A couple of years ago I went to my friend Nancy’s Super Bowl party. We spent the weekend coming up with all kinds of delicious ideas. She decided to make one of the day’s main bites to eat (BBQ pulled pork sandwiches) in the crock pot and just let people serve themselves when they wanted. Genius! I don’t eat pork like that, so I didn’t try any, but I liked the idea. I easily could have done BBQ chicken sandwiches here, but tacos are more my style. It would be really easy to prep a taco bar with all the fixings before the big game and allow your and your guests to eat at leisure.

I totally had delicious salsa to put on the tacos, but I totally got distracted by the amazing guacamole. The avocados in these parts are pretty phenomenal at the moment (that and I make delicious guac). Fear not, the salsa will find a home in the leftovers, if it doesn’t meet some tortilla chips first.

Another slow cooker recipe that would be perfect for Super Bowl Sunday, or any day really, I would also recommend my Tri-Tip tacos! They are delicious.

If a taco bar seems like a bit too much work, this recipe could easily be turned into a real chili recipe. You would just have add some more tomatoes/salsa. I would recommend a 15 ounce can of diced tomatoes (look for fire-roasted or chiles) and their juice and a second can of pinto beans (also drained and rinsed).

This is pretty much Chicken Alfredo without any noodles involved. I’m not a pasta fan, so it was pretty much perfect to me. I was a bit hesitant to use evaporated milk. I know it’s real milk with some of the water removed, but shelf stable dairy products just weird me out. Once I got over the canned milk thing, I was really, really impressed by this dish. It was so easy to make and super flavorful. I did add some extra spices by sprinkling the chicken with Kosher salt, black pepper and garlic powder. That definitely helped the dish. Next time, I think the only other thing I would add would be some Dijon mustard. I really think that would have enhanced the flavor even more. And I might add broccoli as well just to add some extra color and vegetables. The spinach was really good in this dish. I thought it might be kind of gross since it was added at the last-minute before baking. This recipe is great as is, but a few easy additions

A quick note about serving: I think it would be easier to do this in one large casserole dish or in 1 cup ramekins. I followed the directions and a 2 cup serving dish was the size of a cereal bowl, which is a lot of food. I think a 1 cup ramekin would be the perfect size accompanied with some extra veggies or a salad.

This has quickly become one of my go to recipes. I’ve made it several times now and I like it more and more every time. Then again, you could add tomatoes, olives and capers to pretty much anything and I would find it delicious, so I might be a bit biased. I also have to admit I really enjoy the fact that this recipe requires using a mallet. There is something about bash about chicken that is quite therapeutic.

It’s perfect for a quick and easy dinner (like 15 minutes and it’s ready, easy). I’ve made it both with canned diced tomatoes and fresh tomatoes and I hate to say it, but I might have liked the canned tomatoes more… The fresh tomatoes did not break down as well and the skins were kind of tough. I also found that I had to add a little more liquid to get a sauce going with the fresh tomatoes. I am a very saucy person, so when a dish has a sauce, I like a lot of it. If you happen to have super ripe and juicy fresh tomatoes, I wouldn’t worry about it, but if your tomatoes are kind of under ripe and sad, canned would probably be your best bet.

Yes, I am aware it’s Halloween and I should be sharing something themed, but to be quite honest I am not really into Halloween. It’s one day, I don’t get why it now gets a month+ ‘season’ (this also my complaint about christmas). The closest I’m coming to the Halloween spirit is drinking bourbon and reading ‘Helter Skelter‘ (it’s for my book club) all while pretending we aren’t home when trick-or-treaters come by. If that doesn’t say ‘Happy Halloween’, I’m not sure what does…

Enough about things I don’t like, let’s talk about things that I so like: Mexican food. Even in the vaguest sense, Mexican food always makes me happy. This dish is very vaguely Mexican, but tasty enough that we can overlook authenticity. It’s also super easy to throw together. Tasty and easy is definitely a double bonus in my book. I thought about adding in some more vegetables (zucchini or mushrooms maybe), but to cut down on prep/chopping time I decided not to. I thought the end result was very tasty and definitely didn’t seem like it was missing anything, but if I add more time, I would definitely add in some extra veggies as well.

The other day I got a craving for chicken salad, which is rather strange considering I have never had it before. The reason I’ve never had it before is that it normally has celery in it. Celery makes me want to cry. I hate it. With a passion. I could probably write you a short novel on my hatred of celery, but I will refrain. The abridged version can be summed up like this: I think celery is pure evil and disgusting and I hate it and it is so gross and will act like a 3-year-old and refuse to eat anything with it in it, on it, or touching it. Ewwwww. Since I am making this chicken salad there will be no celery. Anywhere. Ever.

Once I was able to get the thought of celery out of my mind, I was able to really get into this chicken salad. I am fairly certain using greek yogurt made it a lot better than using all mayonnaise. mayonnaise has a time and a place, but I really enjoyed the tanginess the yogurt had. I did include a bit a mayo to give it a little bit of extra creaminess. The one thing I forgot is that greek yogurt is a lot thicker than mayo. I probably should have added in more lemon juice to thin it out a bit more. Other that that everything was perfect. I really liked the sweetness and texture the grapes and cherries added. The cherries were a last second impulsive add-in. They were just sitting right in front of me when opened the cupboard. They seemed like a good idea at the time and they were. I really liked this as a salad with lettuce. They extra creamy yogurt meant I didn’t need any extra dressing. It made a refreshing and filling lunch. I will say the thing I think that made this salad was the chicken. I used the leftover baked chicken I shared last week. I know I went on and on about how great the fresh herbs were on that chicken.  The fresh herbs really, really made this salad taste amazing.

This is an embarrassingly simple dish. It’s fast and delicious. I was actually kind of shocked by how good the finished product was. The ingredients are very basic, so I was imagining something a bit bland, but that is not at all how it turned out.

Definitely make sure to use fresh herbs! They really make the dish. I used herbs from my garden. I think thyme and sage would also work really well in this dish. It’s pretty much endlessly adaptable. I served this with the delicious roasted onions and mushrooms I shared yesterday. Both dishes require very little preparation and cook for around the same time at the same temperature, so they work perfectly together.

I think that this is the perfect fast and easy fall meal. It comes together quickly, so you can definitely make it after a busy day with very little effort. I was a bit wary of the grapes combined with everything else, but they worked very well with the dish and gave a nice sweetness that was balanced out by the onions and balsamic vinegar. I served mine with burnt extra crispy, roasted brussels sprouts and roasted sweet potatoes. I think goat cheese polenta or mashed sweet potatoes would also be a great accompaniment to the main dish. Any type of sausage can be used, I just happen to prefer chicken. I definitely recommend using pre-cooked sausages to cut down on cooking time. I used chicken sausages and I feel like most of the brands I buy, the chicken sausages are usually pre-cooked.

I have been really into sweet potatoes lately. I believe it stems from my fruitless quest to make fall happen. There are something about sweet potatoes to that seem particularly autumnal. Autumnal also happens to be one of my favorite words, so I plan on using it as often as possible.

I am a major fan of this meal. Fast, easy and it only uses one dish. It already sounds like a winner in my book. The sweet potatoes and onions cook up with this delicious, slightly caramelized flavor. I happen to really like mustard, sweet potatoes and onions, so I didn’t think twice about combining them. They turned out perfectly. The other great thing, was the amount of leftovers for lunch the next day. Next time, I might start cooking the sweet potatoes and onions before the chicken so they get a little crisper/more caramelized. Some of the vegetables that were directly under the chicken, didn’t get as crispy as I would have liked. Cooking them in a separate or bigger dish might help this as well. I also think you could easily substitute squash or regular potatoes as well, but I think the sweet potatoes complement the rest of the meal’s flavors that any substitute might.

Dijon Roast Chicken & Sweet Potatoes

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

1 hour

 

Adapted from “Eating Well”

Author: ClareCooks!

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: American

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons whole-grain Dijon mustard
• 1 Tablespoon smooth Dijon mustard
• 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh thyme or 2 teaspoons dried
• 2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• ½ teaspoon salt, divided
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper, divided
• 1½-2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 large red onion, cut into 1-inch wedges

Instructions

1. Position rack in lower third of oven; preheat to 450°F. Place a large rimmed baking sheet in the oven to preheat.
2. Combine mustard, thyme, 1 tablespoon oil and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper in a small bowl; spread the mixture evenly on chicken.
3. Toss sweet potatoes and onion in a bowl with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Carefully remove the baking sheet from the oven and spread the vegetables on it. Place the chicken on top of the vegetables.
4. Return the pan to the oven and roast, stirring the vegetables once halfway through, until the vegetables are tender and beginning to brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted into a chicken thigh registers 165°F, 30 to 35 minutes.

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