Breakfast Lunch and Dinner Sandwich

I may be too addicted to Pinterest. I love seeing everyone's awesome ideas, especially when it comes to food. My inspiration for this sandwich came from a photo I saw on Pinterest; however, I was too lazy to find the recipe (as it wasn't attached to the pin) so I made it up.

The results were wonderful! We will definitely be eating these again.

Ingredients:
Eggs- 1 per sandwich
Bread - I used Italian
Tomatoes - sliced
Bacon - at least 2 slices per sandwich
Lettuce
Sliced Cheese - I used Provolone
1 Avocado- sliced
Mayo
Dijon Mustard
1 Onion sliced thinly
Olive oil

First get the bacon cooking. I did mine in the microwave because I was in a hurry. The best way to cook bacon is to bake it in the oven, it gets really crispy and if you have a rack you can get rid of some of the fat (I know its bacon, why get rid of the fat). Just set the oven to 425 and place the bacon in a vessel with sides (unless you want bacon fat ALL over your oven, and plumes of acrid smoke to fill your kitchen.)

Once the bacon is cooking saute the onions in a little olive oil until soft and a little caramelized. Set those aside.

Fry the eggs. Oddly enough in 25 years of living I had never fried an egg, I broke the yolk flipping the first one, then had to cut the second in half when I thought it was done to see if it was (it should ooze but the white should be completely cooked) so i wasted two eggs. The trick is to lube the pan up really well with olive oil or cooking spray, and only turn the egg once.

Lastly butter one side of all the bread. and place them in a frying pan over high heat (butter side down). I reused my pan from cooking the eggs. Half of the bread you are just frying the one side. The other half, once it is in the pan, add a piece of cheese to the top to melt.

Assembly! The bread with no cheese gets a healthy dose of mustard and mayo, then add your avocado, bacon, tomato, lettuce, egg and finally the cheesy bread. Slice in half and serve.

They were wonderful! and really could be eaten any time of day.

Whole Roast Lemon Chicken with Vegetables

Roasting a whole chicken can seem intimidating, but it can also make for an easy inexpensive dinner and the beginning of many extra meals with the left overs. I try to only purchase whole chickens when they are on sale (they can get down to about $0.39 a lb!) then I purchase a few and freeze them. For some reason this is a huge crowd pleaser and people always think its really difficult and impressive. It's pretty simple and awesome comfort food. Plus it is a 1 pan meal.

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken (remove any giblets or organs inside and toss) rinsed and patted dry
salt
pepper
1-2 tsp Italian seasoning (if you have fresh rosemary, thyme, and oregano you can use that as well, diced fine)
2 large lemons
olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic minced
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 large onion chopped
1-2 handfuls baby carrots
2 medium potatoes washed well and chopped into bite size pieces.
large roasting pan (I line mine with foil for easy clean up)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
After you have rinsed the chicken tie the legs together and place in the pan breast up.

Rub a liberal splash of olive oil over the chicken and season the chicken liberally with salt and pepper. Next sprinkle your Italian seasoning or fresh herbs, onion powder and minced garlic on to the chicken. You can also season under the skin for an extra boost of flavor. to do this lift the skin at the back (where you have tied the legs) and run your fingers underneath. The skin should separate from the breasts fairly easily. You can then rub olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and spices under the skin (use about half of the spices under the skin and half on top.

Then slice 1 lemon and cut the second in half. Take 1 half lemon and squeeze the juice over the top of the chicken (careful for seeds). Place the other half of the lemon inside the chicken. Then lay the slices of lemon on top of the chicken.

Add all of your veggies to the pan around the chicken. You can season them however you like, or leave them out if you don't want them.

Place the pan in the oven.
At this point I insert my handy dandy Polder thermometer and set it to tell me when the temp inside the chicken has hit 165 degrees. (place the probe deep into one breast to give the most accurate reading.

 Don't have a fancy thermometer and want one? Get it here:
 http://www.amazon.com/Polder-Original-Cooking-Timer-Thermometer/dp/B0000CF5MT/ref=sr_1_17?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1329781902&sr=1-17

If you dont have a thermometer then the rule of thumb for cooking whole chicken is 20 minutes per pound plus 20 minutes. So a 4 pound chicken would need 100 minutes to cook.

To test if it is done pierce the chicken breast just above and in front of the widest part of the leg. The juice should run yellow/clear not pink or red if it is done.

When the chicken is done remove it from the oven and let it sit on the counter in the pan covered for 15 min. Resting the meat keeps the chicken juicy.

Next carve the chicken: starting at the front of the breast cut down and away from the top of the chicken. Also remove the legs by pulling up on the drumstick and slicing through the joint near the body. (between the leg and thigh). Use a fork to steady as you are cutting.

Once you have enjoyed your tasty chicken dinner. You can remove all the remaining meat and save for chicken pot pies, chicken soup, chicken salad, fajitas etc. I typically just pick the remaining meat off with clean fingers and store it in a ziplock. The bones/carcass can also be used to make soup stock; just boil with chopped veggies of your choosing until reduced by half. Strain well.

Happy Eating :)

Quick Minestrone Soup

I love soup. Its easy to make, comforting and tasty. What I don't like about soup is how expensive each can of Campbells is and the amount of sodium that tiny can contains.

So the other day on a whim I decided I was making a huge batch of soup to freeze. It turned out to be way easier than I imagined. And, the ultimate upside was that I could remove the "yucky" items that end up left at the bottom of my bowl.

Quick Minestrone:
1 can veggie broth (you could use chicken or beef if you want)
2 cans diced tomatoes with juices
2 cans water
1 cup frozen chopped onions
1 can sliced potatoes drained(I cut mine up even further by slicing the knife through them while in the can)
1 can white or great northern beans
1 can kidney beans
2 cups noodles (i used small shells)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp Italian seasoning

you could add as many other veggies as you wanted or substitute canned with fresh. other common veggies for minestrone are zucchini, carrots and peas


Dump everything in the pot and simmer over low heat until the pasta cooks through.

This can be served right away or saved and frozen. I went a step further and "concentrated" mine. I let it cook longer until there the liquid no longer covered the tops of the veggies. I then separated it out into servings for 2 and froze it. If you choose this method just add 1 1/2 cup (or more or less to taste) when you reheat.

Sorry no photo today :(