{chicken} Sunday!

I have always wanted to be a coupon shopper ... I'm just NOT good at it! I've tried ... But somehow I always end up leaving the grocery with things that I don't need, rarely use, or that I have NO idea what I'm going to do with once I get home! 

So instead ... I've learned to shop the VIC specials at the good ol' Harris Teeter ... And y'all I have gotten GOOD at it! :) 

So the other day at my weekly grocery visit HT had whole chickens for 59 CENTS a pound! I got an over 6 lbs. chicken for like 3 bucks ... (yes, I'm tooting my own horn)! 

I actually really enjoy making whole chickens because you can cook once and have at least 2 meals with one chicken! (convenient is my middle name!) 

I wanted to try something different with this chicken though ... And since I've recently become OBSESSED with my slow cooker ... I decided WHY NOT?

After some google searching I found this recipe and thought it sounded perfect ... easy AND delicious ... yes, thank you. 

I changed it up a little ... I used LOTS of garlic and instead of using the Mrs. Dash I created my own yummy-goodness with onion powder, paprika, sea salt & sage. 

Here's the ingredients I used (and I just eye-balled everything ... I'm not big on measuring!)

- whole chicken

- apple

- garlic (A LOT - seriously like 6 cloves!)

- dried sage

- paprika

- onion powder

- olive oil

I mixed all the spice together, rubbed olive oil all over Mr. Chicken and then rubbed the spices on. Minced some garlic to rub on top and left some cloves whole to stuff inside with the apples! 

I don't have an after pic because she didn't come out whole ... Meat was LITERALLY falling off the bone, which in this house is NO reason to complain! ;)

If you try it ... let me know! And if you change up the recipe ... let me know! :) 

Happy Sunday! 

"YUMMMM-O"

In the words of Rachael Ray that is! So y'all already know that Giada is one of my favorite ladies... Well Rach is my other favorite lady (besides my mom and stepmom of course!)

So in the gym yesterday, I was watching Rachael Ray (yes, I watch cooking shows while working out) and she was making the most delicious sounding dish: Chicken and Biscuit Sliders with Smoky Chard Slaw! As I said before "YUMMMM-O!"

One of Bryan's favorites is collard greens and who doesn't love fried chicken?! Well, I decided to try a slightly more healthy version of this recipe (after all, bathing suit season is coming up!)... I made oven 'fried' chicken instead.. I did say SLIGHTLY more healthy! The biscuits and bacon just couldn't be removed from this yummy dinner! Oh and I also used chicken breasts instead of chicken thighs!

I added a side of sweet potato fries and y'all the results.... AMAZING! This is a MUST try for dinner... And it was so easy!

Delicious Chicken

Ok y'all... So if you read my post 'For my Valentine' you know that I was attempting to make a roasted chicken from Cooking Light. Well, even though I was incredibly distracted by the snow, I made the chicken and it was DELICIOUS! I was so proud and Bryan was extremely impressed! What a way to kick off our Valentine's 'staycation'!

So I decided that I should share the recipe with all of you!

Garlic-Rosemary Roasted Chicken

1 (5-6 pound) roasting chicken
1 tablespoon fresh chopped rosemary
8 garlic cloves, crushed
8 medium red onions
2 teaspoons olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 450
2. Remove giblets from chicken; rinse under cold water and pat dry. Starting at the neck cavity, loosen the skin from the chicken breast and drumsticks. Place the chopped rosemary and crushed garlic beneath the skin on the breasts and drumsticks.
3. Place the chicken, breast side up, on a broiler pan. Cut a thin slice fromthe end of each onion. Remove the papery skins from the garlic heads(don't peel or separate cloves). Cut the tops off of the garlic cloves, leaving the root ends intact.
4. Brush the red onions and garlic cloves withthe olive oil. Arrange the onions and garlic cloves around the chicken. Bake the chicken at 450 for 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 and bake for an additional 1 hour and 15 minutes or until meat temperature is 180. Remove skin and discard.
(from The Best of Cooking Light)

Ok so I LOVE garlic and can never have enough... Bryan is not as obsessed as I am, however. The chicken (in my opinion) didn't turn out extremely garlic-ky, but you could definitely taste the garlic! So I think you could probably reduce the crushed cloves if you wanted! As for the garlic that we roasted along with the chicken... I just couldn't let that go to waste! So we used that the next day as an appetizer on crusty french bread! YUMMMMMM!

Hope that enjoy this chicken as much as we did! Oh and FYI, the leftovers make for a DELISH chicken salad!

For my valentine

My husband Bryan and I decided that for Valentine's weekend we were going to treat ourselves to a 'staycation'! On tonight's agenda...Dinner, a romantic movie, and of course the fire to keep us warm!

Tonight's menu: roasted garlic and rosemary chicken, roasted broccoli, and mashed red potatoes. Let's hope that my chicken turns out as pretty as this Cooking Light picture!