Not a One-Potter

Last Wednesday I had the joy of getting my wisdom teeth removed.  I knew my mom would be bringing me chicken and dumplings to eat during my recovery, so I wanted my last meal before surgery to be something with texture, nutrition, and substance since I'd be on a mush diet for the next week or so.  Honestly, I was also getting a little bored with casseroles and wanted to have a few pots on the stove at the same time for a change.  I decided to make baked lemon chicken with baked potatoes, asparagus, and kale.  I mostly used Ina Garten's Lemon Chicken Breasts recipe found here. The only difference was that Kroger had chicken breasts on the bone on sale and I used those instead.

The best way to make baked potatoes, I've found, is the Alton Brown way.  My mom is an amazing cook, but the joke growing up was that she "doesn't know a damn thing about baked potatoes."  Microwaving them doesn't give them that crisp skin and since they're easy, no one really wants to wait an hour (plus some) to get one out of the oven.  But just do it, ok?  Cook them the Alton way.  I sauteed the asparagus-- salt, pepper, and EVOO.  The kale was cooked down in some chicken broth with salt and pepper.  Simple, quick dinner and I felt good eating it.

I'm happy to report that my surgery was a breeze.  I'm still struggling to eat things with texture, so I'm thinking about some stuffed shells for dinner tonight...