Hunger has forced us out!

I've been avoiding grocery shopping, mainly because I am afraid of raw ingredients. You see my wife has a gift that she can just hear ingredients and taste the combinations in her mouth, without even tasting it. I know, perfect diet plan.

I don't have that gift. You could tell me that we are having creme Brule' topped with strawberries and chocolate, stuffed inside a turkey, and wrapped in bacon, I will be able to visualize the bacon, but nothing else. I do like food though. When I have tasted it, then I can remember if I liked it or not.

Today I had to put my talentless tongue to the test. I had to make dinner. Like I said, I have been avoiding grocery shopping but hunger finally drove us out. The last box of Mac and Cheese had been eaten and after I had a hardy meal of top ramen with scrambled eggs and soy sauce (don't mock it, it's good) the only thing left in our fridge was frozen broccoli, left over meatloaf, half a gallon of milk, and several heels of bread. Not much to go on.

So I did what I have seen my wife do multiple times. I went to the internet for a recipe, and I started browsing with words like "Too hard, Kids won't eat it, Not sure what that is" going through my head. I wanted to find something that you just had to put al the stuff into a bowl/cooker thing and put it in the oven. Most recipes asked me to sear things, or braise, or julieandrews stuff.

I so wish Bob Ross had made a cooking show. It would have been so simple and I would have felt like I too could make a happy little potato, or a giggling chicken cordon Bleu. Instead I have recipes and cooking shows that I don't want to watch, because I really don't like cooking shows. But I would watch Joy of Cooking with Bob Ross.

So I found a recipe that fit my criteria. It was easy (said ten minutes of prep, I took about 25....with the help of my wife). Then you just put it in the oven. We needed some ingredients though. So we headed off to Maceys where I hunted down the ingredients. I must say that it took me less time than I thought it would. We made it back to the house before dinner was supposed to be served.

One time when I was a kid my mom sent me, my brother Peter and my sister Stephanie to the store to get some whipping cream, or something. Stephanie dropped Peter and I off and just waited in the car for us to come out. 1.5 hours later we emerged, without whipping cream. We got sidetracked and started looking at model airplanes (Star Trek battleships) and then took about 5 minutes to locate whipping cream, which we couldn't. Apparently Stephanie had come looking for us several times, gone home thinking we might have walked, and come back. I guess the PA announcement helped us get back on track.

So you can see my hesitancy of wanting to go grocery shopping. Right now the food is cooking and I am awaiting the outcome. So far it doesn't smell rancid, but actually smells pretty good.

Here is the recipe I used and a link to the website I got it from.

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 lemons, 1 thinly sliced, 1 juiced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 pound trimmed green beans
• 8 small red potatoes, quartered
• 4 chicken breasts (bones left in, with skin, about 3 1/4 pounds)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Coat a large baking dish or cast-iron skillet with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Arrange the lemon slices in a single layer in the bottom of the dish or skillet.
2. In a large bowl, combine the remaining oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper; add the green beans and toss to coat. Using a slotted spoon or tongs, remove the green beans and arrange them on top of the lemon slices. Add the potatoes to the same olive-oil mixture and toss to coat. Using a slotted spoon or tongs, arrange the potatoes along the inside edge of the dish or skillet on top of the green beans. Place the chicken in the same bowl with the olive-oil mixture and coat thoroughly. Place the chicken, skin-side up, in the dish or skillet. Pour any of the remaining olive-oil mixture over the chicken.
3. Roast for 50 minutes. Remove the chicken from the dish or skillet. Place the beans and potatoes back in oven for 10 minutes more or until the potatoes are tender. Place a chicken breast on each of 4 serving plates; divide the green beans and potatoes equally. Serve warm.

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/pan-roasted-chicken-lemon-garlic-green-beans-10000000780291/index.html

This is what mine looked like before I put it in the oven.  Let's hope mine looks as good as it does on the website. Actually, who cares what it looks like, as long as it tastes good.
Actually who cares if it tastes good as long as the kids eat it, or something.

This is how the final dish turned out. There is chicken, potatoes, green beans and other stuff. It was good and Kara said that I should make it again. So it probably wasn't a complete bomb.