Tasty Tuesday-Balsamic Chicken & Whole Wheat Bread

I haven't posted a recipe in a while, so instead of Food Friday this week (not that I keep anything real regular around here, but hey I'm working on it) I'm going to give you a little Tasty Tuesday! 
Previewing a couple of recent recipes I tried out on the family & we loved!

1st on the yummy schedule (aka: we'll be making this one again & again) is this delicious roasted whole chicken. It was easy, delicious, moist & smelled wonderful while it was cooking; most of all healthy. A 3oz serving with sauce, comes to 182 calories.

The recipe comes from Taste of Home Healthy Cooking (which I LOVE getting), Aug/Sept '10, I didn't have everything on hand when I did it so I'll mark my adaptations with an * .

Balsamic Roast Chicken
1 roasting chicken (6 to 7 lbs)
2 Tbls minced fresh rosemary or 2 tsp dried, crushed*
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 medium red onions, chopped*
1/2 cup dry red wine or reduced-sodium chicken broth*
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

Pat chicken dry. In a small bowl combine rosemary, garlic, salt & pepper; rub under the skin of the chicken. Place onions in a shallow roasting pan; top with chicken. Combine wine & balsamic; pour over chicken.
Bake, uncovered, at 350* for 2 1/4 - 2 3/4 hours. Basting occasionally with juices, I set the timer to baste about ever 25 minutes. If chicken starts to brown too quickly, loosly tent with foil. Let stand for 15 minutes before carving. Remove & disgard skin before serving. Pour onion sauce into small bowl, skim fat & serve with chicken.


Thoughts, adaptations & notes:
*Fresh rosemary, I never use an entire container of fresh when I buy it, & I don't have an herb garden yet, maybe someday, so I keep stems in the freezer, they keep pretty well & work just the same.  So yes, I used 'fresh'.
*Onion, I didn't have 2 red onions, in fact I didn't have 2 of any kind of onion. I managed to find about 1/4 of a yellow onion in the bottom of the crisper, so that's all I used, but we really like caramelized onions here, so when I make this again, I'll probably try it with a red/yellow mix.
*Chicken broth/wine, I didn't have either. Seriously when I made this my pantry was slacking seriously. I just threw in 1/2 cup water & 2 bouillon cubes.
*If you know me well, you'll know that I'm NOT a fan of poultry on the bone, for strange odd reasons I'm sure, but this was good & it practically fell off the bones (yay!).
This recipe would work with boneless, skinless breasts too, I'm sure of it, in fact I'll probably be trying it sometime soon.

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Next, I'm going to share a Whole Wheat Bread recipe, again from a Taste of Home Healthy Cooking magazine. This time it's the June/July '10 issue. Throughout this fall & so far mild winter I've been making bread a couple times per month, sometimes a couple times a week. Trying different recipes & styles. This one was YUM-MY!

Whole Wheat Bread
1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups warm water (110*-115*)
1/4 cups packed brown sugar
2 Tbls reduced-fat butter, melted
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 to 2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water*. Add brown sugar, butter, salt, whole wheat flour and 1 cup all-purpose flour. Beat until smooth; stir in enough remaining flour to form a firm dough (will be sticky).  Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a bowl coated with cooking spray, turn once to coat. Cover & let rise for 1 hour. Punch dough down & turn onto floured surface; shape into loaf. Place in a 9x5 inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Cover & let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Bake at 375* for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to wire rack for cooling.

Thoughts, adaptations & notes:
*Make sure the water isn't too hot, it will kill the yeast.
*SO yummy. Slightly sweet & just really yummy. I'm pretty sure we ate the entire loaf at one sitting.

Give these a try & then come back to tell me what you think. We're off for a little sunshine therapy with friends this afternoon. Who knows I may even be back later with some new images from our adventures today.

Have a great day.