Roasted Vegetables with Chicken

There are so many ways to prepare fall comfort foods – meals that warm your belly and soul. Along with stews and soups, there are so many vegetables that you can roast! I really can only think of a few that can’t be roasted….um, maybe peas? Anyway, peas are a summer vegetable, and this is about the fall!

So, it’s an easy process. Fall vegetables, such as carrots, potatoes, brussel sprouts, parsnips, onions, sweet potatoes, turnips and a bunch of different squashes are among the many options. I made this with brussel sprouts, carrots, parsnips and onion. I finished the dish with an apple that I threw into the pan about twenty minutes before the vegetables were ready to come out of the oven. You can splash the veggies with any liquid you want, as in stock or wine or in this case I used apple cider!

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I cut the veggies into similar sizes and tossed them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. I oiled a roasting pan and put the vegetables into the pan and then I placed a chicken across the top of the vegetables. You can use a chicken or any kind of meat, veggies all by themselves or even fish (though you will have to roast the vegetables before cooking the fish since the fish will cook much faster than the vegetables).

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The vegetables should cook for about forty minutes at 400 degrees. The chicken (if using) is twenty minutes a pound and cooks at a lower temperature. As a result, when the chicken was done, I took it out and let it rest. I cranked up the heat and finished the veggies in the oven. As I said above, if using the apple, you can toss it in about twenty minutes before the veggies are done and add some apple cider to the mix – maybe half a cup!

I made spaghetti squash with the dish. It’s a very easy dish. Cut the squash in half, take out the seeds, rub with olive oil, salt, and pepper all over the inside and edges. Put the squash cut side down (not as illustrated in the photo below!!) on a greased sheet pan and put it into the same 400-degree oven that you are cooking your vegetables in and cook until the squash is soft. Figure between fifteen and thirty minutes depending on the size of the squash. When it’s done, take a fork and shred the squash into a bowl with pepper and some good olive oil and salt (I like to use a flavored salt like Spike).

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There’s dinner. Any meat you want or not, and any veggies you want! A rich fall meal doesn’t have to take all day to cook!! Be creative and let me know what you decide to roast!!!!