Easy 1 Dish Dinner

      Before make the choice to eat cleaner, we would always have a meal that came out of a bag stashed in our freezer.  It might be Asian, Italian, or American cuisine.  They were super tasty, super fast, and very easy on long days where I just didn't want to labor so much for my dinner.  The idea behind this was that it was "healthier" than fast food (big bonus, right?) and, not just fast to make, but also fast to clean up.  Now, these aren't an option.  Those meals had loads of sugar and loads of sodium.  Two things that don't fit into my almost 30 year-old, post baby diet.  So, how could I find something with all the benefits, but still be prepared from the form that it came from the Earth?  Read this post and I will tell you!
     Last night I found myself exhausted at the end of a long day and needing to have a healthy dinner ready in an hour.  Ah, it would have been so easy to get a pizza!  That, however, would have been neither financially responsible, nor good for us in any way.  So I grabbed a cookie sheet and decided whatever I cooked would all fit in there and be ready to eat within an hours time.  The meal is based on my favorite veggie, red new potatoes, and chicken (that can be seasoned to your taste).  Let me first tell you what you may need and then I will talk about the food!

You will need:

2 Chopped broccoli heads
4 or 5 chopped red potatoes
2 Large chopped chicken breasts
(I guess chopped is the theme!)

For seasonings and "sauces" :

Olive Oil
Italian Seasoning (or any of your other favorite green seasonings!)
Greek Seasoning
Vinegar
Brown Sugar
Cumin
Asian Oyster Sauce
Simple heinz ketchup (or a couple tablespoons of tomato puree would be a good substitute)

 First, I chopped up the broccoli and drizzled a light glaze of Olive oil over it to evenly moisten and then sprinkled a light amount of Greek Seasoning over the broccoli.  I then tossed the broccoli around to make sure everything was evenly dispersed.  You can look up how to make your own Greek seasoning at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/greek-seasoning-2/.  This way you can be salt free!  Make sure your broccoli takes up no more than one third of your cooking sheet so you will have room for your potatoes.

The potatoes are very similar.  I chopped them, drizzled a little olive oil on them and sprinkled them with Italian seasoning and a little Greek seasoning.  Now, go ahead and set your oven to about 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Now, for the chicken (this won't be to difficult).

Cut all your chicken into nugget sized bites.  Last night, I was in the mood for barbecued chicken.  That is actually what inspired this meal.  As I was 90% read to just spread over a glaze of barbecue sauce, I thought about how much sugar, salt, and high fructose corn syrup would be added to this meal.  I decided to take just a couple more minutes and make my own barbecue sauce from what I had in my pantry.  I don't have the exact proportions, but I will give you an idea of what I did.

Every barbecue sauce is basically some take on brown sugar and vinegar.  So I lightly sprinkled a thin layer of brown sugar over my chicken and mixed it all together.  I did this all on my cookie sheet, so I didn't dirty another bowl.  Then, I sprinkled a layer (no more that 3 shakes would be enough) of cumin over it. I squirted a little "simply heinz" ketchup, but if you are really good you can just put in a couple tablespoons of tomato puree.  I poured in just enough vinegar to make a sauce out of the sugar spices.  I also added a couple of tablespoons of oyster sauce and mixed that in.

As I mixed all of the seasonings in each part of the meal, I kept it in its own segment of the cookie sheet.  Everything tastes great but I wanted each pieces to have its own complimentary flavor.

I slid the sheet in the oven and left it alone for almost an hour.  Make sure to check it at around 45 minutes since every oven cooks differently.  When it's all done, evenly plate your dish and enjoy!

I didn't do this, but if you are really creative you can make extra chicken sauce and lightly glaze it over your chicken after you take it out the oven.