11 March 2009

Baked Chicken and Potato Salad

Potato Salad adapted from Kids' Fun and Healthy Cookbook

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, last week you may have received a very cryptic tweet from me saying "About to make dinner with my 3 year old, pray for me!"  In order to get my three year old to eat food I prepare without complaining, I tried buying a picture cookbook for him last week and let him pick out a dinner to help me make.  He was so excited to help, had been wound up throughout the day, and was very excited when I told him that it was almost time to cook, I just had to clean up the kitchen first.  He settled into the couch to play a game while he waited for me to clean up the lunch dishes.  Within two minutes, I look over at his very still body, he had fallen asleep!  Ah well, so much for good intentions.  We're going to try again tonight, but here is the recipe he picked out.  I really liked the potato salad, it tasted reminiscent of summer with the mint leaves in there, and the chicken legs were just downright good value at about $0.50 a piece.  

Potato Salad adapted from Kids' Fun and Healthy Cookbook

Ingredients:

14 oz. small white skinned potatoes, scrubbed
2 green onions, finely chopped
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
3 Tbls. chopped fresh mint
2 Tbls. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbls. lemon juice

Directions:

1.  I have a potato setting on my microwave, so after pricking the potatoes all over with a fork, I put the potatoes into a small pyrex dish, and set the microwave button.  If yours does not have this setting, find some way to cook the potatoes, boil, broil, microwave, whatever.

2.  Let the potatoes cool and cut them into quarters.  Place the quartered potatoes into a bowl and add the chopped green onion, the chopped mint, and the halved tomatoes.

3.  Mix the extra-virgin olive oil and lemon juice together with a fork, drizzle mixture over the potato mixture and stir to coat everything.  Set aside until the chicken is done so that the flavors meld a little.  The leftovers were fabulous the next day after a night in the refrigerator.

Baked Chicken Legs

Ingredients:

5 chicken legs
2 scant Tbls. Ethiopian berbere spice mix (or use something milder like paprika if desired)
3 Tbls. olive oil

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  Place the chicken legs, spices, and the olive oil into a gallon sized ziplock bag.  Remove as much of the air as possible, seal the bag, mix the legs around so that they are fully surrounded by oil/spice mix, and leave on the counter for 30 minutes or in the refrigerator for up to overnight.

3.  Place the chicken legs in a small Pyrex baking dish.  Pour the oil/spice mixture over the legs.

4.  Place the chicken legs into the oven and bake for 40 minutes flipping them over halfway through.
Baked Chicken Legs with Berbere Spice



36 comments:

Meg said...

I love the potato salad! It is so colorful.

Katherine Roberts Aucoin said...

What a cute way to get your son to eat. I wish I would have done that when mine were little. They eat better when they have ownership of the meal.

This meal looks fantastic!

Sarah said...

Cooking with kids can be so much fun! A great way to get them to choose more healthy options!

James said...

The thing to tell him is 'the most important thing about cooking is the clearing up' - that would make your life easy! That's what my dad told me when I was young - it was more a case of do as I say rather than do as I do though.....

Wandering Coyote said...

The potato salad looks great! I'm so happy you involve your kids so much in the kitchen (when they're awake!). It makes such a huge difference in how they perceive food.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I'm in the mood for some potato salad myself.

Bob said...

Cooking with kids is a good time, that's how I got started. As a kid. ;)

Reeni said...

I think that's really sweet. Your son will have great memories from it. The whole meal looks delicious!

Karen said...

Kids just love to help cook, don't they! I'm going to look into this book for my granddaughter... thanks :)

Karen Brown Letarte said...

How sweet to let your son pick out the menu and cook with you! At least, I hope he'll stay awake enough one of these days to cook with you. What a great experience for him. Hope it will lead to many more feasts you cook together!

Shari@Whisk: a food blog said...

Looks good to me! Did your son like it after his nap?? :)

Gera@SweetsFoodsBlog said...

I like both the potato salad and the baked chicken (with paprika in my case is gorgeous)

There's an award for you on my blog!

All the best,
Gera

Anonymous said...

Oh wow, super scrumptious! Love the baked chicken - total comfort food for me, and the potato salad is super colorful!

Anonymous said...

Is it sad that the recipes you found in the kid cookbook are exactly what my husband and I love to eat? :) It all looks delicious. I'm bookmarking this!

Anonymous said...

Oh I hope he likes it!

veggie belly said...

I love the idea of mint in the potato salad!

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Oh this so makes me smile! We buy all these fancy cookbooks and then get grand recipes like these two out of a children's simple book - wonderful! I loved having my boys cook with me. They are both excellent cooks today.

Dewi said...

Oh I love berbere, I made my own as well. Potato salad sounds wonderful too. You could submit this to potato ho down event, They'll love it.
Cheers,
elra

Elizabeth said...

I love that you are trying to get him to cook with you, even if he ended up in a nap. :) The potato salad looks fab!

Heather said...

ohhhh i love potato salad, and yours looks so delicious! that baked chicken also looks awesome!! i could definitely eat that for dinner (or lunch, or a midnight snack!)

Julie said...

The potato salad looks beautiful...love all the colors in it.

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

What a delightful salad! A great combo, yummy!

Cheers,

Rosa

Anonymous said...

So cute that he wanted to help. It looks really good!

Emily said...

Well, good try! Maybe next time he won't be tuckered out.

Mmm, chicken and potatoes! My kind of meal.

CurryLeaf said...

love the potato salad.ethiopian spice mix sounds exotic

Sarah said...

What is your url so I can add you to my favorites? If that is ok?! Thanks!

Maria said...

Great salad!! Love the colors!

Anonymous said...

I have a picky 3 year old & i love ur idea to get a book to get them to pick. Love the recipe.

& LOVE ur Savarin!!

Donna-FFW said...

This looks so delicious. LOVE it. And the chicken is fantastic. Perfect meal!

Tangled Noodle said...

Please let us know when you and your 3 yr old do cook together! I truly believe that getting children involved in their meal preparation is a fantastic start to understanding their food and gaining appreciation for what goes into it. And when they're older, they'll know how to cook for themselves instead of relying on convenience foods!

Sophia Lee said...

yay! another great potato and chicken recipe for my recipe box!
I wish my mom was like you! she always kicked me out when I was in the kitchen. haha!

Diana said...

Oh how cute! I don't have kids yet but whenever I babysat I found that even the pickiest eaters would eat something that I had them make. The most popular with all the kids was Rock and Roll sandwiches which is just a melted cheese sandwich with different spices on it that they smell and pick out and sprinkle on.

Robin said...

This looks like a beatifully colorfull meal! Can't beat baked chicken and the aroma it fills the house with while cooking!

Anonymous said...

The meal looks great!

My problem lately is not having my 3 year old help me, but rather keeping her from wanting to always make her own meals. I'm running out of food!

Anonymous said...

Visually appealing, healthy and seems pretty delicious.

Thanks... and grats!

Mindy said...

This looks great! My almost 3 year old will love helping me make this...just as soon as I get back into my American-sized, non-European-sized kitchen!

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