Baking is more than just whipping delicious baked food delights. The process itself uses little to no fat, which can ultimately protect your heart. It is also good for your mental health because it stimulates the senses and it makes you feel good. Essentially, baking is good for your overall health.
If you are a beginner, there are easy recipes that you can consider aside from cakes and other desserts. It is time that you master at least two oven dinners – vegetarian and non-vegetarian.
Chicken roast with mixed vegetables
Chicken roast with mixed vegetables is easy to prepare but how to cook baked chicken?
- Gather ingredients: in this recipe, you need 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 4 red potatoes
(cut into large cubes), 16 ounces of carrots (cut diagonally), 1 stalk celery (sliced), 1 sweet onion (sliced), 4.5 pound whole chicken, salt, pepper, garlic powder, 1 large lemon (sliced), and 1 teaspoon garlic (minced).
- Preheat oven: you need to preheat the oven to 385°F or about 196°C.
- Pour the olive oil into a large bowl then toss potatoes, carrots, celery, and onion. This will be your coating. Transfer it to a large cast iron skillet.
- Season chicken: after rinsing the chicken, you need to pat it with dry paper towels before generously seasoning it using salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. Put sliced onion, margarine, lemon slices, minced garlic and celery in the chicken’s cavity.
- Put the oiled vegetables: you can now put the chicken on top of the oiled vegetables.
- Roast chicken and vegetables: put chicken and vegetables inside the preheated oven for about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Keep it inside until the chicken’s skin is brown and crisp. The vegetables should also be tender. To ensure that the thickest part (thigh) is cooked, insert a meat thermometer. It should read 165°F or about 75°C.
- Serve: after baking, you should let the chicken rest for ten minutes before you start carving it.
Baked tomatoes, squash, and potatoes
If you want to cook a vegetarian dinner, you can consider baked tomatoes, squash, and potatoes. You can consider the following procedures:
- Gather ingredients: ingredients include 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, 1 onion
(thinly sliced), 2 small tomatoes (sliced ¼-inch thick), 1 medium yellow squash (sliced ¼ – inch thick), 1 gold potato (sliced ¼ -inch thick), salt, pepper, Parmesan and thyme.
- Preheat oven: you need to preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Cook onion: you need to cook the onion over medium heat until tender and lightly golden.
- Arrange: you can start arranging. The onion should be on the bottom of your baking dish. Overlap the potato, tomato, and squash on top of the onion then season it with salt and pepper. Do not forget to sprinkle with thyme and Parmesan.
- Bake: do not forget to drizzle oil before baking. It should take about 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Whether it is desserts or oven dinners, there are many baked food recipes that you can consider even if you are a beginner. The important thing here is you do not stop baking. If at first, you do not succeed, it is imperative to try again. Soon you will master baking.
