ridin' the rails

oh YEAH, dinner last night.

It was delicious. It was so good, I ate way more than I should have. And it was so easy, I'm surprised I didn't do it earlier.

Roasted Chicken, Sweet Potatoes and Onions with Couscous

You need:
an 8 x 8 baking dish, with or without a cover
half a chicken breast (about one pound of a chicken)
one and a half medium-sized sweet potatoes (or the equivalent thereof)
half a large, sweet onion\
olive oil
salt/garlic salt
basil
pepper (optional)

Directions:
preheat the oven to 400
spray the bottom and sides of the baking dish with cooking spray (or grease it with butter...otherwise the potatoes stick)
cube sweet potatoes and place them so they cover the bottom of the dish evenly; pour a little bit of olive oil (probably about a tablespoon or so) evenly over the potatoes and sprinkle liberally with salt and basil
slice the onion into pieces (as big or as smalle as you want. I sliced my half into two halves, then sliced each half into about 4-5 strips length-wise, and then cut those strips in half, so I had little clumps of half-circle shaped onion) and sprinkle those on top of the sweet potatoes; pour a little more olive oil over the onions and sprinkle with a little salt
place the half a chicken breast on top of the veggies; pour a little olive oil over the breast, coat the top with garlic salt (and pepper) and basil. i basically completely covered the part that was exposed.
bake for an hour at 400 degrees
when it's about ten minutes from being done, make your couscous according to the directions!
ENJOY!

It was SO good. The juices from the cooking chicken made both the chicken and veggies stay nice and moist, and the spices on top of the chicken breast were exposed enough to the heat that they made a nice crispy spice crust on top of the meat. So very delicious. The boy's eyes got real big-like when he started eating it. We ate too much, and we paired it with leftover sweet baby carrots (see below for the easiest recipe in the whole world,) so it was kind of extra sweet when paired with the sweet potatoes and onions. Cest la vie.

Sweet Baby Carrots
(this is my Mom's recipe, and it was my friend Brockett's favorite food when he came over to our house after shows.)

You need:
one package baby carrots
1/8 cup of butter
honey

Directions:
Boil baby carrots in water until tender enough to be pierced with a fork (but not mushy); strain excess water from the pot
melt butter over the carrots (with the residual heat from being boiled, you probably won't need any heat)
pour honey over the carrots (to taste. I like mine sweet, so I tend to use a lot of honey =)
EAT THEM

These are kind of like the brussel sprouts -- I could seriously pop these as snacks. I'm not sure if the honey and butter counteract the healthy-ness of the carrots, but it sure does taste good!

-C