I’m back. I’m sorry to leave you in the middle of the meal planning but life got in the way—that pesky life. So where was I? Meal Planning Day Four was leftovers. Technically, I was in Pasadena having fancy pizza with Bethany and friends but Toby was at home having leftovers for me.

Meal Planning Day Five was Roman-Style Chicken (ala Giada) with oven-baked potatoes and onions. I love Everyday Italian with Giada. I watched her show once and thought, I could do that. So I did. It’s never happened again. But then, I don’t get much time to watch television anymore.

Below is my trailer-park version of her fabulous recipes.

I make the potatoes first because they take longer to cook. This time I decided to make sweet potatoes with my potatoes. Are they yams or sweet potatoes? I always get them mixed up. They call them one thing in the store, another on the internet. I think we should just call them “swams.” You know which ones I mean. They are reddish purple on the outside and orange on the inside. They cook up to be nice and sweet and not dry or mealy like the white ones.

Ingredients:

2-3 big swams and/or potatoes (whatever is equivalent to 2 lbs. red potatoes)

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

1 package of cippolini onions blanched and peeled

Directions:

1. Blanch your little cippolini onions in boiling water for one minute. Let them cool under cold running water, then peel and cut the ends off.



I like cooking cippolini onions because it gives me an excuse to use this neato strainer when I blanch them. I got it cheap from the Chinese market. Sometimes I can’t find little cippolini onions. I’ve tried regular boiled onions and they were a pain. It’s really not that big of a deal if you leave them out.

2. Peel and chop up the swams and potatoes into bite size pieces. Sometimes I cut them up to look like french fries, sometimes I don’t. You just want them thin enough to cook evenly. I probably loaded up my pan too much in the photo above.
3. Toss swams and potatoes and onions in a bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper so that all pieces are coated with oil.
4. Spread evenly on a tinfoil-lined cookie sheet. I spray the tinfoil with cooking spray because even though these puppies are dripping with olive oil, they still stick sometimes! What is up with that?!!
5. Bake at 400 F for 45 minutes or until cooked through.
6. Empty into a serving dish and you’re done!

Onward with the Roman-Style Chicken!

Ingredients:

1 package of chicken (I use boneless skinless thighs)

1/2 package (or 1/2 lb) bacon (this is supposed to be prosciutto)

salt and pepper

olive oil

1 orange bell pepper, 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped into bite-size pieces

1 15-oz. can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup white wine (doh! I only had red)

1/2 cup chicken stock

1/4 tsp minced garlic (paste for the lazy)

a dash of oregano

a few snips of fresh thyme leaves (if you happen to have it)

(I skipped the capers because Toby doesn’t like them)

Directions:

1. Season chicken with pepper and salt.
2. Brown chicken lightly on both sides in olive oil in a pan. Remove and set aside.
3. In the same pan add peppers and bacon. Cook until bacon is crispy (ish) and peppers are browned.
4. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
5. Add tomatoes (with juice), wine and herbs.

Her recipe says to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan but I’ve never had that… I may be missing something in this part of the recipe but it still tastes good.

6. Return chicken to pan. Add stock and bring mixture to a boil.
7. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is done. About 20-30 minutes.

Serve with potatoes and a green salad and enjoy!

Upcoming: Day six is leftovers again and day seven is lasagna but I’m taking a rain check on the lasagna because I made a quick trip out to the sticks instead. Next week perhaps!