Oven-Roasted Chicken and Vegetables

Today was fast Sunday and I wanted to make something delicious, yet quick to eat. The trouble with being a college student, is that we don't have very much space or time to cook. I needed a dish that had good variety, color, and flavor.

My roommate L and I often cook together and share food. Since I just ate the last of the chicken breasts last night, I went to the store to buy more chicken. 

Unfortunately the chicken breasts were not on sale, but fortunately, the thighs were!  One pack of thunder thighs please!

I already had potatoes and carrots, and L had some asparagus. The vegetables can be varied, and more or less of each ingredient can be used depending on the size of the crowd.  

With some washing, cutting, and seasoning, you'll have a delicious and balanced dinner on the table in no time!

Oven-Roasted Chicken and Vegetables

Chicken Seasoning:
1 t onion powder
1 t garlic powder
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1/2 t mustard powder
1 t paprika
1/2 t red curry powder

Ingredients:
4 chicken thighs, skins removed if desired
4 potatoes
5 carrots, peeled
1/2 pound asparagus
1 onion
1 T minced garlic
1/4 c. Italian seasoning
Creole seasoning or salt and pepper
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil. Combine the seasoning ingredients. If desired, remove the chicken skin.  (If you don't remove it, chicken will be crispier. If you are going for health, remove it.) In a small bowl, mix the seasoning ingredients together. Sprinkle the fronts and backs of chicken thighs with seasoning and put them on the baking sheet.

Scrub the potatoes and pat dry. Cut into about 1 inch pieces. Peel the carrots and cut into 2 inch pieces.  Wash the asparagus and cut the ends off.  Chop in half.  Cut onion into wedges.  Place all the vegetables in a large bowl.  Combine the Italian seasoning with garlic. Drizzle over vegetables and toss to coat.  If you needed, drizzle more olive oil (personal preference I guess) spread vegetables around chicken and season with creole or salt and pepper.

Let cook for about 45 minutes, checking occasionally for doneness.

Recipe by E*

Vanilla-Cream Cupcakes with Fresh Strawberry Buttercream

We bought a Costco-sized box of strawberries for Easter this year, so you know what that means: strawberries everywhere! V-man actually loves them, but we feel like feeding him an entire 4 lb. pack of strawberries before they all go bad might be a bit overkill. So of course, I hopped onto Pinterest for ideas on how to use strawberries for desserts. Since Easter was coming up, as well as my last day of work, I had a few dessert opportunities to fill.

I found a recipe for these Vanilla Cupcakes with Fresh Strawberry Buttercream from the BAKER upstairs. I basically followed all her instructions exactly for the cupcakes and strawberry buttercream this time around. I did, however, throw in a little twist to make them extra decadent. 

Vanilla Cream. That's right. I'm all about filling cupcakes with something - anything - these days, so I had to think of something that would make these already exquisite cupcakes even better. I used my recipe for vanilla cream filling that I typically put in my chocolate cupcakes. This added a nice sweet cream to the vanilla cupcakes. That, paired with the tart/sweet strawberry buttercream made for quite the cupcake. 

I took them to work and they were totally gone by lunch. I think it's because of the frosting. That strawberry frosting is so amazing! I had some left over and had to nibble on it right when I got back from work that night. It is so fresh and has no artificial taste to it. I think it would be fantastic on a chocolate cake as well, maybe for a Valentine's treat?

Enjoy!

Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c. cake flour
• 1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
• 1 3/4 c. sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 c. butter, cold, cut into small cubes
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 c. milk
• 2 tsp. vanilla

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line two muffin tins with paper liners. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and mix until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine the milk and vanilla in a measuring cup, and add about half of the milk mixture to the flour mixture. Beat until well blended and smooth. Add the other half of the milk mixture, and beat until smooth.
2. Fill paper liners 2/3 full and bake 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for a few minutes and then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely. 

Fresh Strawberry Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 2 stick butter, softened
• pinch of salt
• 3 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 3 Tbsp. strawberry puree (about 1/2 c. strawberries)

Instructions:

1. Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the salt and powdered sugar, until combined. Add the vanilla and strawberry puree and beat until light and fluffy.
2. Place in piping bag and frost to your heart's content.

Vanilla Cream Filling

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. milk
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. flour
• 1/4 c. butter, softened
• 1/4 c. shortening
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Instructions:

1. Combine the milk and flour in a saucepan; cook until thick. Cover and refrigerate.
2. In a bowl, beat butter, shortening, sugar and vanilla until creamy. Add chilled milk mixture and beat 10 minutes. 
3. Place in a piping bag and stick the tip into the middle of the cooled cupcakes. Pipe in filling as you slowly pull the piping bag up and out of the cupcake. The filling should slowly plump up the cupcake and disperse itself through the middle.

"Easter Egg" Fruit Salad

This Easter, E decided she wanted to make a special fruit dish for the kids in the family. Instead of just serving a cantaloupe with grapes - which were both on sale - she got creative and created this adorable Easter egg salad resembling a little egg that cracked open to reveal a surprise! Not only was it super cute, but it tasted great as well.

There's nothing better than enjoying fresh fruit when the days start getting warmer and life starts appearing again in Spring. So go ahead and try this out! It doesn't have to be just for Easter either. The dish is pretty enough to serve all year round.

Easter Chip Cookies

I made cookies for a recent Boy Scout Court of Honor and these are what I came up with. I love seasonal baking. When the Spring blossoms start to bloom and the weather warms up, I typically choose to include lots of cute pastel colors in my baking to make them extra Springy!

This time, I simply made Jenica's Chocolate Chip Cookies, and added Easter colored M&Ms to the top to make them extra special. It took no added effort, yet the end result is just adorable! And from my experience, when things are appealing to the eye, people are a) more likely to try the treats, and b) more likely to LOVE them! Let's just say, I got a lot of compliments from some Young Men when I brought these to scouts.

Jenica's Chocolate Chip Cookies (Updated)

A few months ago, I posted the recipe for Jenica's Chocolate Chip Cookies. They are still the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever tried. Don't get me wrong, I'm always willing to try new ones and to see what else is out there, but I also come back to these in a pinch. I took some new photos recently when I made them, and I have to admit, they look rather scrumptious!

Shaner promised his young men that if they ALL brought their Duty to God books to church on Sunday, that his wife (me) would make them treats. They've had my cookies before, so I guess it worked. They ALL brought their books so I sent some cookies with them. I actually made two types from the same dough. But I made a separate post for the others: Easter Chip Cookies.

These are the very best chocolate chip cookie I have ever eaten. And I've eaten a lot of chocolate chip cookies in my day. Jenica first introduced the recipe to us when they were living up in Idaho for a few months. It was love at first bite. Not only are they chalk-full of chocolate chips, but they have a nice salty bite to them that helps break down the sweetness to a form of perfection that not every cookie has. Yum.

This recipe is so versatile. I have used it to make the original chocolate chip cookies with semi-sweet chocolate chips, as posted here. But I have also used M&M's, sprinkles, white chocolate chips, and butterscotch chips. You can basically put whatever you want in and on these cookies!

As I mentioned previously, these cookies ask for 2 teaspoons of salt per batch. DON'T DECREASE THE SALT! When we first made them, I thought that that was way too much salt. But no, it is a necessity to making these the best chocolate chip cookies you'll ever eat.

One way I like to make my cookies look more presentable...and who am I kidding, add more chocolate!...is by hand-placing additional chocolate chips on top of the cookies prior to baking them. It's not a necessary step...

...But who doesn't like a few more chocolate chips! Plus, after they bake, they look perfect with the hand-placed chips on top of a hot bed of cookie.

Besides the sweet, salty, chocolatey goodness of these cookies, the reason they are the VERY BEST is the texture. If they're baked just right, you will bite into a crispy shell covering a gooey, melty interior. It doesn't get any better than that.

Did I mention they freeze great?