What's Cooking Wednesday!

I'm starting a new weekly blog post called "What's Cooking Wednesday!" I like to cook, but I can never find the time or the motivation to do it. I want to start slowly with a few recipes and see what works. Giving myself an entire week between cooking posts should be motivation enough to whip something up on a Wednesday!

This Wednesday we're having: roasted asparagus, baked potatoes and spicy baked chicken.

My sister taught me a quick trick for baking potatoes - cut an X about a 1/2 inch deep into the top of each washed potato. Place them on a baking sheet and bake at 350° for 45 minutes to an hour.

I got the asparagus and chicken ready to cook while the potatoes were baking.

Spicy Roasted Chicken Breasts

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/2 stick butter (you could also use a few tablespoons of olive oil instead)

1/2 c lemon juice (fresh or bottled)

1 T seasoning salt (I used Tony's Creole Seasoning)

Melt the butter over medium heat and add the lemon juice. Stir in the seasoning salt. Dip each chicken breast into the butter mixture and turn to coat. Place each coated breast onto a baking sheet. Brush each breast with the leftover butter mixture and sprinkle with additional seasoning salt (I skipped the extra seasoning on one breast since Liam can't quite handle things that are "too spicy, mom."). Bake in a 350° oven for 30 minutes, or until cooked through. (I put these right in with the potatoes and they cooked up just fine.)

Roasted Asparagus

2 bunches fresh asparagus (thicker works better)

5 T olive oil

kosher salt

freshly ground pepper

Thoroughly wash the asparagus, pat dry. Cut off the bottom inch or so of each stalk. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Drizzle 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil over the asparagus. Sprinkle with kosher salt (table salt works, too) and freshly ground pepper to taste. Bake in a preheated 425° oven for 10 minutes. The stalks won't look very brown, but the pan should be nicely browned where the asparagus touches it.

This was a relatively easy meal to make even though everything had to be made in the oven. I timed it so that the chicken went in for the last 30 minutes of the potato cooking time. I ramped up the temperature to 425° after the chicken and potatoes were finished and then popped the asparagus in for a quick 10 minutes. It worked out well!

Liam asked for seconds of both potatoes and chicken, and even tried the asparagus. He's a big veggie eater already, but I wasn't sure what he'd think of asparagus. He tried a piece, chewed it and swallowed it before saying, "Ummm, I don't really like this, Mom." Then he ate another piece.

(I'm aware that this is a sub-par food photo! I'm going to need a little more practice, and maybe a better camera (Santa?), I think!)