On Cooking: Little Effort – Big Wow!

If you have trouble getting veggies into your kids, roasting may be your new best friend. When you roast vegetables, the natural sugars caramelize, creating a sweetness, as well as crispy edges. Truly… they are yumiliscious!

You can take this basic recipe and switch it up based on your favorite veggies… or what you happen to have in the vegetable drawer. Here’s the basic recipe to get you started:

Ingredients:

• Skinless Chicken Pieces (I had boneless, skinless thighs)
• Assorted Vegetables (I like to use root vegetables because they stand up to the heat and cooking time)
• Olive Oil
• Garlic, minced
• Sea salt and black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 13×9 inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Rinse chicken pieces and pat dry. Wash and trim veggies and cut into large, uniform chunks. (This time I used sweet potatoes, baby red potatoes, leeks, red onions, mushrooms and zucchini.) Combine chicken pieces and veggies in baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil – just enough to lightly coat (about 3 tablespoons should do it). Add as much garlic as you  like (I like to add 3 cloves) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss all together. (You can also add sprigs of fresh thyme and/or rosemary. I have also added slices of lemon.)

Bake for 45 minutes, stirring once after 20 minutes, or until veggies are tender and chicken is cooked through.

Easy No-Bake Chocolate Berry Trifle

You can make a pretty trifle out of just about anything. Simply break up any type of cake (even cookies work) and layer them with any combination of fruit, pudding, curd, jam, whipped cream or Cool Whip. The result is spectacular! This version is my son’s favorite.

Ingredients:

• 1 store bought angel food cake
• 2 containers Kozy Shack chocolate pudding (if you don’t have Kozy Shack, use any prepared chocolate pudding or make your own)
• 1 container blueberries
• 1 container raspberries
• 1 container strawberries, quartered
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 8 oz container Cool Whip
• 1 chocolate bar (any will do)

Break up the cake so it is in bite-size pieces.

Mix the berries with the sugar and set aside.

In a trifle dish, place one third of the cake pieces. Top with 1 heaping cup of the chocolate pudding. Top with half of the berries. Top with half of the Cool Whip. Repeat layers. (You will have some cake and chocolate pudding left over. This is not a bad thing! Yum!)

Take a vegetable peeler and shave some chocolate off the side of a chocolate bar, onto the top of the trifle.

Now that you have whipped up two show-stopping meals, take a hot bath. You deserve it