Meal Planning Monday

Welcome to our series on Meal Planning! If you are like us, we like to plan but are not always into cooking a million meals on the weekends! (We give props to those of you who do though!) So, come Monday we are usually trying to figure out what's for dinner!

This series focuses on easy to prepare meals that picky eaters will enjoy too! We are also focusing on how to make them allergy free - or give allergy free options!

If you have any ideas that you would like to share...we would like to post your recipe and give you your own blog post here on the Knowledge Safari blog! Just send an email to blog@knowledgesafari.com !

Roast a chicken for one meal and yet make many meals from the leftovers! Okay, for those of you with large families, you might not have leftovers, but the chicken will be good nonetheless.

If you have a little helper in the kitchen, preparing a chicken can be quite fun: he/she can help you season, add veggies and more! It can be a satisfying and tactile experience - just make sure that good hand washing takes place!

Basic Roasted Chicken Recipe:

Whole roast chicken with butter, parsley, thyme, rosemary, and other herbs.

Ingredients:

1 roasting chicken, about 4 to 5 pounds
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
1 small onion, peeled and quartered
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried leaf thyme
2 to 3 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh parsley
4 tablespoons melted butter

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°. Rub inside of chicken with lemon juice; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add the onion quarters, dried herbs, and parsley to chicken cavity. Place chicken in a shallow roasting pan and roast at 350° for about 20 minutes per pound. Baste with melted butter several times. Internal temperature should register about 165° on a meat thermometer inserted into the meaty part of the thigh. Taken from About.com

Ideas for leftovers:

- Chicken Salad, Chicken Tacos, Chicken Soup, Chicken on a Salad, Chicken, Cheese and Crackers, Chicken and Noodles. What are your chicken ideas?