Just Another Day: Roasted Chicken with Yogurt Sauce

On the menu tonight for dinner:

Roasted Chicken with Rosemary

Get yourself an Amish chicken (breasts on the bone are what I used)

Cover a tray with aluminum foil and lay the chicken on it

Spread olive oil over the chicken and sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and crushed rosemary

Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes

*This is a new thing for me: normally I bake them for about 45-60 minutes at 350. This time I increased the temperature and really liked the results: the top roasted perfectly and the inside stayed moist and succulent. Once the juices run clear (just stick a knife through and see what color the juice is), you know it's done. Turn off the oven, cover the chicken with a foil tent, and leave it in there to stay warm until you're ready to eat.

Yogurt Sauce with Cucumber and Garlic

This is basically raita, the Indian yogurt sauce everyone loves. All you do is chop a cucumber, add 1 1/2 cups of Chobani Greek Yogurt, and 3 cloves of garlic. Mix it together and season with salt, pepper, and loads of garlic powder. Let it sit in the fridge for an hour or two so the flavors have a chance to cool down a bit.

You can serve this with pasta or rice or quinoa - I actually used pasta and it was surprisingly yummy with the yogurt sauce as the binder. A few healthy meal and a filling on at that.

And check out this tasty breakfast idea:

Take about 1/2 cup of Greek Yogurt and drizzle it with honey. Then cut up a half a banana and arrange it nicely around the yogurt. Not only is this full of healthy start-your-day ingredients, it is soooo pretty! And... ignore the little stub of banana peel at the bottom of the photo - I made this really early in the morning :p

Quinoa - the golden grain

Well, technically, it's a seed. A very tasty, nutty seed. And, unlike rice, kind of hard to burn and make too dry or overdress because it literally absorbs whatever you put on it.

My Aunt is very much into health foods and she made this for me when I went back to Michigan. She's always sending me the latest news on what's been shown to have the highest protein content or what's fighting cancer, etc. So after watching her prepare a yummy salad with quinoa as the star, I promised myself I'd try and find some here in Virginia. True to my word, I picked some up at Trader Joe's last week and have since been stuffing myself silly with the following recipe. It's super simple, extremely healthy, and quite addictive.

I've also included some additional ideas of things you can serve with the quinoa, but it is a wonderful light lunch or dinner by itself. The inspiration was originally a Greek themed meal, but after looking in the fridge I realized this salad brings together a traditional Persian appetizer: curly parsley, shards of feta (French), radishes, and pita. I didn't have radishes, but I think they'd add the perfect bite.

Quinoa with Cucumber, Avocado, Tomato, and Parsley

What You Need

1 avocado, cut into medium chunks

1/2 of an English Cucumber, scoop out the seeds and peel off the skin if it's too tough, diced

1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half

4 oz feta cheese, cut into medium-small dices

juice of 1/2 a lemon

about 1 cup chopped curly parsley, stems removed, rinsed well

2 cloves garlic, chopped

pepper, salt

3 Tbs olive oil

2 cups cooked quinoa (so 1 cup dry - it basically doubles in size)

Cook the quinoa by adding the grains to a pot and adding twice as much water. Bring to a boil, cover, turn down the heat to a simmer, and let steam for about 15 minutes or until all the water has been absorbed. Fluff it with a fork. It should still have a little crunch to it.

Mix all the veggies in a bowl, add the herbs and dressing, then the cooked quinoa.

Eat immediately or save for leftovers - you might need to add more dressing the next day because it'll absorb overnight, most likely.

Now, you can adjust any of those amounts as needed - the salad was pretty chunky which is how I like it, but you could easily stretch your dollars by adding more quinoa. This recipe feeds about 4 people.

Serve with chicken - all I do is thaw the chicken and arrange it on a sheet pan lined with parchment or aluminum foil. The trick to not over-oiling the chicken (I HATE losing my good olive oil to the tray instead of the chicken), is to first pour the oil into a soup spoon and then use the spoon to spread the oil - this way there isn't any mess. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, sage, and oregano. Cook at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes for tenders and longer, maybe 30 minutes, for chicken breasts.

I served with this little yogurt dipping sauce recipe, also Persian-inspired.

Mix about 1 cup of Greek yogurt with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Chop about 1/2 a cup of curly parsley (use the rest of the bunch you used in the quinoa dish). Next, add about half a chopped cucumber and stir it all together. Serve on top of the chicken or the salad.