Today was a fun day. I love Sunday's. They are the only day's I get to spend from morning to night with my boyfriend. We get to sleep in, drink a cup a joe and then usually have a dual laundry date. So romantic, isn't it?
Today we went grocery shopping for the week which is always the most exciting part of my Sunday. I love lurking the store for new items and gear myself for the " healthy " week ahead of me. I think I am a pretty healthy eater for the most part, but starting Friday night... I'm doomed. Glass after glass of wine. Dinner out. Cookies and this weekend way too many fries to count...... The Sunday healthy grocery run puts my head back into place as I prepare to get back into my cleanse routine......
On Sunday's we usually make a trip one mall or the other. I don't know why? Both of us feel like we deserve to buy something for ourselves on Sunday's? It's kind of like our church I guess?... Today Dan, my boyfriend bought a pair of the Desert Boot Clark's that he has been dying to buy..... he looks sooo handsome in them. They are adorable! I myself bought a scarf from Urban Outfitters. I have ALWAYS wanted a scarf like this. It's different, and reminds me of being out on the sea. I'm not sure why? I think it would just go great with my new navy blue blazer..... I'm so excited...
Today I also watched the trailer for a new movie coming out " The Rum Diary." I love Johnny Depp and I am so excited to see him play this character. " The Rum Diary " is actually my favorite book. It has been for years. It's one of the only books I have read in my life that I just couldn't put down and wanted to read more than once, which I gladly did and will do again before the movie releases. When Dan and I first started dating I found out how much he loved the book himself. It's one of the things I loved about him when we first met. Today, the two books sit next to each other in our book collection....
On Sunday's we usually make a pretty rock'n dinner as well. I think Sunday's make you want to feel homey, like when you lived with your parents. Today we made a meal that we wanted to reflect the new fall season arriving to us...... So we cranked up the new Feist album and started cooking. Here's what we came up with:
Oven Baked Chicken with Roasted Fall Vegetables.
Butternut Squash is something I have never personally cooked with before in my life, it was scary but it was fun trying something new. After tonight's meal, I will be making this type of squash more often in the coming months.
What you will need:
1 Butternut Squash
1 Bag of Carrots
1 Bag of Brussel Sprouts
Half of a Red Onion
Half of a White Onion
2 Breasts of Chicken
For the Chicken Rub:
Whole Grain Mustard
Yellow Mustard
Lemon Juice
Minced Garlic
Rosemary
Sage
Salt
Lemon Pepper
To start I preheated the oven to 450 degrees.
I then started with the squash. I cut in in half and scooped out the seeds. When I was done with this I used a potato peeler to take off all the outside skin.
When that was all done, I cut the squash into cubes and put them in a pan with olive oil with salt and pepper. I added to the same pan the brussel sprouts. To prepare these, you just need to cut off the bottoms and the first layer of leaves, then I half them length wise. In the other pan I put the bag of carrots and the cut onions with also olive oil accompanied by salt and pepper. I put into the oven.
While they started cooking I started working on the chicken. Most everything I make I come up on my own. I like to experiment with flavors and honestly I HATE reading recipes. So I went to the fridge and grabbed items I thought would work well together. I grabbed rosemary from my deck garden and also added sage from the pantry. I think the perfect match is rosemary and mustard. Holy crap delicious. Of course I didn't know how this would turn out, but it turned out lovely....
I then just smothered the chicken and cooked for about 20 mins. After that amount of time everything was cooked to perfection. The vegetables were soft and the chicken was cooked to the middle.
I plated and served.....
A wonderful meal to end a wonderful day :)
Now let's take after Lemon and kick off those shoes, curl onto a blanket and enjoy the rest of the night :)
