I can't help but think about the importance of having a variety of colors in your diet. My family and I will have a very colorful menu this week! Greens of every shade, reds, oranges and yellows. Beautiful and delicious!
I've had several of you tell me how much you love spinach. I've also had a few clients share how they don't want to spend more than 30 minutes preparing dinner every day. I am incorporating both in some of this weeks menus with raviolis and spinach lasagna.
I think we've all probably thawed out some frozen raviolis mid week in order to make a quick and yummy meal. I'm all for quick and delicious any day of the week. I just recommend raviolis that are organic or natural and not full of preservatives and sodium. I also encourage you to go outside the every day jar of sauce to put over it and try something different, healthy and easy like fresh vegetables, or the simple butter, pine nuts, and Parmesan recipe that is a staple in my house. One of my kids favorite foods is pine nuts. I could toast these and sprinkle them on just about anything and they'll be happy.
The cool weather and the fresh clean breezes are reminding me how nice it smells when a chicken is roasting in the oven. I think I'll cook a whole chicken on Sunday for a traditional "Sunday dinner" feel and use the leftovers all week. Roasting a chicken is surprisingly easy and far more economical than buying one (full of sodium) at the market (although in a pinch these do just fine for weeknight chicken needs).
Please feel free to post your comments and food practice needs in the comment box below and I'll see how I can incorporate them in the menus as we go along...Happy Fall, and enjoy the colors this week - try eating a new color each day this week!
Sunday
I like Thomas Keller's Roasted Chicken recipe from his book AD Hoc at home. This recipe includes roasted vegetables but you can cook alone. Buy a bigger chicken if you want leftovers...this really does serve only 4. You could also serve the collard greens sauteed with some garlic with this meal.
The chicken must be at room temperature before it goes in the oven, or the chicken will not cook evenly. What Keller recommends is leave the chicken in the refrigerator, uncovered (on a plate and not touching anything else in the fridge), for 1-2 days after buying it, so that the skin gets a bit dried out. It will roast up crispier this way. Then 1 1/2 to 2 hours before it goes in the oven, put it on a plate on the kitchen counter to come to room temp (about 70 degrees). I buy the chicken with the neck and giblets removed from the cavity of the chicken. Ingredients
- One 4 to 4 1/2 pound chicken
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 6 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
- 6 thyme sprigs
- 3 medium-sized rutabagas ends cut and discarded, rutabagas peeled, and any outer tough layer discarded, then rutabagas cut into 3/4-inch wedges
- 2 medium-sized turnips, prepared the same way as the rutabagas
- 4 medium-sized carrots, peeled and cut in 2-inch segments
- 1 small yellow onion, peeled, roots cut off but core kept intact 8 small red-skinned new potatoes
- About 1/3 cup olive oil or grape seed oil
- 4 Tbsp butter, room temperature
- A large (11-inch if you have it) cast-iron frying pan
- Kitchen string
1 Preheat oven to 475°F.
2 Use a paring knife to cut away the wishbone from the neck/breast area of the chicken. You will probably have to use your fingers to feel around for it. This is a little bit tricky, but if you can remove the wishbone first, it will make the chicken easier to carve after it is cooked. (This ease of future carving is the only reason to take the bone out, so you can leave it in if you want.)
3 Generously season the cavity of the chicken with salt and pepper. Add three of the garlic cloves and 5 sprigs of the thyme to the cavity, using your hands to rub the thyme and garlic all around the cavity.
4 Truss the chicken with kitchen string. To do so, start by cutting a 3-foot section of cotton kitchen string. Place the chicken so that it is breast up, and the legs pointing toward you. Tuck the wing tips under the chicken. Wrap the string under the neck end of the bird, pulling the string ends up over the breast, toward you, plumping up the breast. Then cross the string under the breast (above the cavity and between the legs). Wrap each end around the closest leg end, and tie tightly so that the legs come together.
5 Place the vegetables, onions, garlic, and remaining thyme sprig into a bowl. Add 1/4 cup of olive oil (or grape seed or canola oil) and toss with your hands until well coated. Season generously with salt and pepper.
6 Slather the chicken with oil and season well with salt and pepper.
7 Create a bed of the root vegetables in a large cast iron pan (or use a regular roasting pan if you don't have a cast iron pan.) My father likes to leave out the potatoes at this stage and arrange them around the chicken. Place the chicken on the bed of vegetables. Slather the top of the chicken breasts with butter.
8 Place the pan in the oven and roast the chicken for 25 minutes at 475°F. Then reduce the heat to 400°F and roast for an additional 45 minutes, or until the thickest part of the thigh registers 160°F on a meat thermometer and the juices run clear.
9 Transfer the chicken to a cutting board, cover with aluminum foil and let rest for 20 minutes before carving to serve. You can keep the vegetables warm by keeping them in the now-turned-off oven while the chicken is resting. Stir to coat the vegetables with the cooking juices before serving
10 Cut the chicken into serving pieces. Place vegetables on a serving platter with the chicken pieces arranged on top.
Serves 4.
2 Use a paring knife to cut away the wishbone from the neck/breast area of the chicken. You will probably have to use your fingers to feel around for it. This is a little bit tricky, but if you can remove the wishbone first, it will make the chicken easier to carve after it is cooked. (This ease of future carving is the only reason to take the bone out, so you can leave it in if you want.)
3 Generously season the cavity of the chicken with salt and pepper. Add three of the garlic cloves and 5 sprigs of the thyme to the cavity, using your hands to rub the thyme and garlic all around the cavity.
4 Truss the chicken with kitchen string. To do so, start by cutting a 3-foot section of cotton kitchen string. Place the chicken so that it is breast up, and the legs pointing toward you. Tuck the wing tips under the chicken. Wrap the string under the neck end of the bird, pulling the string ends up over the breast, toward you, plumping up the breast. Then cross the string under the breast (above the cavity and between the legs). Wrap each end around the closest leg end, and tie tightly so that the legs come together.
5 Place the vegetables, onions, garlic, and remaining thyme sprig into a bowl. Add 1/4 cup of olive oil (or grape seed or canola oil) and toss with your hands until well coated. Season generously with salt and pepper.
6 Slather the chicken with oil and season well with salt and pepper.
7 Create a bed of the root vegetables in a large cast iron pan (or use a regular roasting pan if you don't have a cast iron pan.) My father likes to leave out the potatoes at this stage and arrange them around the chicken. Place the chicken on the bed of vegetables. Slather the top of the chicken breasts with butter.
8 Place the pan in the oven and roast the chicken for 25 minutes at 475°F. Then reduce the heat to 400°F and roast for an additional 45 minutes, or until the thickest part of the thigh registers 160°F on a meat thermometer and the juices run clear.
9 Transfer the chicken to a cutting board, cover with aluminum foil and let rest for 20 minutes before carving to serve. You can keep the vegetables warm by keeping them in the now-turned-off oven while the chicken is resting. Stir to coat the vegetables with the cooking juices before serving
10 Cut the chicken into serving pieces. Place vegetables on a serving platter with the chicken pieces arranged on top.
Serves 4.
Uses: Collard Greens
Monday
Garlicky Spinach Lasagna with red butter leaf salad
Tip: This can be made ahead and frozen
Uses: Red Leaf lettuce, spinach
Tuesday
Tip: Use the chicken from Sunday's leftovers
Uses: Green peppers, top with tomatoes too
Wednesday
Leftovers
Thursday
Ravioli's with pine nuts and peas. Sauteed carrots with dill. You can toast your pine nuts in the toaster oven or oven with a little olive oil or saute in a pan. I like to add salt, pepper and a little red pepper flakes to them. They would also be great sauteed with some of this week's fresh dill too. They burn easily so be careful it only takes a few minutes.
For the carrots - dice up a bunch of scallions(white part only) and saute them (use the same pan as the pine nuts) till they brown up a bit in a couple tablespoons of butter. (This one place I'll use butter rather than olive oil). Slice up a bunch of carrots into coin shapes and saute them in the butter till they are golden and browning then add 2-3 tablespoons of dill, mix and serve. Simple, colorful and delicious.
Uses: Dill
Friday
Homemade pizza night
Saturday
Night off
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