Roasted Chicken

This is one of my favourite dishes to make when I'm strapped for time with prepping.  I always want a nutritious dinner on the table but sometimes, I don't have a lot of time to spend making an elaborate dinner.  Roasted chicken is quick, simple and delicious.  You can serve it with rice and a cooked vegetable or two, or serve warm chicken with a nice green salad and simple vinaigrette.  At the end of the meal, I separate the leftover meat to use for the next day's lunch or dinner and freeze the carcass.  Once I have three carcasses, I make a delightful chicken broth.  Nothing goes to waste with these little free-range chickens!  Oh, and the chicken tastes amazing infused with these flavours.  I have to draw the line on the amount of skin my youngest son eats, he simply can't get enough!

roasted chicken

6-10 lbs free-range chicken
olive oil
salt
pepper
thyme
3 garlic gloves, peeled and whole

1. Brush whole chicken with olive oil.
2. Rub salt, pepper and thyme all over the skin (don't forget the underside).
3. Sprinke salt, pepper and thyme inside the cavity and add the garlic cloves.
4. Put chicken on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.  This makes the clean-up a bit easier.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  Pierce the chicken with a skewer where the leg meets the body.  If the juices run clear, it's ready.  It's that easy!

I'll take this opportunity to mention that I've stopped following the SCD diet.  If I was a stay-at-home mom, I think I would've been able to go much longer, but gave it a good go for a month and a half.  I've discovered so many new recipes that have become new staples, however, wasn't able to go for the 1-2 years it probably would have taken to get rid of my kids' dairy intolerances.  Thank goodness for the multitude of substitutions available today, the don't really have to go without. And, given that so many people are intolerant to dairy nowadays, it's probably telling of how our bodies just aren't able to 
digest dairy as easily as other products.  I'll still keep on labelling foods that I make that are SCD friendly, in case it can help someone visiting this blog come up with new ideas.

For now, we are back at school and in the full swing of things.  Packing healthy snacks and lunches and keeping it simple!