BBQ chicken

Yesterday Alex read the Cook’s Country June/July magazine and thought the BBQ chicken recipe sounded good.  Great, I thought, I’ll make it for dinner.  I wrote the menus for the week, made a list (see below for what that looks like), did the grocery shopping and got home by 6pm – plenty of time, right?  Have you read a recipe in Cook’s Country lately?  I guess I should have read the article first, because it is quite involved.  Like, letting the chicken sit for at least an hour in the spice rub, soaking wood chips, barbecuing the chicken in 4 steps, with a long list of ingredients that include doctoring up a store-bought jar of BBQ sauce.  Really?  Don’t get me wrong, I love a good cookbook and a dinner idea, but this magazine is just not my style.  And, they don’t post recipes on their website so you’ll just have to trust me that when you want BBQ chicken, throw some chicken on the grill with Bone Suckin’ Sauce and call it a day.

About my grocery shopping trip, I went a little over budget this week, at $271.  Could have been that I had a little helper with me who added a few things to the cart, but I can’t blame it all on her, as I was guilty of sampling these curry chips which were so good and I just couldn’t resist….    (Don’t shop when you’re hungry?  Remember that basic rule?)

More meals for this week and last week:

• NY strip steaks were on sale at Whole Foods this weekend, and I couldn’t resist buying two for dinner.  Will serve with corn on the cob, butter lettuce salad with guacamole (my mother-in-law’s secret recipe, see photo!) and watermelon.  Hello summer!
• Pork loin, either spice crusted in the oven or BBQ kebabs with zucchini and Vidalia onions, with rice and broccoli from the garden
• Pasta with tuna and tomatoes (it doesn’t sound like much, but trust me, anything from Marcella’s Classic Italian Cookbook is worth a try!)
• Roast chicken with potatoes and arugula with garlic yogurt sauce, with lettuce and cucumber salad
• Penne with Italian sausage and swiss chard from the garden
• Roast chicken (yes, we do a lot of roast chicken, whole chicken is inexpensive, rub with olive oil, s&p and any other spices and throw in the oven at 400 for about 30-40 minutes) on one sheet pan, diced sweet potato with frozen corn on another sheet pan (also toss with olive oil, s&p, spices), serve with green salad and homemade BBQ sauce.  I used this recipe because it was the first one to pop up on my google search when I realized I didn’t have any Bone Suckin’ sauce in the cupboard.

Have a great week, everyone!  xo M.