Roasted Chicken Recipe

Did you know that Costco sells two Whole Organic Chickens for around $20? Such a great deal!

Usually I make one for dinner, and I’ll freeze the second one until I need it.

Roasting

MG and I make a whole chicken on Sunday night, eat leftover chicken breast with pasta on Monday for dinner, and finish the leftover meat on a Tuesday with a chicken salad during lunch. One $10 chicken for three meals – can’t get any better than that right?

I also love to make a roasted chicken for a dinner party of 4 with some roasted veggies. Spending $15 for a dinner party – can’t complain about that!

Ingredients (only 4):

  • Whole chicken
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • Thyme

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450° F.
2. Using paper towels, dry the chicken really well inside and out. As dry as you can get.
3. Salt and pepper the outside and inside – be generous and coat evenly.
4. Now truss the chicken (Trussing is important. It keeps the tips from burning and the thighs keep the chicken from drying out).
5. Put the bird in a roasting pan. If you have extra bread, you can line the bottom of the pan with bread. This helps dry the heat even more for an extra crispy chicken. However, bread is totally optional.
6. Roast the chicken for 60 minutes, then broil for 5-10 for a crispy skin.
7. Remove the chicken from the oven and sprinkle thyme.
8. Let the chicken rest for 15 minutes on a cutting board.
9. Remove the twine and cut the chicken. Cutting the chicken is such an art form that I’m still learning. First you break off the middle wing pieces. Then you remove the legs and thighs, and the next cut I make is the middle of the breast captivity. I haven’t mastered cutting the oysters out from the backbone. One day I will…
10. Serve and eat!

This chicken is so juicy. The skin is crispy. And it’s such a cheap meal. Yum!

Salting and pepperTrussed and salted 

ReadyReady for the oven

In the Oven
Done roasting!

RestingRemember to let it sit and rest for 15 minutes before cutting into it

DoneThe end product doesn’t look beautiful, but it tastes heavenly! 

Chicken is such a universal meat – you can make casseroles, pair it with salads, cook it in pasta, add it to stir frys, or simply eat it plain. What are some of your favorite chicken dishes? Also what are some ways you make chicken? Please share your recipe!

Who’s hungry?
Jay

Healthier Living

Produce

After the retreat (retreat post here), MG and I felt like we needed to change our eating habits. Why after retreat? Probably because we scarfed down sandwiches, extra bowls of soup, ramen, popcorn, and other junk food like it’s no one’s business because we felt deprived of our snacks at home. We weighed ourselves after the weekend, and it wasn’t a pretty sight.

A friend of ours has changed his own life to consume more raw foods (he dropped weight and looks awesome). What spurred his change were food documentaries like Hungry for Change, Food Matters, and Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead. MG and I decided to check these films out, and it’s turned our worlds upside down. Now we are trying to eat healthier and add more fruits and veggies into our diets.

Just a few facts from the documentaries:

1. When you stress, your body automatically goes into “famine mode.” As a result, you continually crave food and your body goes into survival mode even though a famine will never actually happen. It always wants more and more. That’s the main reason why many people overeat.
2. You don’t necessarily need to eat less and diet. Instead add healthier foods to your daily intake right now. Eventually you’ll feel so good about yourself and your body becomes nourished that you’ll snack less on unhealthy foods. Ultimately, you’ll push away most of the “bad” foods. It’s a lifestyle, not a diet.
3. A person needs to consume 5-6 servings of fruits and vegetables per day (more veggies because fruits have high sugar levels). This means approximately 20lbs of fruits and vegetables a week per person.
4. It’s pretty difficult to eat the suggested fruits and vegetable servings, which is why juicing has recently become so popular. I can easily juice 5lbs in a day and drink it in the morning. Buy organic so that you do not have a high intake of pesticides.
5. Aloe Vera and Chia seeds help detox your body and clean out your intestines. Add these to your drinks for detoxification.

I really encourage you to check out these documentaries to help kickstart a healthier lifestyle.

Invest in a good juicer. Some are cheaply made, which won’t last long. Some are difficult to clean. And some do not extract juice well so you’re throwing money away when there are still good nutrients left.

Juicer
I own the Breville juicer from Macy’s, and it does a great job extracting all the juice. There are some other great selections at Macy’s, but I really like the Breville brand.

If you’re going to juice, here are some suggested produce to purchase that will last you the full week (based on one glass of juice a day).

  • 1 head of romaine lettuce
  • 2 heads of kale
  • 4 cucumbers
  • 6 apples
  • 2 lemons
  • 5lb bag of carrots
  • Celery
  • Parsley
  • Cilantro

Few tips: Cucumbers and apples provide a lot of juice. Apples and carrots help sweeten juice. Lemons help take some of that “raw vegetable” taste away. Kale is rich in antioxidants. Lastly, parsley and cilantro help with body odor.

Chia seeds can be added to your juice for extra health benefits. The seeds provide a range of advantages: high in omega-3 fats, calcium, fiber, manganese, phosphorus, and protein, and chia helps stabilize blood pressure. Once you soak them into liquids, they become slimy and gooey. Makes for a fun drink, more importantly, you’ll have amazing poos! For all you pet parents, chia seeds can also be given to your pet children. I’ve been adding 1/4 teaspoon of chia seeds to water and mixing it until it forms a gel. Then I add it into Chubs’ dry food. Since chia has no taste or smell, it is not invasive, and kitty eats it all up.

Chia seeds

Here are delicious and fun recipes that you can try. Maybe this will get you excited to eat healthier.

Strawberries

Strawberry Chia Jam
Makes 5 servings, lasts up to 7 days (more like 2 since it’s so delicious)

What you need:
1.5 cup of ripe strawberries, chopped into small pieces
1/8 cup agave nectar
1/8 cup chia seeds
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Combine the strawberries and agave into a saucepan and cook over medium heat until berries soften (about 5 minutes). Then smoosh up the berries.
2. Add chia seeds to the mixture and cook for another 15 minutes, stirring often. Mixture will thicken to a jam.
3. Remove from heat and mix in the vanilla extract.

Strawberry Chia Jam

Strawberry chia jam on crackers
So yummy with some multigrain crackers!

Here’s a juice recipe (it’s sweet!):

Sweet Green Juice
3 full glasses

What you need:
6 kale leaves
3 carrots
2 apples
1 pear (can be substituted with an apple)
1 cucumber
4 ribs of celery
Handful of spinach
Handful of cilantro
1/4 of lemon

Directions:
1. Juice all ingredients except for lemon.
2. Hand squeeze lemon juice into the mixture (don’t juice the lemon because the rind and white spongey layer, called the pith, are bitter).
3. Add chia seeds and mix them into the juice.
4. Pour and enjoy!

Juice

Juice with chia
Crazy green color right?

Here’s a 5-minute breakfast you can try. It doesn’t look like a lot of food, but I guarantee you’ll be full.

Breakfast

5-minute breakfast of champions!
Cut half a grapefruit, cut half a pear, and half an avocado. Stuff some cooked chorizo into the avocado to use as flavoring. Pair with a glass of sweet green juice. Yum, yum, yum! The chorizo avocado is so good, I want it for the next 3 meals.

My body feels more energized based on the past three days. I’m trying to eat like this for at least a month. Keep me accountable!

Have I enticed you yet? What are your thoughts about juicing, organics, and ooey, gooey chia seeds? Which recipe are you excited to try?

Happy (healthy) eating, Jay

Live Simply. Buy Ethically.

Poverty… yeah, that’s a scary word. No one really likes to think about it.

It’s an issue that is continually brought up over and over but you feel as though you cannot make a difference. It’s a huge issue, and what can one person do? Am I right?

After attending a seminar that discussed consumerism and the benefits of Fair Trade, I am a strong believer in supporting the the Fair Trade movement. Fair Trade allows producers in developing countries a chance to work their way out of poverty, and it promotes sustainability. Creating dignified jobs is the only long term way to break cycles of poverty. Yes, Fair Trade and Organic products are a bit pricer, but think about it this way.

With Fair Trade products, you are paying for someone else’s dignity and a chance at living a normal life. When you buy these products, you’re making the world a little bit better, sometimes in the poorest and darkest countries in the world.

I’ll admit, not everything in my cabinets and pantry are fair trade or organic (one because I just don’t have the $, and two because it’s not convenient for me since the closest store doesn’t carry Fair Trade products). But Trade As One has helped make it easier for me to get these products. I signed up for their subscription model, which delivers products every 3 months. For $99 (additional $26 with 2 bags of coffee), you are introduced to numerous Fair Trade consumables like soap, lotion, chocolate, grains, olive oil, and a bunch of other things!

When it gets delivered to my door, it feels like Christmas! This is my third box this year. My husband and I enjoy learning about new products and trying ones that we would never have thought to buy. Check it out!

Trade As One Box

Trade As One Box

These are the items that we’re most excited to try!

Trade As One Faves

Trade As One Fave

Now that you know about this issue, how can you sit around and do nothing? What changes can you make in your lives for the sake of other people?

Now go change the world a little bit at a time and tackle the issue of poverty by simply buying Fair Trade.

Not so scary anymore right?
Jay

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Order your Trade As One subscription box here
Watch this video for more information about Fair Trade 
Trade As One website