in the recipe was all organic making them even more healthy for us (except the baking soda). No sugar, just honey was used as a sweetener. So we ate them pretty much guilt free! LOL.

 Here is the ingredients on the back of the coconut flour bag and...

...the directions on how to make and bake them.

Wanting another way to use the coconut flour I searched Pinterest and found a recipe for blueberry coconut pancakes. They also turned out great.

Just a note to self: Don't put the fresh blueberries into the batter or in the cakes as they cook. It makes the pancakes too heavy and hard to flip without falling apart. It would be best to sprinkle the blueberries over the pancakes after you cook them up. Delicious either way!

I also had about a cup of Coconut milk left over from making the muffins so one morning I was making a fruit smoothie for breakfast and decided to use coconut milk instead of regular milk. I used 1/3 cup of coconut milk and it turned out delicious by giving the smoothie just a slight coconut flavor. I made another on the next morning and only used a quarter cup of the coconut milk and I couldn't taste any coconut flavor in it at all.

You just don't want to use a lot of coconut milk as it is pretty high in calories. One third cup has 140 calories, but at least they are healthier calories.

I also noticed that when I made my smoothie with the coconut milk it kept me full longer. Usually smoothies don't keep me full very long and I need a snack before my next meal but I think the fat in the coconut milk is what kept me full until lunch time.

Let me know if you try the muffin recipe or if you have other recipes using coconut flour or milk to share. It is so fun to share and learn new things from one another!

Have a great day!

Teresa