Cooking a whole chicken. Excuse me if you "don't eat no meat!"

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Today is the first time I bought and am going to bake a whole chicken; skin, bones and all.  I asked my facebook fans for advice and some chimed in with amazing recipes and tips:

• " I like stuffing mine with lemon and thyme and roasting with root veggies around it."
• "Use plenty of fresh herbs and put lemons on the bottom of the pan. Also, I cook mine at a higher temperature to get it crispy. 400 degrees for an hour."
• Simple recipe where they do not use butter:  Her advice "watch out for your smoke detector b/c of the high temp... Also get twine and truss it! (this video is helpful)"
• Herb Roasted Chicken Recipe
• "Boil it and make chicken noodle soup. Its easy, just labor intensive. "
• " I like to have a thin layer of water on the bottom of the pan too - keeps it moist  and baste, baste, baste!"
• "Stuff it with lemon. Put sea salt, fresh ground pepper and a little bit of olive oil on top."
• "I was scared the first time I cooked a whole chicken too but it's super easy. I use Ina Garten's recipe. Also I don't eat the skin (and I'm guessing you don't either) so I cook it breast side down and it stays super moist!"
• Roast Chicken Magic, their secret is Citrus!

I have decided to cook my chicken tomorrow because I will not get home until 7:30 tonight and my chicken will not be ready until 8:30pm, which is kinda late for me.  Because I have the chicken today, but am not going to cook until tomorrow, I am thinking about brining the chicken in order to make it super moist. Have you ever tried this? Does it work?

I am looking forward to my adventure today when I brine, and tomorrow when I cook. I have no problem (usually) eating a nice cleaned chicken breast, but when it comes to touching the raw chicken it kinda grosses me out... anyone else?!  EW I am flinching just thinking about it. I have to over come my fear of raw chicken and cook it. I am going to cook it like a CHAMP!

One of my favorite movie scenes from My Big Fat Greek Wedding! Skip to 4:15 for the "eat no meat" reference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3N5V9ml2VU

Cabbage, kale, white bean, carrot, celery and brown basmati rice soup!

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I love making soups. Soups are usually easy to make and are a nice low calorie option to keep you warm during the cold winter months!

This soup does not look great, but it tastes great. I put this soup together myself, so no recipe followed. You can tweak the measurements if you feel necessary. This recipe makes a lot of soup. So cut in half if you wish to make a smaller batch! As I was writing this blog I realized that I need to do a better job at recording my measurements for people who like to cook with measured amounts of seasonings and such, which hmm is probably most people. Sorry I'll do a better job next time!

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Ingredients:

• half head of white cabbage (fist time I used it in a soup and I love it!)
• 3 carrot sticks
• 3 stalks of celery
• 1/2 onion (I left this out, but you can add!)
• Kale- 5 leafs? I am not really sure but that sounds about right.  You can use more or less.
• White beans (I used raw white kidney beans and then cooked them myself, you can grab a can if you wish)

• 1cup of basmati rice (you can use regular brown rice, or you can totally leave this out)
• 6 cups chicken or veggy broth (for soup) I know so MUCH. you can add half water half stalk.
• garlic, minced about 2 tbs
•  salt to taste (don't be afraid to add it. Mine did not have enough)
•  pepper to taste
• EVOO- 2tbs, add more if needed
• dried thyme to taste. I added a lot. It was so good. Don't be afraid
• Cumin (if you wish)

Directions:

• First I dealt with the raw beans.  I brought 1 cup of white kidney beans to a boil took it off the heat and let it sit for an hour as I was prepping the soup.  This allows the beans to soften a bit.
• dice the carrots, celery, and onion
• Slice the cabbage in little strips, you do not need to make the strips small but try to not have them too thick.
• In a pot add some EVOO and mix in some garlic, let is sizzle a little then add in diced onions, cabbage, carrots and celery. Mix for about 4-5 minutes on medium heat. You will slowly see all of your veggies shrink. Mostly the cabbage.

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• Add in your 6 cups of broth,white beans and kale. Mix and then let it sit uncovered until it comes to a boil.

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• Lower heat to "Low" and let it cook for (SHOOT I didnt time it but this is an estimate) about 45minutes-1hour. Mix every 20 minutes. You should test and just feel it out. When veggies seem cooked, you are done! Take off heat and enjoy.
• **As your soup is cooking, make your brown rice. Then mix into soup at the very end. This is optional. I did it and find the soup more filling.

Black Bean Hummus, make your own at home!

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Its easy! We know that hummus is made from ground chickpeas... so how hard can this be, right? I did not have tahini so this is a tahini free hummus. The only thing is that you need a food processor. Mine is about 40 years old, probably. It was my grandmas and she gave it to me, but it works like a charm! Cuisinart, baby!

* Tahini is roasted sesame seed paste. It is actually really good.

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Ingredients:

1 can black beans

1 can garbanzo beans

2 garlic cloves (you can do one if you do not love garlic)

1 jalapeño pepper (mine was spicy- so do a half or none if you do not like "heat")

half  lemon

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoon EVOO

cumin, salt, pepper to taste (I didn't measure I  just kinda added it in)

Directions:

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Add all ingredients to food processor, blend until smooth. I made sure to mince the garlic and Jalapaneo pepper before I put in blender.  If the final product looks too thick add more water and blend again. Enjoy with carrot sticks, or pita chips.

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Let me know if you try, and how it comes out!

root vegetables galore

ROOTS!

My mom once made this baked root vegetable dish, and it was quite awesome. Today we spent the morning together and decided to go to Russo's (an amazing produce place in Watertown, MA) and get everything we needed to make the "Root Vegetable Galore"!

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Ingredients: (pictured from left to right)

• parsnips (eh it was OK)
• sweet potato
• jicama (never baked it, but SO good!!)
• carrots
• turnips
• celery root
• beets
• fingerling potatoes
• kohlrabi (forgot to get in "root vegetable shot", but separate image  is down below)
• garlic
• onion
• EVOO
• salt and pepper
• rosemary (optional)

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directions:

• pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
• peel and wash vegetables (no need to peel fingerling potatoes)
• cut vegetables into cubes ( not too small, cut the beets a little smaller as they usually take longer to cook)
• cut onions into small slivers
• peel garlic and keep whole
• cover everything with  EVOO,  add salt and pepper to taste. Mix around to make sure all is coated *when it comes to the beets, mix them in a separate container, then add to the mixture. Beets will discolor everything!
• place vegetables, onions and garlic on a large baking pan and spread out

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• bake at 400 degrees for about an hour. Mix around vegetables every 25 minutes. Each oven cooks differently, so use your own digression. Vegetables should be tender and delicious!  ENJOY!

Below we have kohlrabi. I have never cooked with this vegetable before, but it is great!

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Make sure you take off the stems and peel before you cut it.

If you make this dish let me know how it goes and if you made any changes! XO

The best GUILT FREE spaghetti

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So I am not much of a pasta person. I lived in the North End, Boston (aka little Italy) for 2 years; I ate at a local Italian restaurant ONCE! People always tell me I should try Spaghetti Squash.  I finally came across this "spaghetti squash" at Trader Joes, and was excited to experiment and cook with this new found vegetable. I decided to make Spaghetti squash topped with an abundance of julienne cut vegetables, mozzarella, garlic and EVOO.

To start I cut the squash in half the long way and placed it in water and boiled it for about 20-30 minutes. I used thongs to take the squash out of the water and let it cool off a little before stringing.

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While the squash was boiling I julienne cut one red pepper, one yellow zucchini and one green zucchini, all with the help from a special peeler. Next time I will add some carrots!

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I warmed up a pan with EVOO and fresh crushed garlic. After the garlic simmered for a bit I added the julienne veggies and gave it a little toss. By this time the Squash was ready for the fun part... stringing!

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You have to string the squash the long way. It can be hot so be careful! Don't forget about the veggies... keep mixing!

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In order to spice up the veggies I added grape tomatoes cut in half, diced fresh mozzarella cheese, and a medley of ground up spices. It was such a filling dish, and I can not even begin to describe how buttery and delicious the squash tasted. I kept saying, "is there butter in this"? The best part it was ALL veggies!

Other methods to cook the squash:

Bake

 about an hour in the oven at 375 F.

Microwave

 10 to 12 minutes, then let stand for 5 minutes or so afterward to finish steaming.

Boil

 for about half an hour.

Slow Cooker/Crock Pot:

 Put it in with a cup of water and let it go on low all day (8 to 10 hours).

How do you make your spaghetti squash?