What Keeps Me Alive: Chicken Sheet Dinner

Naked and ready for my true love; garlic

As this blog has made apparent, I am a baker at heart. I find savory ingredients can be enjoyed separately or together with the same pleasure, but baking is the majesty of combining a bunch of separate parts to make a whole, new dish. I do try to push myself to try new dinner/lunch recipes, and if they are easy and healthy, I know I’ve hit the jackpot.

As I’ve gloated about before, I actually do try to make Tasty recipes. I first adapted it in February and haven’t looked back. Honestly, I eat this meal at least twice a week. Everything about it fits my life. It’s simple, easy to prep and clean up, mega healthy and I constantly have all of the ingredients in my house. To make it even more straightforward, I use frozen broccoli (not thawed, just throw it straight on the pan) and M&M Meats boneless, skinless chicken breasts, which actually need to be cooked from frozen. This meal stores amazingly well in the fridge, so if I know I have a busy week coming up, I’ll make it on Sunday and grab it whenever. I’ve also just slightly increased the ingredients and thrown on an extra chicken breast to make 3 servings.

I love following recipes, but I am pretty relaxed about this one. I’ll forgo one clove of garlic if I’m getting low, I’ll throw on my paprika if I’m feeling spicy and olive oil is never measured out. You can’t mess it up!

Chicken Sheet Dinner 
Adapted slightly from Tasty 

Yields 2 servings

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 sweet potato , diced
1 head or half bag of frozen broccoli (cut into florets)
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons oregano
1 tablespoon paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat over to 400F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Lay out the sweet potato, chicken breasts, and broccoli. Evenly distribute the garlic, oregano, paprika, salt, and pepper over the entire pan and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 35-40 minutes (I usually go closer to 40 minutes). Enjoy! 

*For easy cleanup, just carefully throw away the aluminum foil.

 

 

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WHAT I MADE THIS MONTH: June

June was a month of visiting and working, so it flew by faster then May. My parents visited and I was treated to lots of delicious food around the city. That being said, I wasn’t very creative with my cooking and, as I expected, I did not cook a single new dinner recipe. I will say I made some free style stir frys, but other then that it was only desserts. With my recipe challenge, I’m really pleased how many recipes I’ve repeated since the beginning of the year. It’s nice to know I’m not just wasting my time, but actually adding to my recipe repertoire.

New recipes tried: 3

Repeats 

• Baked Tortilla Chips from Love Grows Wild: I absolutely loathe wasting food, yet sometimes I am silly and buy food I won’t really eat. Tortillas is one, since they are usually only used for one meal, then they sit in my fridge/freezer all sad. I decided to take action and look for a recipe to make my own tortilla chips and I was really pleased with the results. Often baking things into “chips” doesn’t get my desired level of crispness, but these were perfect.
• Classic Strawberry Shortcakes by Betty Crocker: As I hate wasting food, I have to get extra creative with any leftovers I have. One pantry leftover I had was Bisquick, and this recipe allowed me to use it up. They aren’t overly sweet, but when you’re piling whipped cream and strawberries on top, you can’t really tell!

Shortcake always goes better with whiskey 

• Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting by Cooking Classy: I did not use the chocolate buttercream because it called for ONE AND HALF CUPS OF BUTTER, and I am not that swanky. So I just reduced it to 3/4 cup and added another 1/2 cup of icing sugar and it was fine. The cake was very classic and was a great birthday cake.

Similarly, birthday cake pairs best with sparkling wine. 

Fails 

• No fails! All three recipes would delicious and easy (thank God), and I can totally see myself making them again.

 

Game of Thrones is ended now and their are no upcoming birthdays in my friend group, so my dessert testing will be reduced significantly. I’m working full time and still doing thesis work, so I’m on the lookout for healthy, quick dinner and lunches (who isn’t). Hopefully July will offer some inspiration for my dinner rotation!