Rosemary and Thyme and whatever else you've got!

Here's another easy one:

Sweet potato

Asparagus

Chicken

Olive Oil

Rosemary

Thyme **fresh from Sarah's garden!

The Orange Stuff

1. Wash and peel sweet potato, chop into disks and then into quarters.

2. Place foil inside a pyrex (or any other) pan, arrange sweet potato quarters on foil. Drizzle with olive oil, add rosemary and thyme until you feel like stopping, mix it up with your hands. NO UTENSILS ALLOWED! :-)

3. Bake at 400 for approximately 30 minutes, depending on the age and nature of your sweet potato (some of them are a little rough around the edges, just sayin')

The Green Stuff

1. Break off stems, rinse, and break again for bite-ish size asparagus

2. Steam (layer on frying pan, add water until almost covered, boil water and cover until desired tenderness is achieved).

3. Eat with a completely different meal, put leftovers in refrigerator.

4. The next day when you decide to make the meal this blog post is about, take it out of the refrigerator and throw cold asparagus pieces in with the sweet potato for the last 15 minutes of the bake.

5. Threw you for a loop there, didn't I? Time lapse! Now back to the future.

The Chicken Stuff

1. Follow directions - depends if you're using frozen, fresh, or funky chicken.

2. Cut in chunks and add to orange/green stuff just before enjoying

For extra flavor, toss in some Feta Cheese and breathe deeply!

Mac 'N Cheese Mangiamo

A few weeks ago I was in the kind of bind where I hadn't been shopping since before I left for Poland and had what was in my freezer and cupboard to work with in terms of making dinner. I was also coming out of a week of a body that was not very happy with me for switching time zones and eating heavy food for two weeks. I needed something comforting, and I needed protein. So here's what I had: Mac 'N Cheese mix from the cupboard, and ground beef from the freezer. Okay, that's easy enough. Luckily I was on the phone with a semi-Italian friend and foodie who gave me a list of ingredients and suggestions. Here's what I ended up with.

(1) Defrost meat with Olive Oil PAM on frying pan. Once browned, add minced garlic and minced onion.
(2) Make Mac 'N Cheese according to directions, but leave out the last 1/3 of the cheese packet.
(3) Add the meat to the Mac and stir.
(4) Obtain fresh thyme from Sarah's garden that has been hanging upside down in the kitchen for approximately 1 week (wohoo!) and chop dried Rosemary leaves from Shaw's.
(5) Add herbs while saying "Mangiamo!" in the most ridiculous Italian accent you can muster.

Stir, take a deep breath, and enjoy on a rainy day with a good episode of that TV show you love.