A friend of mine gave me a frozen chicken a few months ago and it sat in my freezer because I was intimidated by it. Finally, I decided to be brave and try roasting it. Normally I just buy the already roasted chickens from the deli area, but once I tried this, I realized how easy it was and I could control what went in and on it. It turned out soooo good the first time, I decided to do it again. A few people asked for my "recipe" if you can call it that, so... here it is...

Let me just warn you now. I made this recipe post how I like them, with lots of pictures! And I don't have a nice camera, so you'll just have to deal with my fuzzy out of focus pictures until I strike it rich and can get a nice camera! 

My ingredients for the actual chicken. I used a young chicken without neck and giblets, 1 onion, 1 lemon, garlic powder, italian seasonings blend, parsley flakes, salt, pepper, and olive oil. And, of course, my roasting pan. 

Just a better look at the chicken. It was a little over 5 lbs.  

Ok, I started out by preheating my oven to 425 degrees. I always start my oven before I prep because it takes FOR-EV-VER to heat. (Picture Squints saying that and you get my point.)

Then I chunked up my lemon and onion. 

Then I took my spices, salt, pepper, and oil and mixed them all together. I think I used about 1/4 cup oil. It wasn't exact, and it doesn't really need to be. I stirred it up and set it aside. 

I stood the chicken upright in my roaster and sprinkled a little extra of my italian spice blend inside the chicken before I stuffed in half of my onion and all but 1 piece of lemon. 

Once I had it stuffed, I laid it in the roasting pan and poured the oil mix on it (I had to use my hands to get some of the spices off the bottom of the bowl). Then I used my hands and massaged the oil and spices all over the skin of the chicken. Make sure everything is nice and coated. Then I took the last little piece of lemon and squirted a little bit of lemon juice over the chicken. Then I shoved it back into the chicken. 

Once I had the chicken ready, I used the rest of the onion and some baby yellow potatoes to roast around the outside of the chicken. I drizzled them with a little more olive oil, some salt and pepper, and a little bit of garlic powder. I didn't tie up the legs. I didn't do it the first time because I just didn't have anything to tie it with. I don't really think it affects the outcome at all. 

I set the timer for 15 mins and put the pan in without the lid. This allows the skin to crisp up a little and keep the juices in (It takes about 5 mins for your house to start smelling awesome!). After those 15 minutes were up, I set the oven for 350 degrees for 2 hours. It cooked for 2 more hours covered. (I dug the potatoes out at about the 1 hour mark, they were super soft.) After those 2 hours were up, I took the lid off and let it cook another 15 minutes to finish crisping up the skin. I don't have a meat thermometer, but I just went by the instructions on the back that said 20-30 minutes per pound. The chicken was 5 lbs, so it had a cook time of 2 hrs and 30 mins. I erred on the longer side just to be safe. 

Once it was done, I pulled it out of the oven, put the lid back on, and let it sit for about 20 mins before taking the lid off of it. (I may or may not have pulled the crunchy skin off first. It's missing in action now.) It fell off the bone. Literally. I pulled it apart in pieces because when I tried to pick it up out of the roaster, it fell apart. It gave me and 8x8 pan worth of chicken! The breast pieces came off in 2 full pieces.  YUM! I have 2 more recipes planned with this chicken this week! Not to shabby for about $7!

I just halved the potatoes and served the chicken and potatoes with some chicken gravy. I didn't make gravy with the drippings from the chicken, I just used a jar of gravy (Gasp! Get over it!). Here was my feeble attempt at plate design. 

Well, there ya have it! It was delicious! Give it a try and let me know how you like it! 

Happy Wednesday! 

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We used it to rest and recoup from our long week of sickness. But, I'm glad to say we've all recovered and we're all feeling alive again! I thought I'd switch it up a bit this week and start with the verse of the week. I figured this would be a good verse to memorize this week as we're in the midst of the Lenten season and approaching Easter. I've heard this verse many times, but it's not one I've got memorized so I'll be challenging myself with this one! 

2 Peter 3:9-
The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Ok, onto this weeks menu. So, since we were all sick last week, most of this week's menu is everything from last week. We're supposed to get a big winter storm over the next few days, so I planned some warm hearty stuff to warm Aaron up when he gets home from delivering the mail. 

Monday- BLT's

Tuesday- Chili

Wednesday- Spaghetti

Thursday- Chicken N Noodles

Friday- Homemade Pizza

Saturday- Out 

So, as you can see, we're keeping it pretty simple this week. I hope that you guys have a great Monday and a great start to your week! 

If you've followed my blog for a while, you can probably guess what I'm going to say at the beginning of this Menu Monday post. I can't believe it's already past the middle of January. I know this year is going to be fast, but man! It's flying by already! If you saw my post on Friday, you know that I started a Definintely.Maybe. Facebook Page. I wanted a space that would be a little more conducive to conversation. It's easier for direct communication. If you get a chance, head over and "like" it so we can stay in contact.

I mentioned a few weeks ago about wanting to memorize a different bible verse each week this year. I figured I'd start posting which verses I'm memorizing here on Monday's. I figured that since Monday posts were committed to physical food it was a great time to add the spiritual food as well. Our Daily Bread! So, this week's verse is...

Isaiah 40:28- Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

I hope that you'll join with me in memorizing this week's verse!

Ok, so onto this weeks menu. This is the first week in a long time that I've planned 7 meals at home. We have a busy week, something going every day except the weekend, so I needed to find meals that worked for each night and the time we had. So, here it is...

Monday- BLT's. Aaron's off tomorrow for MLK day and this was one of his requests. It's easy and good. I'm all for it.

Tuesday- Chicken Alfredo Pita Pizzas. I made BBQ chicken pita pizzas last week and they were so good. I've never made pizza with pita bread, but it was really good! So, we're doing it again!

Wednesday- Ranch Pork. This is one of my favorite meals for 2 reasons. First because it's soooo good, but secondly, because it's easy! Pork chops, cream of mushroom, a little milk, and a half a packet of ranch dressing mix. Cook in the crockpot until the pork is tender. Serve over mashed potatoes. SOOOO good!

Thursday- Spaghetti. By now I'm sure you're not surprised to see this on the menu. Emmy has asked for it every day since we had it earlier this week. I'm all for it- cheap and easy.

Friday- Cowboy Meatloaf. I fixed this for the first time a few weeks ago, and Aaron asked for it again this week. It's a rather complicated recipe, so when I get the chance to get my recipe page updated, I'll add it.

Saturday- Sweet and Sour Chicken. This was another Aaron request. Kind of. He asked for chicken and rice and this is what I thought of. This will be new for me, so we'll see how it goes! I found this recipe here. I'll report back next week on if it was a success!

Sunday- Taco Salad. Also another Aaron request. Which everyone in our family enjoys. Yum!

There ya have. The plan for the week! I haven't grocery shopped yet, that's on the calendar for tomorrow. I hope that everyone has a great Monday!

Oh man, what a great weekend we had! And unfortunately I have an extreme lack of pictures! Saturday we took the opportunity to start a new tradition with our kids. We had a yummy dinner of just appetizers and then we baked and decorated cookies and delivered them to some families in our church along with a Christmas carol or two. We had so much fun! The girls liked delivering the cookies and seeing familiar faces and Aaron and I were glad to be teaching them that Christmas isn't all about recieving! I'm looking forward to being able to do this every year with the girls!

Yesterday we had a great simple Christmas service at Church and then spent the rest of the day relaxing as a family. I know I said this on Friday but I'm overjoyed at how our holiday season so far has been simple and relaxing. It's given us the opportunity to focus on the important things.

Today!!! It's Christmas Eve! This is my favorite day! Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but the anticipation of Christmas Eve is my favorite.  We're taking advantage of free admission at the Indianapolis Children's Museum and meeting friends there for a day of fun! Then we're heading to a Christmas Eve service at a church here in town. Then home so I can go on a wrapping spree! We've kept no wrapped gifts under our tree because, well, they wouldn't stay wrapped very long. So, that's what I'll be doing tonight!

I planned meals for Tuesday through Sunday. After Christmas we'll be getting into our new normal routine. Aaron starts his regular work at the Post Office and we'll have more of an idea of what his schedule will be like. Emmy's out of school until early January so we don't have to worry about packing lunches right now, so my grocery shopping was rather easy. I did a stock up shop this week so the fridge and cabinets are full!

Monday- Spaghetti. I figured I'd fix the girls favorite dinner on such a special day.

Tuesday- We're having chili with Aaron's family during our Christmas celebration so we'll probably just end up making sandwiches for dinner.

Wednesday- Taco Salad. Aaron found a new recipe in one of our Weight Watchers cookbooks so I'm trying that. If it's good or if I change it up a little, I'll link it up on my recipes page.

Thursday- Chicken Pita Pizza. Also another recipe Aaron suggested out of the Weight Watchers cookbook. This one is a little out of the box for us so we'll see how it turns out!

Friday- Green Beans, Sausage, and Potatoes. A staple in our house. And easy. Perfect winter meal.

Saturday- Sandwiches. Easy easy.

Sunday- Chicken N Noodles. Another family favorite and total comfort food. We're supposed to get a pretty big snow storm sometime this week, so I figured I'd max us out on the winter food this week!

I hope that everyone has a great Christmas Eve!

Yay!! It's Thanksgiving week!  I love the holidays! And I love that my meal plan for this week was rather short. I planned Mon- Wed and that's it. I did my grocery shopping last week, so I most of what I'm cooking this week is from the pantry. As usual, recipes are linked to my recipes page.

Monday- Chicken N Biscuits. Easy peasy.  And my kids eat them.

Tuesday- Spaghetti. Don't really need much explination for this.

Wednesday- French Onion Burgers. Always a favorite in our house.

Thursday of course is Thanksgiving, which we're celebrating with Hubs family. I'm making cheesecake for that. Friday I didn't plan anything. Not sure what the plans are for this day yet so we'll probably just order in or eat out. And Saturday is Hubs 30th birthday celebration dinner!

Some people know this about me, but if you don't, I'll put it out there. Music is a big thing for me. I played a few instruments (not well) in jr. high and high school and I'm not musically inclined in the way of acutally playing it. I love to sing and that's about all I do. But I listen to music constantly. I listen to all types of it.  Normally, I wake up in the morning, feed my kids breakfast and music goes on. Sometimes it's on all day. It wouldn't be uncommon to find the girls and I having a dance party in our kitchen on any given day.

Over the last few days there's been one song in particular that I find myself listening to more often than most others. Sometimes on repeat. I wanted to share it with you today in hopes that maybe it would bless you as much as it has blessed me. I wanted to see if I could find the music video, and there wasn't one. I'm not going to upload just the song, so you'll get the lyrics instead. Which is the important part anyways....

I purposely listed the lyrics in 2 columns because I wanted you to be able to see how the song is written. It's written as a call out to God. It's someone reaching out to God and God's response to that person. I believe 100% that the Bible is God's written word to us. But I also believe that God has blessed some very talented song writers and speaks through them as well. I know He's been using this song to speak to me almost hourly the last few days! I hope that maybe sometimes the truth of this song will bless you too!

Lyrics posted here.

Monday! Monday! Monday!

I don't really dislike Monday's. I feel like my week normally goes so quickly that I can't complain about the begining of a new weeks. This week is rather slow on the social calendar so I've got meals for every day.

Our church is having our Thanksgiving Feast on Sunday, so I don't have a meal planned for that day, although I am fixing green bean casserole and cheesecake. So, I don't totally get out of cooking for it. I'm trying a new recipe this week. I'll link them up to the original recipe or to my recipe page.

Monday- Pierogi Casserole. I fixed this 2 weeks ago and it was delish! But don't think for a minute that this will help out your calorie count for the day. This is RICH comfort food! But oh so yummy!

Tuesday- Chicken Spaghetti. This is my new recipe for the week. I've heard people rave about this recipe so I'm very excited to try it!

Wednesday- Fried Chicken. It's been so long since I've made my mom's fried chicken. Sorry, no recipe for this, it's kind of a family thing!

Thursday- Sandwiches. This was Aaron's request. I have been not putting this on the menu because he takes sandwiches for lunch to work, but when I asked him for ideas for this week's menu, this is what he asked for. Thursday is going to be a very busy day for us, so I'm good with easy dinner too!

Friday- Biscuit Pizza. This is easy easy easy and pretty tasty actually. The girls love them because they're easy for them to eat. Emmy loves fixing her own.

Saturday- BLT's. Pretty straight forward. And actually, we're not tomato eaters in this house, so normally we eat BL's. I use turkey bacon for a little extra calorie cut.

Sunday- Fishers Point Thanksgiving Feast Extravaganza!

Not a complicated menu this week, and I was able to get all the groceries we needed  for this week and next for about $70. I had a lot of these ingredients on hand. Next week's menu will include Thanksgiving! Oh my time is flying!

The last week of September. WHAT?! That's so crazy. I want time to slow down! Either that or come up with a better way for my brain to absorb all the memories I want it to so I can remember all that happens.

Well, come Monday, come menu. I worked on it yesterday for a little bit. Nothing fancy happening here this week. It's a pantry week, so I'm workin with what I've got here at home. So, my kids might be a little bored with our meals this week. But, they won't starve! I only planned through Thursday because I'll be able to grocery shop on Friday.

Alright, this is what this week looks like...

Monday- Potato Soup and Grilled Cheese. I got a mix for the soup, so it'll be a low maintenence meal, which is what I want today!

Tuesday- BBQ chicken. I'm going to fix it in the crockpot so I don't have to worry about it. This absolutely nothing fancy- chicken breasts and some BBQ sauce. I don't add the BBQ sauce until closer to the end though because I hate when it scorches on the sides of my crock pot.

Wednesday- Church night! So, as usual, we'll have sandwiches. Aaron's been on a bologna kick, so I'm sure that's what his sandwich will be. Mine probably turkey, and the girls PB&J. We keep it real.

Thursday- Spaghetti. I'm pretty sure I could fix this twice a week and my kids would scarf it every time. They LOVE spaghetti. And I like it because it's cheap! Win Win, in my opinion!

Friday- Not quite sure yet. Friday is my birthday, so maybe I'll fix us something super special. I just don't know what that is yet. :-) I'll be eating lunch out, so it'll have to be something that can stand up to my birthday lunch!

What a crazy weekend! We were busy busy busy! But, I'm glad it's Monday. I'm ready to be back in a routine.

My parents where here over the weekend and normally when they're here, we end up with a lot of leftovers. So, my menu this week will include a lot of leftover meat and things. There are only a few things that I'll have to pick up from the grocery store. I like weeks like this! 


Monday- Chicken Salad. We have leftover baked chicken and Aaron and I have both been craving chicken salad so I'm going to fix more and we'll go light tonight with chicken salad sandwiches. I use chunked chicken, halved grapes, chopped pecans, diced red onion, and chopped celery. I use a little bit of Miracle Whip light and some pepper. It's soo good!

Tuesday- BLT's - We have leftover bacon, so I figured why not have BLT's. We love them and they are E-A-S-Y! Especially if the bacon is already cooked! We don't like tomatoes, so we really only eat BL's.  I'll only have to get some lettuce and we'll be set!

Wednesday- Wednesday we'll be eating at Chick-fil-A.

Thursday- Grilled Chicken. We've been eating a lot of grilled chicken this summer. I love it, and I've got a ton of frozen chicken breasts in the freezer, so I'll probably do grilled chicken kabobs. I marinate it in Italian dressing and grill away! I'll get some fresh veggies to grill with it!

Friday we're having a girls all nighter at our house and the guys from the youth group are going to play laser tag. I haven't decided yet what we're having. I don't really want to have pizza, but I'm not sure yet. We just had a super busy weekend and we're heading into a super busy week! Eek!  

Weekend Recap

We had a nice relaxing weekend around these parts. Saturday morning, I had breakfast with one of the girls from our youth group and then when I got home, I fixed the kids lunch and we headed out to to pool. We had a great time swimming and enjoying the beautiful weather! Later on in the night we noticed that Macie seemed to be having some trouble breathing. I packed her up and headed off to MedCheck. When we got there, it packed and they told me we'd have to wait almost 2 hours. I said no thanks and headed to the ER. 4 hours later and absolutely no answers I brought her home and put her to bed. She was exhausted.

Yesterday was another nice relaxing day. We had a great time celebrating Aaron. He opened his gift from the girls yesterday morning before church. Then we headed out to church. After church I made pancakes for lunch, then we all took a nap. We grilled out later on for dinner then we all watched Toy Story 3 for the first time. Oh man, I thought it was a little intense for a kid at some points, but it was still good. Definitely cried at the end. After the kids went to bed, I spent sometime ironing and getting ready for the upcoming week! All in all, it was a great relaxing weekend! We enjoyed it. It will be a long while before we have that much free time on a weekend again!

Well, this week is a little special. Normally, this is a big buy week and next week is pantry week, but because money is really tight for the next 2 weeks, this week and next are both pantry weeks of sorts. I did do minimal grocery shopping. I needed to spend less than $40 for this week and a friend gave me a few great suggestions on facebook. I only purchased a few things and ingredients from each meal will carry over to the next day. There is no new recipe this week. Didn't want to spend the money on a whole new list of ingredients.

So, here goes, my menu for this week...

Monday- Spaghetti - meatless with whole wheat noodles. First time I'll serve whole wheat so we'll see how it goes.

Tuesday- Biscuits and gravy- I'll be making the biscuits and the gravy. I'm using Bisquick mix I already had for the biscuits and making the gravy from scratch.

Wed- Grilled Chicken Sandwiches- This will be a somewhat special night. Aaron and I are heading to camp where our youth group is for the night. I'll be fixing the sandwiches ahead of time and taking them with us so we can eat on the way. Nothing special, just marinated grilled chicken breasts.

Thurs- Sloppy Joes- A little generic I know, but I got just a plain old can of Manwich and a lb of extra lean ground beef. I usually make my own sloppy joes, but I didn't have all the ingredients and didn't want to buy them all.

Friday- Mini pizza's- We'll be using the left over buns from sloppy joes, the pizza sauce from the spaghetti, and some of the sausage I'll reserve from the biscuits and gravy as topping. No one ever complains about pizza in our house. We eat it in every form.

Saturday- grilled cheese- nothing fancy.

Sun- pancakes- easy and cheap.

Yesterday, we had a great church service (which you can listen to here). We came home and enjoyed a little bit of rest time and then got brave and decided to move Macie's crib into Emmy's room. She had been sleeping in our room still and we were ready to have our space back! We only have a 2 bedroom, so this was our only option. It took about an hour from them to fall asleep and in that hour Aaron and I were probably in there 10 times laying them back down and shushing them, but all in all I was surprisingly pleased with the first night. They both slept peacefully through the night and so did Aaron and I!