Tuesday, March 1, 2011

It's That Simple

Superman is stressin me out. Love him, but between 5 and 7 every night you can find us having the SAME fight over and over again. EAT. YOUR. DINNER. Then the night ends yet again with doors slamming, toys being thrown against the wall, and bed yet again with no dinner and just a banana. I'm mean. To no avail I've tried sticker charts and cookie rewards and clapping and cheering like an idiot.

When I had him, I was only 20. I didn't really know what I was doing and I didn't know many people with kids (ok I'm making excuses for myself... whether you are 20 or 40 that first kid always throws you for a loop). Kids eat kid food right? I spent too many years giving him options and making two meals. I thought to myself, oh I will break this habit when he is 5 and understands me better. Little did I know its a lot easier to break the will of 2 year old then it is a 5 year old (this 5 year old, anyway).

I don't expect him to eat every meal. I'm not going to dumb down the foods that we like every single night just because we have kids. Go ahead and call me selfish but I'm way too much of a food lover for that. A few nights a week I make sure to meet him in the middle with our meals, but If I'm in the mood for spicy Indian, I'm making it. And if two out of three kids will eat it then that's not bad. Batman's been grubbin Indian since before he could walk and he still loves it. If you don't want to try spicy Indian food, Superman, I'll give you that. But when I make LASAGNA or BAKED MAC N CHEESE or CHICKEN for goodness sake, you gotta eat it. It's that simple.

So here's why I'm down with this meal... everyone's eating it. Furthermore, its DELICIOUS. Furthermore, its EASY. Furthermore, its HEALTHY. Furthermore, there were no doors slamming in my face last night. And furthermore it's going to be stretched into two nights of meals!!

Thanks to my longtime friend, running pal, and bride-to-be Ms Jackie Gray for this simple yet fabulous idea!

Crockpot Chicken

1 whole chicken
1 onion (I usually add carrots and potatoes too!)
2 tbl thyme
salt and pepper
2 cups water
(optional, 2 tablespoons flour to thicken the broth after you take out the chicken)


Just put the bird in there and rub some of the seasonings on there. If you're really cool and you feel like it, you can rub it under the skin. I didn't.

Cut some onions - I wanted to try out my new veggie wedger. Its fun.

Throw any veggies in there with the 2 cups of water.


Then cover and let it go on Low for 8 to 9 hours! It's that simple!!

annnnd 8 hours later...


I threw the onions on tpo of the mixed greens. I just sauteed a bag of Southern greens (kale, mustard greens and collard greens) with a splash of veggie broth, a little olive oil and garlic. And if you're wondering, Superman definitely did not even go CLOSE to this. In fact he asked me if I could eat it somewhere else because it smelled bad.

I'm not going to lie I was a little scared about how to go about taking the chicken apart.




It took me like 20 minutes before I realized I had to flip the bird over to get to the breast part.

Yum.



Leftover chicken and homemade stock for tonight's dinner... chicken pot pie! My first ever. I usually let Marie Calendar take care of that for me. I will post it if its any good!




** Update -After pulling apart chicken, I like to whisk in about 2 tablespoons flour to the broth and veggies, and let it sit for about 10 minutes, and then add the pulled apart chicken back in the crock pot.  For the second night’s dinner, I use frozen puff pastry in a pie dish, then add the leftover chicken, carrots, potatoes, onions, and thickened sauce, with a handful of frozen peas throw in there.  Bake in a 350 oven for 40 minutes.



11 comments:

Unknown said...

You could always take it one step further and put the bones and a bunch o water in the crock pot and let it simmer on low all night and that will give you more stock also. Rubbing oil or butter on the skin will make the skin crisp, and to make it crisper more like rotissire skin you don't even need to add the water

Haddon Family said...

i was wondering if i could do that, holly! thanks I will next time!

Jackie said...

i love that we used the exact same Trader Joes organic free-range chicken....glad u liked the recipe! I like the greens idea! I made acorn squash as the side for ours, but it turned out nasty. Will try these greens next time instead!

Anonymous said...

Well I was 29 when I had my first and 9 years of "wisdom" didn't help me in the child-feeding dept. either. He is 8 and will only eat pasta, hot dogs, and pizza without sauce. I have given up the fight. To be fair, he was a picky eater even as a baby. Even his babysitter asked me for suggestions as to what to give him - and she had 3 kids of her own! I was looking at her to help me! At the end of the day, you just have to decide which battles are worth fighting. My parents are quick to remind me that I was the world's pickiest eater. My aunt kept a list of the foods I WOULD eat. And I turned out okay. Sorta. ;) (this is Alison in case you hadn't guessed!)

Haddon Family said...

Alison it helps so much to hear that I'm not alone! My mom said I was picky as a kid too and look at me now. It just gets exhausting to either try and fight it OR to cater to it every night!!

Katherine said...

Awesome, I'm going to have my boyfriend cook this for me! lol

Anonymous said...

Ok...Making this today. Should I save the stock in expectation of the pot pie recipe? :)...
I used the choppers and chopped up kale for kale chips btw that will be the vegetable for tonight.
Love this blog!

Haddon Family said...

YES save the stock!! the pot pie turned out great. Going to post it asap. If you don't use it for the pot pie though you can freeze it and use ir for something else! Loved having some free, fresh, organic chicken broth at my disposal! And by the way all that chicken has lasted us all week in different meals - especially for the kids or quick lunches for me. I might be crockpotting a chicken every week!

Jen said...

I have been doing the whole chickens in the deep covered baker...love that, too! Have one in the fridge thawing for tomorrow:-)

Puddles of Run said...

Jackie was just telling me about this recipe the other day!! Now I have it in writing. I tried something similar a few weeks back and I really hated the "giblets" I still don't even know what that is... AHH!

K said...

Love it! I've made it 2x's now and recommended it to friends more times than I can count! Soooo good and everyone loves it!