Roast Chicken

Today for lunch I cooked a whole chicken. This was such an easy meal, anyone can do it!

Roast chicken

1 whole chicken
1 lemon, cut into 4 pieces
1/2 red onion, cut into 4 pieces
A few garlic cloves, smashed
Rosemary or Thyme, or both (you can use fresh or dried)
Olive oil
Salt ( I used coarse kosher salt)
Pepper
Mushrooms or Potatoes

Thaw the chicken, remove inner parts and rinse off chicken. Pat dry with a paper towel. Mix lemon, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary/thyme, and olive oil ( enough to coat other ingredients). Stuff the mixture inside the chicken and place chicken into a casserole pan. Top chicken with olive oil and rub oil all over chicken. Then put salt and rosemary/thyme on the top.
Bake at 400 degrees for 1 and 1/2 hours. Then, add mushrooms or cut up potatoes to the pan. Cook 45 minutes or until chicken is 165 degrees on the inner most part (I always let it get a little hotter because I just like to be careful). Today when I made it, it was way above 165 degrees so if you can watch the temperature because it may not take the full 45 minutes at the end. Remove from the oven and cover with foil. Let sit for 10 minutes and then you can carve it up!
You can serve salad, bread, or another vegetable with this meal. Today I baked sweet potatoes.

One of the best things about roasting a chicken, besides the amazing aroma that fills your house, is that you can use the leftover chicken to make anything from casseroles to chicken salad to chicken packets. If you aren't going to use the chicken immediately, then you can just put in the freezer. It is great to be able to pull out already cooked chicken to make a quick meal. One time the chicken was on sale and I got the whole chicken for around $3. It provided 2 or 3 meals for us! You can't beat that!

Did you know there are only 73 days until Christmas??? I am already getting excited about making Christmas goodies!!! I found this cool website that does the countdown. If you want to get it in Christmas spirit, just click: Countdown

I am continuing the Fall Challenge this week and linking to Women Living Well. This week the challenge was to listen to calming music in your home. I had already started doing this some, but I really do think it helps to bring calm and peace. One thing I have listened to is a J. S. Bach Pandora station. I think classical music is so good for the mind. Now don't get me wrong- I listen to ALL kinds of music. But, I try to have calming music playing most of the time in the house. So, light your candle and turn on some music!!!