Roasted Chicken

I had a soccer game tonight and I wanted to make something that wasn’t going to be too heavy and that would be semi easy to make…it was a long day for me. So I saw that my mom had bought a chicken, a whole chicken that was about two pounds. It wasn’t cut up or anything so I was thinking on what to do with it.. rotisserie or bake? Since we have already made a rotisserie chicken I figured it was time for something new.

What you need for this recipe is a whole chicken

pepper

salt

lemon pepper

and olive oil

First you have to wash the inside and the outside of the chicken. You should probably use rubber gloves unless you like things like that. So then you clean the chicken out and throw all the insides away, I kept the liver because my parents love them. Then you need to rinse it out again and peel the excess skin off of it. After your chicken is all gutted and clean rub it down with some olive oil. Oh yeah, I should probably tell you to preheat your oven to 375 degrees F on ROAST. So back to rubbing the chicken… after it is all coated in olive oil you want to sprinkle lemon pepper all over it with a little bit of salt. If you want to make it more spice-y then you can add some oregano or basil or any other spices you like. 

Place your 2 pound chicken in a roasting pan and stick it in the oven for an hour. Then 425F for 15 minutes at the end. This will brown the skin and make it a little more firm. When you’re chicken is done roasting take it out and slice it up. Make sure its not too over done. If your chicken is less than 2 pounds then look up the roasting time for the size of your chicken. You do not want to get it too done because then your meat will be too dry and not nice and moist!

With your chicken you can make some beans or you can even make noodles and some red sauce or even white sauce and put the chicken in it too. There are a lot of things you can make with this chicken, I just enjoyed it with some salad So I hope you like this way of making chicken, its kind of like a turkey recipe but with chicken!

fall off the bone baby back ribs

I am not really a fan of ribs. There is too much work that has to go into them. You have to separate them and then eat them off of the bone. Its always such a task and so hard to get all the meat off the bone and sometimes it gets stuck in your teeth and its all just very uncomfortable. I don’t know about you but I had to figure out some rib recipe where the meat falls off the bone and this is it!

It is very simple and if you are a bbq fan you will love this! All you need is

1 full rack of baby back ribs

seasoning- I used montreal and cayenne pepper

olive oil spray

Barbecue sauce 

and some tin foil

preheat your oven to 275 degrees F, while you are waiting for the oven to preheat turn your grill on. Then take your ribs and take the skin that is on the back of the ribs off. It is a really thin skin  and when you cut it off just peel it back and it will come off. Then season your ribs with whatever seasons you want, as it says in the ingredients I used Montreal and Cayenne pepper. Then spray the ribs with olive oil on both sides and put them on the grill on low for 7 minutes on both sides. When this is all done take your ribs and tent them in tin foil. Before you do this, smother them in BBQ sauce. Tenting your ribs is when you literally make the tin foil look like a tent. Now you just have to put them in the oven to bake for 2 hours.

When they are all done all you have to do is cut them into individual ribs and enjoy! The meat on these ribs literally fall off the bone as you are cutting them and eating them. You don’t have to struggle to get all the meat off of the bone it is done for you! Such a great summery recipe and good when you want something easy to make for dinner for more than just yourself! Hope you guys love this recipe! 

apples and oat meal

One of my favorite things to eat during the summer are apples. They are crisp, sour, and sweet and you know what they say “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”. You can put so many things on top of apples to get some extra nutrients and different tastes all in one bite. When I was little my mom used to give me apples with peanut butter, last year my sister started eating apples with cheese, when you go to a sweets shop you can get a carmel apple. But this year I wanted to try something new.

Breakfast is my least favorite meal of the day. I love all of the foods that are associated with breakfast but I still do not like to eat a huge meal right at the start of my day… I know, I’m weird! But one morning when I was eating an apple and my sister was eating some oat meal I wondered what the two would taste like together. There are oatmeals with the apple cinnamon flavor anyways. So I decided to grab a spoonful of oatmeal and add it to my apple. When I bit into this I discovered my new favorite breakfast.

Since apples are sour and sweet, the oatmeal added a salty taste to it and it was so good! I am sure that other people have tried this recipe before but I want to share mine with you incase you have heard nothing like it! It is really simple and of course quick. I mean it takes all about 5 minutes to make some oatmeal.

For the oatmeal you will need:

Quaker’s oats

a little brown sugar

a green apple

milk and water

So to make the oatmeal you just have to follow the recipe on the Quaker’s oats tube. It says 1 cup of oats in a bowl, 1/2 cup of water or milk… I use both just to mix it up! Stick it in the microwave (if you prefer to cook it on the over follow the directions for that). Microwave for 2-1/2 to 3 minutes. Stir it and wait for it to settle. Watch the oatmeal in the microwave, it might boil over!

When the oat meal is all done, cut up your apple into round slices. Then, take your oatmeal and cover the top of the apple (the part where the meat is showing) with the oatmeal. Then sprinkle a little brown sugar over the top of  it and enjoy!

If you are a parent trying to get your little ones to eat something healthy, this will do the trick; they won’t even taste the apple. Make sure that when you do put the brown sugar on it, don’t overload the oatmeal with it or all the nutrients in the meal will get taken away and all you will taste is the sweetness of the brown sugar! This recipe is simple and fun and brings a whole new light to breakfast (at least for me). Thanks for reading and let me know what you think about this recipe!

Sketti time!

Tonight we will be having a traditional Italian dish. I can’t say it is made authentically to be Italian but it is pretty close. Actually in Italy, Pasta with red sauce is made differently in the different regions of Italy. Tonight, we will just say we are our own region of Italy making our red sauce our own unique way to add on top of some spaghetti! 

So to get started you will need :

spaghetti noodles

2 15.5 ounce cans of diced tomatoes seasoned with garlic and oregano

1 can of chicken broth

1 cup of your favorite spaghetti sauce (you can see mine in the picture)

1/4 cup of finely chopped onion

4 cloves of finely chopped garlic

4 tbsp of olive oil

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese

I also put some red pepper flakes in mine but that is because I like to make my sauce spicy! SO now that you have all of your ingredients you need to get a sauce pan out and a pot you can boil your noodles in.

Fill the pot with water and bring to a boil. Add your spaghetti noodles and sprinkle some salt in the water to flavor the noodles a little. cook for about 8 minutes or until the noodles are al a dente (not hard but not soggy) these are healthier for you and they way Italians eat their noodles!

While the noodles are cooking in your sauce pan put in the olive oil with the onion and garlic. Sautee until the onion is clear and the garlic is just brown then add your diced tomatoes. Smash these tomatoes until they are more like a puree. Then add your chicken broth and spaghetti sauce and let it all simmer together for about 3 minutes. Next add the cheeses and any other spices (like the red pepper flakes) if you want. By this time your noodles should be done. Drain them and let the red sauce cool down a little.

I always like to enjoy my spaghetti with some green bean or salad or both. So if you are like me, whip up a quick salad and enjoy this delicious Italian dinner! Enjoy with a responsible glass of red wine perhaps and after, if you’re up for the challenge… make some Tiramisu! It’s not that hard I promise. let me know what you guys think!

Summer sandwich

I am not really a fan of sandwiches during winter, not really sure why but for some reason during the summer they are so much more appealing to me. I think it was the summer of 2007 when I started making this sandwich. My friend Emilie and I would come to my house JUST to make this sandwich. I know what you are thinking, a sandwich? really Kevyn.. I could do that any day! and you probably do. But whenever I do make this for any of my friends they tell me how good it is and always ask me to make it for them! Since it was on the hot side this weekend I decided it was time to bring the ingredients out and get the sandwich season started for me!

This of course, is a really simple recipe. It is just a sandwich after all but trust me… it

s great! The amount of ingredients you use is up to you so I will just tell you them and you can decide how much of what you want on yours.

First I start out with 2 pieces of Whole wheat bread. Then I slice some extra sharp cheddar cheese… I use Tilamook because it is my favorite! Next I slice some onion and tomato. Then I put the bread in the toaster. While the bread is in the toaster I get out my turkey or ham (depends on what you like better). When the bread is all done I put some mustard on one side and I put the cheese on the other half, and stick that half in the toaster oven. I let it warm in the toaster oven until the cheese is melted. Then when this is all done I put some turkey on the side with the cheese, onion, lettuce, tomato, and garlic salt. I usually add some extra mustard on top of everything and then stick the other half of the bread on it and bon appetite!

Serve this with some nice cold iced tea to make a refreshing lunch. I know sandwiches aren’t hard to make, so it’s even a better reason for you to try this! Once you do, you will be craving it for lunch everyday. I hope you love this as much as everyone else who has had it does! 

Raviolli!

When I got to Italy, the one thing that I wanted the most was raviolli. I mean I have had some pretty great homemade raviolli dishes here in the states but to get the dish from where it came from?!? Dream come true. Raviolli has got to be my favorite kind of pasta. You can fill them with anything you want and you can even make any sauce to go over them and they will be good. You really can’t go wrong with raviolli.

Unfortunately I do not have the right utensils at home to make my own raviolis but you can buy some pretty good ones at the store. I love to go to Whole Foods and even Trader Joe’s and get their cheese raviolis. Today, I am going to be making cheese raviolis with a white cream sauce to go over them. Remember, the raviolis are already made. Maybe someday I will be able to guide you through the noodle making process, it is pretty intense but fun!

So what you will need is:

2 packs of Artichoke and Colby Jack Raviolis- you can use whatever ones you would like  though.

1/2 stick of butter

2 cups milk

5 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tblsp parmesan

1 tbsp flour

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup of half and half or cream

Chicken broth- enough to make your sauce a little more liquid

and onion finely minced

I also added asparagus to the sauce to go along with the artichoke flavor but that is up to you!

So what you do is take your chicken broth, milk, and your half and half and put it into a separate bowl. Then take the onion and put it into a sauce pan over high heat. Add 3/4 of the butter then the crushed garlic. Brown these ingredients in the butter for 3 minutes, keeping the pan on high heat. Then add 1 cup of the milk mixture and let it come to a bubble. Stir in the flour and then the parmesan. Add the rest of the milk mixture and let it come to a bubble again. Once it is boiling a little, turn the stove to low heat. Add the raviolis and cook for 10 minutes. This will allow the sauce to thicken and the raviolis to cook.

When this is all done you want to take out as many raviolis as you want and put some of the sauce on it and enjoy! Like I said, I had asparagus with mine which was added a nice complementary taste to the artichoke that was in my raviolis. With this I also had some grapes on the side. My meal was wonderful

Creamy Pesto Shrimp

This is one of my favorite meals to make. I think its because it is so absolutely delicious. It is nothing like anything pesto the Italians make but at this point, I don’t even care!

I tried this recipe out the first time about two years ago when I was on All Recipes browsing through just to see what sounded good. When I found this I wasn’t too sure what to make of it since I don’t really like pesto. The thing that got me was the parmesan added into the pesto sauce to make it creamy! With this dish I usually make a vegetable or a salad or both. I think that a nice lemon asparagus side would be lovely and compliment the dish really well.

Since you don’t have to make your own pesto, unless you want to of course, this meal doesn’t take that long to make. The ingredients you will need for this shrimp dish are:

1 pound of linguini pasta

1/2 cup of butter

2 cups of heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

1/3 cup of Pesto

1 pound of large shrimp, peeled and deveined.

When you have all of your ingredients prepared you then want to take a large pot of water and bring it to a boil. Add some salt to it and put the linguini pasta in. Cook the noodles for about 8 to 10 minutes to until they are al dente. Then drain the noodles. What I do to keep them from sticking to each other is pour a little olive oil over them and this will make them not harden or get sticky.

While the noodles are cooking get a large skillet, melt the butter. Then stir in the cream and add the seasonings. Put it on medium low heat and cook for 6 to 8 minutes always stirring so it does not burn or stick to the skillet. After the time is up take the Parmesan and stir it in, this is my favorite part:) Make sure it is all mixed in and then blend the Pesto in and cook for 3 to 5 more minutes until it is nice and thick.

When the consistency is what you want it to be take the shrimp and put it into the sauce. Cook these for 5 minutes on each side. You want to make sure the shrimp are pink and cooked. Then by this time your noodles should be done and you are ready to chow down.

I got this recipe from all recipes, this is one of my favorite sites when I am looking for something nice and simple to make. There are a lot of great recipes on this site. You all should take a look at it, make this recipe and try some of your own. Then let me know how you liked them all!