Happy Monday to you!

Start of a new week. Yay! New recipes, new adventures, and learning new things! Happy day!

And in the spirit of starting off well, I bring you the recipe I finally tried last night. Lemon-Thyme Roasted Chicken with Finglerling Potatoes that I made buttered green beans (steamed or boiled green beans with 2 Tbsp butter added) to go with…
I’ve had this one on the plan for 2 consecutive weeks now I believe. I have absolutely come to DREAD dealing with raw chicken. I’ve never been a fan, but lately it’s increased. I’m so averse to it that I will ONLY deal with boneless skinless breasts. Or precooked frozen chicken. There has never been a whole chicken in my house and the likelihood of that ever happening is slim to none. Ewww!!
I am all about frugality and I realize that whole chickens are so much cheaper but there isn’t a chance on this earth that I would ever deal with one……..Never gonna happen!!
Anyway…I have been avoiding this recipe, even though it sounded delicious, because I was shuddering at the thought of having to deal with the chicken. Yeah…..that’ll teach me to not read the directions first…I didn’t have to “deal” with the chicken. As a matter of fact, I never touched it! I stabbed it with a knife and put it from the package to the pan (no I didn’t rinse it this time…). Yeah baby! Woo!
And I’m really glad I did finally decide to make it. It was delicious. As a matter of fact…..Justice ate it!!!! She wasn’t a fan of the potatoes or the green beans, but she ate my entire (very small) chicken breast! Yay!!!!
Jackpot baby!!!
So…without any further ado..I give you…….
The Recipe!

Lemon-Thyme Roasted Chicken with Fingerling Potatoes (courtesy of recipe.com)

4 teaspoons canola oil or olive oil
1 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or 1/4 teaspoon regular salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound fingerling potatoes, halved lengthwise, or tiny new red or white potatoes, halved
4  small skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (1 to 1-1/4 pounds total)
2 cloves garlic, minced (I sliced mine rather than messing with mincing)
1  lemon, thinly sliced

1. In a very large skillet, heat 2 teaspoons of the oil over medium heat. Stir 1/2 teaspoon of the thyme, the salt, and pepper into the oil. Add potatoes; toss to coat. Cover and cook for 12 minutes, stirring twice.

2. Stir potatoes; push to one side of the skillet. Add the remaining 2 teaspoons oil. Arrange chicken breast halves on the other side of the skillet. Cook, uncovered, for 5 minutes.

3. Turn chicken. Spread garlic over chicken breast halves; sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon thyme. Arrange lemon slices on top of chicken. Cover and cook for 7 to 10 minutes more or until chicken is no longer pink (170°F) and potatoes are tender.

This meal was delicious! Minus my added veggie, it’s a one-pot! Woo!
My chicken was small and there were actually only 4 breast halves in the package, whereas there are usually 5 and I wasn’t paying attention… Next time I make this I will definitely make more so that we can have leftovers. As I said, Justice devoured the chicken (except for the 2 small bites I took) and Dominic loved it as well, which doesn’t usually happen with lemon. So…..Yay!!!

I’ll be repeating this one again in the future, and I hope that you find the same when you try it!
Enjoy,

Mo

Happy Monday to you!
I am thrilled to have gotten the Recipe Archive page up for you. I hope that you use and enjoy it! I will, of course, be adding every new recipe to it as I post them.

Speaking of new recipes…I have one! Yay!
This is another recipe courtesy of Super Suppers Cookbook.
For your reviewing pleasure, I bring you….Steak Soup. Oh…and by the way…this one’s a One Pot!!!! Yeah!!!

“Makes 6-8 servings”
Ingredients:
2 slices bacon, slivered (We love bacon so I used 4 slices precooked bacon, then crumbled)
1 lb round steak, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cups finely chopped onion (I used “many” shakes of dried minced, as per usual)
1 lb fresh white mushrooms, thickly sliced
1 tsp minced fresh garlic
4 cups water
2 15oz cans beef broth
1 tsp Kitchen Bouquet (this is a brand name “browning sauce containing a vegetable base and caramel coloring. It adds a small amount of flavor but is used mostly to give rich color.” I omitted this as it was just for color)
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp black pepper
(I added egg noodles to ours to “fill”. Both it, and us!)

Directions:
In a 4-6 quart Dutch oven or soup pot cook bacon over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon; set aside. (I used pre-cooked bacon so in place of this step, I nuked 4 strips and used a tablespoon or so of olive oil in the pan) Add steak pieces to drippings in pot; brown on all sides. Add onion, mushrooms, and garlic; cook and stir 3 minutes more. Stir in reserved bacon, water, beef broth, and Kitchen Bouquet. Turn heat to low. Cover and simmer gently about 1 1/2 hours or until steak is very tender. Stir in salt and pepper.

This one is a keeper. I personally loved it, even though it was a tad bland. That’s totally fixable. (As a matter of fact, I’m having the last of the leftovers as I type!)
Everyone else enjoyed this one as well. Justice even ate a few of the noodles!!! (She normally won’t eat any pasta that’s not macaroni. Even though we tell her it’s noodles, she doesn’t believe us. LOL!)
I served this with delicious heaping salads and it was wonderful.

This one would be great in the winter as soup is so wonderfully suited to cold weather (in my humble opinion that is) but it was great for us for the middle of August too.

I hope you try it and enjoy.

Mo