Roasted Cauliflower and other recipes from this week.

To be honest this week I haven't been very adventurous cooking wise.  I believe it's directly related to sleep deprivation, which I have had quite a bit of lately!  However I did manage to feed my family and a couple times I even used a recipe.

I made a simple lemon herb marinade chicken with roasted cauliflower and sauteed spinach.  This was my most interesting meal if that tells you how this week went.  Let's just say spaghetti was more my speed the other nights.

The chicken marinade was found here.  It is made for grilling but I cooked the chicken in the oven at 400 instead.  It's a simple recipe and very tasty.  You can customize it depending on what herbs you have on hand.

Lemon Herb Chicken

Ingredients

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup water

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1-2 tsp dried or fresh herbs in any combination: oregano, thyme, parsley, rosemary, etc.

1/2 tsp salt

a few grindings of pepper

Mix all of the ingredients and pour over the chicken.  I let it sit for at least 10 minutes, then drained most of it off before cooking.

I tried roasting cauliflower last week and it didn't turn out very well (soggy).  I decided to give it another shot and used a different recipe I found here.  The main difference with this recipe is tossing the cauliflower with oil and seasoning rather than drizzling the oil over.

Roasted Cauliflower

Ingredients

1 head of cauliflower

1/8 cup of olive oil

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Wash and clean the cauliflower.  Cut off and discard the stem. Cut the cauliflower into small pieces.
3. In a medium bowl combine the oil, salt and pepper.  Add the cauliflower pieces and mix to coat each piece. 
4. Place cauliflower pieces onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake for one hour and turn 3 times during cooking until each piece has a nice brown color.  We think the browner they are the better.
5. Remove from oven and eat right away!

You could double the recipe if you have 2 cauliflower heads and want more.  One head fed our 2 adults and a reluctant 4 year old.

Sauteed Garlic Spinach

For the sauteed spinach I just put a bit of olive oil in a pan and added 3 crushed garlic cloves until they were browned.  Then I added the baby spinach and a squirt of lemon juice and cooked until they were wilted. 

Last but not least I made Easy Broccoli Macaroni and Cheese last night.  My parents flew in for a visit yesterday afternoon and I needed something quick.  This recipe fit the bill perfectly.  I especially like that the broccoli and the pasta cook together!  Genius!  I found the recipe here.  Next time I'm going to add sun dried tomatoes, we thought of that while we were eating it.

I was able to sleep more the last couple of nights so hopefully this next week will be a culinary improvement. :)  I have already made 3 dozen breastfeeding cookies this morning.  More on that tomorrow!