Scrumptious Saturday

Cleaning out the freezer and refrigerator was necessary this week due to a food delivery.  Yes, our favorite grocer delivers.  They deliver fresh, organic, healthy and not so healthy food for our family (as long as it is a big enough order.)  

So I started looking through the fridge...yes old rice from earlier in the week...cranberries my sister had given me from her friends' bog...beets, but of course...and in the freezer...what meat is taking up the most room...well it would have to be that roasting chicken from the pick 8 I ordered from the butchers a few months ago (yes 8 choices of meat...about 50 pounds has lasted us months...there is still plenty of it frozen in the chest freezer and the fridge freezer.)  

And through this, I pieced together dinner...nothing miraculous...nothing to write home about as my grandmother would have said...just a hearty scrumptious meal to be shared with my family.

Scraps for dinner

or

Your Own Personal Pot Luck Dinner!

clockwise from top...chicken...cranberry sauce...rice...roasted beets.

I mixed my Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and a bit extra oregano with some sea salt and pepper.  I coated the chicken with the seasonings under the skin as well as on top.  I then also brushed lemon juice and olive oil all over the whole chicken and poured about a quarter cup of lemon juice into the cavity...this lends a lot of flavor.  Preheat the oven to 450 and roast the chicken for about 45 minutes and then lower the temperature to 350 for about 45 minutes to an hour depending on the size of the bird.  Pull out of the oven and let sit for about 15 minutes (while you finish the beets.)

With the leftover seasonings from the chicken (unused as  not to be contaminated by the chicken meat) I made roasted beets.  Just wash and trim about a pound of beets and rub with a little olive oil and place them in the oven with the chicken  for the first 45 minutes...remove them from the oven and let them cool down.  They should be tender.  The skins should just slip right off...slip them off, chop them into bit sized pieces and then toss with a little more olive oil and the seasonings....cook for another 15 minutes while the chicken rests.

And the cranberry sauce...well that is simple enough...Just 3 cups cranberries still frozen...one cup water...one cup sweetener (or a little less...honey and sugar work well at a 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup ratio only using 3/4 of a cup)  Bring it to a boil and boil until it looks like jelly...put it in the fridge to cool.

Heat up whatever little tidbits you have in the fridge to round out the meal...and what have you got...a cleaned out fridge, dinner, and a scrumptious delight!

Scrumptious Saturday

Camera down...no pictures. I am sorry.

This week I made something yummy.

I made...

Stuffed Chicken

2 stalks celery

1/2 an onion

Bell's seasoning (taste varies...I use lots, it's poultry seasoning at it's best in my humble opinion.)

salt

pepper

1/4th loaf of bread ripped into quarter sized pieces.

1/4 cup butter

Milk (not sure how much)

2 lbs boneless chicken breast (leftovers are intentional in this case) skin is up to you.

Melt butter in a skillet.  Add the onion and celery.  Saute until soft.  Take off heat.  Put bread into a large bowl and add veggies and any butter in the pan.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and bell's seasoning.  Pour in milk until everything is firm but wet.  Cut breasts to make a pocket (horizontally about 3/4th of the way through)  Shove stuffing in and place on an oiled cookie sheet stuffing up.  Cover and bake at 400 for about 45 min (internal temp of 170) taking the cover off for the last 15 min to let it brown up a little.  We had green beans from the freezer with it, and that's that.

I was able to source everything pretty locally...the grain was raised just north of here to make the bread.  The chicken was raised also just north of here.  The celery and onion came from a local farmer, and the butter came from the Amish community near here.  The milk came from a little west of here.  And the Bell's seasoning is from away...sorry I have to import it on my journey to visit my family.  It's that good.  Salt and Pepper...it also comes from away as does my yeast for the bread (but the honey in it is local.)