A Chicken in Every Pot

Or, in this case, every oven, because today, dear readers, you are going to learn how to make the best roast chicken ever.  Personally, I think being able to roast a chicken is one of those basic things that everyone needs to know how to do.  And here's a secret: it's not that hard, I promise.

The important part of roasting a chicken is making sure it stays nice and juicy, without the breast meat drying out to sawdust. "Easier said than done," you say. I'm sure there's a lot of science and stuff behind all the theories of what temperature and how long and all that, but all I can give you is what my experience has shown me, which is hight heat, then lower heat.  Bam!  That's it, really. Oh! and fat.  But we'll get to that in a minute.

Some of you might be saying, "Wait!  Don't you have to truss the bird?" Well, my friends, I'm going to confess that, no, I don't always truss the bird. If someone can show me that it actually makes a difference in how it turns out, I will keep an open mind, but I have had good results, regardless of whether I'd strung up the chicken or not.  There you have it, folks.  Another myth, busted.

The other key to success, for me, is having a meat thermometer that you can put in the chicken while it's in the oven. I like the kind that keeps the read out on the stove, with the probe (hate that word) in the chicken while it's still in the oven.  Here's my thermometer:

Now, you don't have to have that to make great roast chicken, but it takes a lot of the guesswork (and too many opening and closing of the oven door) out of making sure the thing is done. It's not that expensive and lasts a long time (I've had mine for nearly 15 years and counting).

Just one more thing before we get to the actual recipe: people will get in a lather over is whether the chicken is organic or not.  Honestly, I can't taste much of a difference, but if I can afford organic or locally-raised, that's what I would go for.  Mainly because I like to eat the skin, so I hope that the organic stuff has fewer nasty things lurking around the skin and fat.  That being said, I have eaten, and roasted, plenty of non-organic chickens and lived to tell the tale, so I'm not making judgements one way or another.  Just one more thing to note, though.  Some chickens might have additional brine/salt-water injected into them, so this affects the saltiness.  If the package says anything about salt solutions or injections, be careful about the additional salt you rub in to the skin.

Okay, on to the recipe...

Easy Roasted Chicken

1 3-4 lb chicken, patted dry
Large bunch of herbs (thyme, rosemary, parsley are best, either one or a mixture), rinsed and patted dry
2-3 Tbsp butter (softened) or olive oil
2 lemons, quartered (before you quarter them, peel off some of the lemon rind, about 1 tsp)
Salt and pepper
1-2 onions (one if the onion is very large, otherwise you might need two if they're small-sh), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
Other assorted veggies if you like

Preheat oven to 450 degrees (F). While the oven is preheating, combine the butter (or olive oil), lemon peel, salt and 1 tsp of herbs. Rub the chicken with the butter mixture, making sure to get all surfaces, plus rub a little under the skin covering the breasts.  Alternatively, you can just tuck the lemon peel and herbs under the skin, then rub the plain butter or oil over the skin.  Rub some salt and pepper (the amount is up to you) onto the chicken as well.

This was my abbreviated version -- just rubbed the butter on the skin (unfortunately, my butter wasn't softened, so it was more clumpy)....


Toss the onions, half a lemon (chunked up) and any other veggies you want to use (I'll sometimes roast carrots and potatoes with the chicken) in the bottom of a roasting pan, then place the chicken, breast side down, on top of the veggies.  The vegetables will act as a sort of rack to allow some heat to circulate under the chicken.  Loosely stuff the cavity (be sure you have taken out the little package that had the neck, liver, and heart -- but save the neck for later, we're making chicken stock!) with herbs, a couple of pieces of lemon and a few pieces of onion (you can also use cloves of garlic instead of the onion, if you like). Be sure not to stuff the cavity too tightly, though, because it will make it harder for the chicken to finish cooking. You will want the heat to get in there as well.

Put the chicken in the oven, rack in the center, and bake at 450 for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes, flip the bird (ha!) over, so that the breast is up, insert the thermometer in the thigh and close the door.  If the skin is looking dry, feel free to baste the chicken using some of the juices in the pan, but you should only need to do that once.  Try to keep the oven door closed and the heat in.  Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees (F) and bake for about 40-50 more minutes, or until the thermometer registers 170 (degrees F).  If you don't have a meat thermometer, check doneness by moving the chicken leg -- it should move easily and nearly separate from the thigh bone if you twist it.  You can also pierce the thigh with a fork or knife -- if the juices are clear and not at all pink, it should be done.

Remove the chicken from the oven, then tent with a large piece of foil and let rest for 15-20 minutes (the foil should be laid loosely over the chicken, still in the pan, to let some of the steam escape -- don't wrap the foil around to completely cover).

There you have it!  That's all there is to it.  Quick prep, then let it sit in the oven.  And beats the crap out of those rotisserie chickens at the store that have been sitting around all day.  Oh!  And save the chicken carcass (bones) when you are done.  You can use that to make your own chicken stock later.  I'll show you how!

Also, all that dark stuff that looks burnt on the bottom? Save that, too, because it's going to help flavor the chicken stock. Yum! As you can tell, I've already started picking at the chicken skin.  It's so good!

A Tale of Two Sauces

For a friend's birthday, I made her a chocolate-peanut butter swirl cheesecake, and I promise I'll share that recipe with you in a later post.  What I want to talk about today are the sauces I made to go with it.  Not content with just the cheesecake, I wanted a chocolate sauce and a peanut sauce to serve with it and make it look pretty. Luckily, I knew where to look.

A few years ago, I got a book called The Flat Belly Diet, which I should probably follow at all a little more religiously. I liked the book so much that I also bought the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook when it came out a little later. Honestly, when I was following the program and using the recipes, I actually did lose weight. But the reason I liked it was because most of the recipes had ingredients I was already buying anyway.  I'm not going to preach about one diet or another, because I don't think dieting in terms of short-term weigh loss works at all.  What one eats (one's "diet," as it were) needs to work with how your body metabolizes food and your lifestyle, and what works for one person may not work another.  Plus, as your body ages, it's going to have changing needs as well.  Like, cutting out carbs almost all together after you turn 40. It sucks.

But this is not the point of my post.  The point is, in the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook, there are recipes for a Sweet Peanut Sauce and a Decadent Dark Chocolate Sauce, which was exactly what I was looking for. Not only are they tasty, but they are super easy to make and versatile.

The peanut sauce can be served with apple slices, over ice cream, folded into whipped cream (scroll down to see pics), served over chocolate chip pancakes (oh so yummy!) or stirred into plain (or vanilla) yogurt for breakfast. The chocolate sauce can be used the same way (dip bananas in it, then swoon). I found it's also really tasty drizzled over a fig and nut cake that I bought at Wegmans, my favorite grocery store.  The sauces definitely taste better when it's warm, rather cold.

Ummm, yeah, those are finger marks in the sauce.  Quality control and all.  Because I care.  :-)

Folded into whipped cream...

And, below, is the chocolate sauce drizzled over the fig and nut cake from Wegmans.  Essentially, the "cake" is just dried figs pressed together with various nuts into layers.  It was so, so good!

So, without further ado, there are the recipes for Sweet Peanut Sauce and Decadent Dark Chocolate Sauce:

Sweet Peanut Sauce (from the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook):

1/2 cup creamy, natural, unsalted peanut butter
1/2 cup fat-free evaporated milk
2 Tbsp. honey

Heat the peanut butter, milk and honey in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir constantly until melted and smooth.  Serve warm. (8 servings, about 2 Tbsp each)

Decadent Dark Chocolate Sauce (from the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook):

4 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup whole milk
2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar

Heat the chocolate, milk, and brown sugar in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir constantly until melted and smooth. Serve warm. (4 servings, about 3 Tbsp each)

What did I tell you?  Super simple, yet very good.  You'll want to keep these on hand for when you just need a little something sweet!

Water, Water, Everywhere!

Here we are, in the dog days of summer, and in Virginia it is HOT and HUMID.  Not a surprise, really, but it does become nearly unbearable for a person who grew up in Minnesota.  We spend a lot of time either inside or at the pool these days.

To stay cool and hydrated,  I try to drink a lot of water throughout the day.  It's good for you, and I rarely have juices or sodas in the house (we never had them in the house as a kid, so I don't really think to buy them).  But sometimes a person wants a little flavor, you know what I mean?  Water is just so...watery. Most of the time, that's enough, but every once in a while I need a little more, and a measly lemon slice just won't cut it.  Unfortunately, I'm also trying to limit sugar and prepared foods, so what's a girl to do?

Enter Sassy Water.  This is a recipe I got from the Flat Belly Diet Book, but I've changed it up a little, using limes sometimes instead of lemons and adding more ginger, and thinly slicing the ginger, rather than grating it.  The pitcher I use has a built-in strainer at the spout, but the grated ginger sneaks through and (for me, anyway) is too strong, plus the ginger pulp gives the water a little extra texture that I don't prefer.

You might want to spring for organic ingredients in this case, because everything's sitting in the water, infusing it with their flavors, which means any residues left even after washing them will also be leaching into the water as well. Just something to think about, but it's not like I'll be checking up on you or anything.  For the record, this time I did not use organic, 'cause sometimes I like living on the edge.    :-)

For those of you paying close attention, you'll probably notice that the ginger is in chunks, more than slices.  Sometimes I'll do it in long, thin-ish slices as well.  The best way to get this all done quickly is if you have a mandoline to get the slices nice and thin, but sometimes I just can't be bothered to drag the thing out, so there you go. And look at me, trying to get fancy with garnishes and such.  Unfortunately, it looks pretty weak.  Sigh.  It tastes really good, though, so let's focus on that!

The Flat Belly Diet's Sassy Water Recipe

2 liters of water (about 8.5 cups)
1 inch (or 2 inches if you can spare it) fresh ginger, sliced thinly
1 medium cucumber, thinly sliced (the original recipe has you peeling the cucumber, but I didn't see the point, really, especially if you have organic)
1 medium lemon or lime, thinly sliced
12 mint leaves

Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher, chill in the refrigerator, and let flavors blend overnight. I can usually get two pitchers-full out of the ingredients (filling the pitcher back up once the first batch of water is gone, but you have to drink it within 3 days, otherwise everything gets a little too water-logged.

The version I made, shown in the pictures here, is just lime, cucumber and ginger.  Feel free to change things up, depending on your taste and availability of ingredients.

Simplicity

Often, the best dishes are those that are so simple, but using the best ingredients at their peak flavor.  Summer is especially good for this kind of cooking, because there are so many fresh, ripe, flavorful foods available.  There's just something about excellent ingredients, prepared in a way that honors the flavors, that I really admire and strive for.

A case in point is my favorite corn salad.  It's amazingly simple, yet everything blends so perfectly that it's the best tasting little salad you've ever had.  Honestly. It positively reeks of summer.  This recipe calls for fresh corn, and it's best if you make it with corn straight from the cob, but I've made it with frozen corn with good results as well.  Just don't leave out the basil, because it really makes the dish.

I have to confess that I didn't make up this recipe.  It comes from Ina Garten, who is masterful with bringing the full flavor out of a few simple ingredients.  I love her, even though I find her voice and manner on Food Network really irritating.  Maybe that's just the way they talk up in the Hamptons.  I've never been there. If you don't own any of her cookbooks, I highly recommend them. I have the first one, "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook," but I've looked at many, and they are all fabulous.

Ina Garten's Fresh Corn Salad:

5 ears corn, shucked
1/2 cup small-diced red onion (about one small onion)
3 Tbsp good olive oil (extra virgin)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup chiffonade fresh basil leaves (that's just a fancy way of saying "cut the basil leaves cross-wise into thin strips" - I stack the leaves on top of each other, then slice cross-ways)

In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the corn for 3 minutes, until the starchiness is just gone (How will you know the starchiness is gone? I have no idea, I just do what Ina says, so boil those ears for 3 minutes). Drain and immerse cobs in ice water to stop the cooking and to set the color (Congratulations!  You've just blanched your corn! When you see that term in other recipes, that's what it means: cooking briefly in boiling water.  "Shocking" is what you're doing when you immerse it in the ice water to stop the cooking process. It also helps veggies keep their color).  When the corn is cool, cut the kernels off the cob, cutting close to the cob.

Toss the kernels in a large bowl with the red onion, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Just before serving, toss in the fresh basil. Taste for the seasonings and serve cold or at room temperature.

Serves 4-6

The Recipe I Wanted To Hate

 There I was, planning meals for the week, when I asked my oldest son what he might want to have for dinner this week. I happened to be looking at my Southern Living cookbook at the time.  Big mistake.  He saw a picture of a recipe called "Smothered Enchiladas."  The son, who is a pretty healthy eater (actually chooses and eats salad at school for lunch) and generally does not like very gooey, creamy stuff, wanted these crazy creamy, smothered enchiladas.  I looked at the nutritional information per serving, which was one burrito: 712 calories (65% from fat), 51.3 g fat (nearly half of which was saturated). Gah! 

Against my better judgement and, because I love my son and he actually showed some interest, I told him I would make them.  Friends, I have to confess, this recipe made me do things.  Horrible things that I never thought I would ever do.  Like buy Cream of Chicken soup and use it with ground beef.  Like buy reduced fat cheese and light sour cream, in the desperate attempt to make this less fat-laden than a Big Mac with fries. The only redeeming ingredient in this thing was the green chiles, and it was a very small can.


 Here's the recipe from Southern Living for Smothered Enchiladas:

2 lbs. ground beef
1 (1 1/4 oz) package of mild taco seasoning
1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chiles, divided
2 (10 3/4 oz) cans cream of chicken soup (I substituted 1 cup of 2% evaporated milk for the 2nd can of soup)
1 (16 oz) container sour cream (I used light)
8 (8-inch) flour tortillas
2 cups (8 oz) shredded cheddar cheese (I used 50% reduced fat cheddar)

Garnishes: salsa, sour cream, green onions, chopped fresh cilantro

Cook ground beef in a skillet, breaking up bigger chunks, until it crumbles and is no longer pink. Drain off any fat. Stir in taco seasoning mix and half of the chopped green chiles. Set aside.

Stir together remaining chiles, soup and sour cream.  Pour half of sour cream mixture in a lightly greased 9x13-inch baking dish.  Spoon beef mixture evenly down center of each tortilla.  Roll up and place tortillas, seam side down, over sour cream mixture in baking dish.

Here is my tortilla-filling and -rolling set up.

Spread remaining sour cream mixture over the tortillas and top with grated cheese.

Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  The enchiladas should be heated through and bubbling around the edges.  Garnish, if desired.  Serves 8.

I ended up only being able to fit 7 in the pan, but for my family of 4, it was plenty, with almost half left over. These are really filling, and actually pretty good.  You couldn't even tell I used reduced fat stuff.  And it was really good with salsa on top -- the acid from the tomatoes help cut through the richness.  Knowing that we needed vegetables with this thing, I made my favorite corn salad recipe.  I doubt I will ever make this again, unless someone asks for it for their birthday, maybe.  But I thought I would share, if only to serve as a cautionary tale: don't give your kids an open-ended question like: "What do you want for dinner?" You might not like the answer...

Little Balls of Heaven

One of my favorite all time Saturday Night Live skits is the one about Schweddy Balls. If you're familiar with that skit, I hope you're laughing at my title!  Otherwise, you might just be scratching your head at my inappropriateness.

Anyway, I used to get a bunch of different food magazines, but now I've winnowed it down to just two: Bon Appetit and Martha Stewart's Everyday Food.  These are the two magazines where I consistently find recipes that I want to try.  To be honest, for all my "foodiness", I really try to avoid recipes that involve a gazillion ingredients or stuff that I don't regularly buy.  I hate having my cupboards and fridge cluttered up with half-used bottles and jars of stuff (rosewater, chickpea flour, chili lime pickle, anchovy paste...just to name a few).  Look for future blog posts that will utilize these ingredients.  :-)

But I digress!  Back to my balls.  So in the latest edition of Bon Appetit, I found a recipe for Cocoa-Date Truffles where the only sweetener is the dates.  I made them for the staff in the front office of our elementary school.  I made them instead of, say, cupcakes, because our school is labeled a "healthy foods" school (or something like that) where we can't have sweet treats (unless it's fruit) for parties and the daily snacks that the kids bring can't have sugar of any kind in the first 3 ingredients. It's not that big of a deal, and I get why they're doing it, but at the same time, not all of the food choices the school offers in the cafeteria are exactly packed with nutrition, either.  It would be nice if they were consistent, but I'll roll with it.  Ha! I am just full of ball puns today...

So I made these date balls to show the front office that you can have a sweet but healthy (or at least healthier) treat and that just because something's sweet, doesn't mean it's unhealthy. (I'm angling to get low fat brownies allowed, but not sure how that will go over).  The other great thing about this recipe is that it's dairy-free and doesn't have nuts (at least the original recipe), so it's safe to serve anyone who has a milk or nut allergy.

Now, I didn't have raw cacao powder and just used regular cocoa powder, so I'm not sure what the taste difference would be, but I wasn't about to go searching for raw cacao powder.  I just didn't have it in me.  So, here's the recipe from Bon Appetit, with my modifications noted after.

Cocoa-Date Truffles (from the June 2012 edition of Bon Appetit)
makes about 20

3 Tbsp. raw cacao powder
1 1/2 cups Medjool dates, pitted
3 Tbsp. (or more) unsweetened, shredded coconut or quick-cooking oats
pinch of sea salt

Flavoring Options (choose one)
1 Tbsp. unsweetened shredded  coconut
1 tsp. finely grated orange zest
1 tsp. instant espresso powder

Coating Options (mix and match)
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup lightly toasted sesame seeds
1/2 cup crushed, lightly toasted pistachios
1/2 cup crushed, lightly toasted hazelnuts

Puree cacao powder, dates, 3 Tbsp coconut, and salt in a food processor until almost smooth, adding water by teaspoonfuls if too dry and crumbly and coconut by teaspoonfuls if too wet and sticky (the original consistently will be determined by how moist your dates are).  Add desired flavoring and pulse to combine.

Scoop date puree by the tablespoonful and roll  into 1" balls.  Can be made up to one week ahead. Cover and chill.

Roll truffles in desired coatings to cover.

Notes:

From Bon Appetit: Raw cacao powder and unsweetened, shredded coconut can be found at natural food stores, specialty food stores and some supermarkets.


Marna's notes:  Instead of the coconut or oats, I added 2 Tbsp of walnut butter plus 1/4 cup of finely chopped, toasted walnuts.  Plus, as mentioned earlier, I didn't have raw cacao powder and just used regular unsweetened cocoa instead.  I ended up having to add about 2 Tbsp of water to get things to a consistency where I could shape the mixture into balls. In terms of servings, I used a tablespoon scoop and only got about 12 balls, so you could make them smaller to get more, or just count on this making less than you originally thought (or double the recipe).

A (Wo)Man With a Plan

This will probably not come as a shock to anyone who knows me, but I try to plan at least four or five meals per week.  That usually gives me enough leftovers to kind of punt the other nights.  I know some folks think it takes a lot of time to sit down and do that kind of planning, but honestly, it doesn't, really. Now, don't get me wrong, usually "the plan" goes awry at some point in the week, but not so much so that I can't get back on track later on down the road. And I have to say that it actually saves time and stress knowing you've got the ingredients in the house to make any one of 5 different meals, whether you make the one you actually planned for on the exact night or not.

Another key tool that has helped me with planning is an online note-taking app.  I use Evernote, but there's probably a gazillion types of those apps out there. This is how I use it for meal planning:

On a given night, usually when I realize that I need to go to the store in the next day or two and don't have any meals plans, I will sit down and type in my notes (my meal planning list is called "Meals for the Week), such as:

1. Sunday -- 
2. Monday --  Steak, sauteed chard with bacon, tabbouleh
3. Tuesday -- soup with chard, garlic sausage, cannelini
4. Wednesday -- grilled pizza (pizza dough: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/basic-pizza-dough-recipe/index.html)
5. Thursday -- chicken and dumplings (Paula Deen, p. 74)
6. Friday -- smothered enchiladas (Southern Living cookbook, p. 303), corn salad
7. Saturday -- out...

At the bottom of the same note, I make a grocery list as I go, plus, as you can see, if there's a recipe that I'm using, I either provide the link (if it's online) or note the cookbook reference, so I don't forget where to go.  My old fart brain needs that kind of detail.  Having the grocery list with the meal plan helps me at the store, too, because: a) I never forget my list; and b) when I have a question why I put one thing or another on the list (or, more likely, I forget that I have a plan for, say, Thursday), I can refer back to the meal plan. Easy peasy.   :-)

I must have been sitting down on Sunday to do this, since that day was blank on this particular week, but that just shows you how flexible this can be.  If you don't need or want a plan for a particular day, just leave it blank. Monday's menu happened to consist of a steak I had bought for a barbeque that we ended up not using, plus some beautiful Swiss chard I bought at the farmer's market the Saturday before.  That kind of fresh stuff is something you need to use up within a day or two of buying it, unless you do a mid-week run to replenish fruit, veggies, and milk (as I often do).  The tabbouleh was left over from the barbeque as well.  

Tuesday's menu made use of leftovers I already had.  I made a soup with the leftover chard and bacon, added leftover garlic bratwurst that I sliced up, added a can of beans and some chicken stock and voilà! You've got yourself some soup for dinner.  I also happened to have some sliced up, stale bread in the freezer, so I pulled some of that out, toasted it, tossed it on top of the soup (in the bowl), and grated some parmesan over it. It was tasty!  That's the beauty of meal planning.  You can make a little extra of something a day or two before, and it's already prepped for dinner another night, making it that much easier to get dinner on the table. Plus, you can make better use of leftovers, thereby eliminating throwing out food.  The only problem is that, sometimes, my husband will eat something as a snack or for lunch that I had been planning to use later in the week.  Oh, well.  Nothing it fool proof!

For Father's Day, I gave my husband a pan to make pizza on the grill, so that was my inspiration for Wednesday's meal.  The other days, I went with what the kids wanted, within some confines (I already had chicken and ground beef in the freezer, so they had to pick meals that used those ingredients).  Thursday's meal also works, because it cooks in the crock pot, and my son's birthday party is that day, so we'll have the meal cooking during the day and ready later in the evening, after everyone's gone home and I'm too tired out to make anything.

And Saturday, I was going out with friends to visit a couple of area wineries, so you know I wouldn't be in any shape to cook, so the plan that night was to order something or go out.  We ended up at a friend's for an impromptu barbeque, but either way, I wasn't cooking.  :-)  There are nights where I just don't feel like cooking (gasp! I know, but it happens to the best of us).  On those nights, we'll often clean out the fridge and eat up any leftovers we have from the week. I like to call it smorgasbord night.


All told, I spend about an hour planning the week's meals.  That might seem like a lot of time, but if you think about it, I don't waste any time during the week worrying about what to make that night or if I have the right ingredients (or having to make an extra, unplanned grocery store stop along the way).  I figure I'm saving money, too, since I'm not doing as much impulse-buying at the grocery store.


You can also make it easier by doing theme nights.  During the school year, we had Taco Tuesdays and Pancake Thursdays. Originally, I instituted those nights to make sure that my youngest son would have two nights where he would actually eat something, but it turned out to make meal planning even easier, since it was two nights I didn't have to think of something new to make.  We did switch things up by doing different kinds of tacos (chicken, fish, pork) and pancakes (buttermilk, chocolate chip, gingerbread, etc.).  Eventually, the boys got tired of tacos, so we're taking a break from that idea.  I do like Mexican food, though, so there's usually at least one night each week where we're eating it.


This is not to say that I do this every single week. There are some weeks that's it's nearly Wednesday before I get an actual plan together, but then I just roll the plan into the next week.


If you're not sure how to even get started, there are some websites that offer plans, complete with grocery lists.  One of my favorites is found on Martha Stewart's website.  Just scroll down or search for Grocery Bag; there are a number of different options.  Kraft Foods also has their "1 Bag 5 Dinners" website as well. Kraft's recipes, understandably, specify their products, but I tend to look past that and just use whatever brand (usually store brand) I usually buy. Rarely, because of a certain picky 7-year-old, do I use the exact same 5 meals that are offered, but will substitute something I know he'll eat based on the general ingredients used for the rest of the recipes.


No pictures this time, but I hope this is useful information, and perhaps some inspiration, for you to do a little bit more meal planning.  Maybe save some money and time along the way, too!