Lazy Weekend: Easy Chinese Chicken Dinner

This makes enough to feed five field hands, a basketball team, or two people for three days of dinners. Since ordering Chinese food in the same amount would be cost prohibitive, try this more economical option instead. Easy Chicken Chinese Dinner 3 boneless chicken breasts, rough chopped into cubes 1 small or ½ a large onion, rough chopped into cubes 1 cup of fresh mushrooms, sliced 1 can of bamboo shoots, drained 1 can of water chestnuts 1 tsp of garlic powder ½ tsp of cumin 1/8 tsp (in other words, a light sprinkling) of red pepper flakes 1 tbsp lemon juice 1 tbsp soy sauce 2 tbsp olive oil or peanut oil, or corn oil. In other words, oil. 2 tbsp corn starch 1 ½ cups chicken broth Any other veggies, in ½ cup increments – broccoli, carrots, bell pepper. Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok. Add chicken and onion, and cook until chicken is browned on all sides. Add mushrooms and any fresh vegetables, cook for about 10 minutes. Add garlic powder, cumin, red pepper flakes, lemon juice and soy sauce, and stir. Add water chestnuts and bamboo shoots, stir. Cook for about 5 more minutes. While that’s going on, mix the corn starch and chicken broth in a container you can seal – then shake it until you don’t see cornstarch on the bottom (a jar works well). Pour slowly into the pan at medium heat, stirring and being careful to not let it clump up (if it does, just add a teaspoon or so of broth or water, and stir some more). You probably won’t use all the mixture, because you’ll need enough room to stir. When the mixture has thickened, take it off the flame. Serve with rice.

Lazy Weekend: Italian Turkey Meatloaf

This meatloaf recipe is low-fat, nutritious, and really good the next day as a sandwich meat, with a little marinara. I usually serve it with a salad and some kind of risotto or pilaf. What's nice about it is you can put it together the night before, and then pop it in the oven about an hour before you want to have dinner. It's great any time of the week because of that, but it's also nice on the weekend, because it basically has five ingredients. Italian Turkey Meatloaf 1 pound ground turkey meat 1 package Jennie O Italian Sausage, spicy or hot ½ cup grated romano cheese (reserve two tablespoons) ½ tablespoon Italian seasoning 1 8oz can of diced stewed tomatoes, drained (reserve ¼ cup) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray loaf pan with olive oil spray. Mix turkey meat, turkey sausage, seasoning, cheese and tomatoes, then form into a loaf in the loaf pan. Drizzle on the rest of the tomatoes on top, and sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top. Bake for 45 minutes. (Note, if you're pulling it out of the fridge after making it the night before, you may need to adjust how long you bake it. Trial and error, my friend.)

Lazy Weekend: Glorious Morning Bread (Or Muffins. Whatevs)

The nice thing about lazy weekends is the fact that sleeping in is the vital part of one. You wake when you want, and automatically feel hungry. This quick bread can be whipped up in a total of about 35 minutes or so (unless you're a slow reader, and have a shaky grasp of basic units of measurement - in which case, you need to be studying, not reading blogs), and is so good you'll forget it's also nutritious. Yes, I do start with a muffin mix from a box. Sure, you can start from complete scratch, but that would be work, and then it's not a lazy weekend. Glorious Morning Bread 1 box bran muffin mix (I prefer Hodgson Mill's version, which can be purchased at Central Market) 1 egg 1/2 cup milk 2 mashed bananas 1/3 cup real maple syrup (don't be a putz and use stupid Karo or Log Cabin. Not. The. Same.) 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 cup golden raisins 1/2 cup finely shredded carrot Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour (or be a smart person and use Baker's Joy) a loaf pan. Mix the egg and milk together, then add the mashed bananas, then the maple syrup. When blended, add the muffin mix and cinnamon. When blended, fold in the carrot, and then the raisins. Pour into your loaf pan. Bake for about 20-30 minutes, checking every five or so after 20 minutes by sticking a toothpick in the center. It's done when the toothpick is dryish, but make sure you haven't hit a banana piece or something.

Lazy Weekend: How to Roast a Chicken

So today, I was thinking that perhaps we could talk food. See, I like to cook - a lot. But I also like to read books, catch up on the ol' DVR, and being lazy. Weekends especially tend to beg for that.

Ideally, you can do both, if you pick the right thing. Saturday or Sunday can be your lazy day and your impressive feast day if you just pick things that can be cooked with little supervision, for a long time.

So this week, I'll tell you how I make a roast chicken that looks quite lovely, tastes even better, and doesn't require a lot of kitchen time. You can serve it with a nice salad, or go completely homestyle and make mashed potatoes, gravy, and a veggie or two, depending on how deeply you wish to plumb the depths of your inner sloth.

Perfectly Roasted Chicken

Roasting chicken (a whole fryer will work, too)

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp dried rosemary

1/2 tsp lemon pepper - not the neon yellow kind, but the kind you can buy at Whole Foods

1 lemon, quartered

1 small onion, in eighths

1/4 cup olive oil

First, you need to take anything that might be in the cavity of the chicken out. Then rinse chicken with cold water, inside and out, and pat dry with paper towels before preparing.

Lightly salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Put the lemon and the onion inside the cavity, then tie the legs together with twine. Any leftover onion or lemon can be placed in your roasting pan to flavor the juices.

Brush (or spray, if you have one of those fancy olive oil spray doohickeys) a very light coating of olive oil on the outside of the bird and put it in the roasting pan. In a bowl, mix the salt, pepper, lemon pepper, rosemary, garlic powder and onion powder together. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the chicken.

Roast at 350 degrees for 2 1/2 hours or so, depending on how big your chicken is. I like to look for the legs and wings to be falling away from the bird. Tent some aluminum foil over the roasting pan for the first 1 1/2 hours, then take it away so the skin can get crispy. Baste every half hour to 45 minutes, using the pan juices (the first baste may not have enough of that, so use some olive oil. Yes, I know butter may be what your granny uses, but I don't have time to give advice on performing your own angioplasty.)

Take the chicken out when done, and let rest for about 10 minutes before slicing.

The Method: The lemon in the cavity works as a steam cooker, which means the chicken stays extra tender and juicy. This whole thing will also work well on a turkey. When I do that, I double the amounts on the spices required, and use oranges instead of lemons.

The nice thing about this is that leftover meat can be used for soup later that week, or even the next day in quesadillas, chicken fettuccine, salads, or fajitas.