simple – The Simple Elements

Have I mentioned how much I love Real Simple? I do. I love the magazine, the cookbooks and the website. It’s my go to for simple, healthy meals. I honestly haven’t tried a recipe from it that I haven’t loved. The best part about their recipes is that they use very few ingredients and it’s always whole, healthy ingredients, so I can feel good about feeding them to my family. Marielle’s tastes (and appetite!) are growing, and evolving into loving the foods that my husband and I eat. Dark meat may not be the healthiest part of the chicken, but it’s incredibly tasty and reheats beautifully without getting dry. This recipe gives baby lots of new flavors (Rosemary and Leeks) along with familiar tastes (Chicken and Apples) Removing the chicken from the bone, adding the apples, leeks and some of the cooking liquid and either pureeing for younger babies, or mashing for older babies makes a delightful meal for your little one. And you!

Recipe courtesy of Real Simple (slightly adapted)

Ingredients

4 small apples (I used Honeycrisp and Haralson for both sweet and tart flavors)

2 leeks (white and light green parts), washed and chopped into 1/2 inch circles

6 small sprigs fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons olive oil

kosher salt and black pepper

4-6 chicken thighs

Directions

Heat oven to 400° F. In a large roasting pan, toss the apples, leeks, rosemary, oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.
Season the chicken with ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper and nestle, skin-side up, among the vegetables.
Roast until the chicken is cooked through and the apples and leeks are tender, 40 to 45 minutes.

One of the tricky parts about being married to an entrepreneur, is the ever changing, unpredictable schedule. I can’t even count the number of times I have prepped a meal, only to get a phone call an hour after the original agreed upon dinner time informing me he’s not quite on his way home yet 🙂

I have learned to stop cooking dinner prior to his arrival, unless I get a phone call assuring me he’s 25 minutes away. Instead, on evenings like tonight where I knew he was probably not going to be home on time due to his busy time at work, I sifted through the fridge to find something quick, easy and healthy for my way too hard working hubby. It’s amazing how easy it is to put together a healthy meal in 30-45 minutes or less using delicious, whole foods. And, you don’t need double ovens…Although I do keep hinting to my husband how I would LOVE the new freestanding LG double oven…Maybe someday! Anyway, you just need to alter the temperatures a bit. Here’s how I did it.

I preheated my oven to 400 degrees. Sliced a bag of heirloom fingerling potatoes in half, added some fresh chopped garlic, drizzled them with olive oil, salt and pepper and tossed them in a baking dish. These went in the oven 15 minutes prior to my salmon. If you are using thinner sliced potatoes, you can simply put them in the oven with the salmon for the same amount of time. I used much thicker cut fingerlings.
Next, I drizzled my salmon with olive oil, added sliced lemons, salt and pepper, and put it right along side of my roasting potatoes. I turned down the oven to 375 and baked the salmon and potatoes for 25 minutes. I tossed some fresh Parsley in with the potatoes before serving.
In a saute pan, I tossed some fresh French green beans in olive oil and sauteed until bright green and still slightly crisp.
I quickly mixed together an easy salmon sauce consisting of sour cream, Dijon mustard, fresh dill and lemon juice.

Voila! A healthy, vitamin rich, colorful dinner ready in no time!