Roasted Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Asparagus

This week I did something a little different for my meal prep. I was planning on making pasta, but ended up having lots of extra ingredients from the Friendsgiving dinner my partner and I made. So I decided to use up all the ingredients I bought and make extra food for this weeks lunch. We bought the chicken already roasted and the gravy and cheese sauce in a package…. so we kind of cheated. In all fairness though, by the time we got home from our trip and changed my tire, it was late and we were not about to go through the entire process. With that being said, this is just a quick Thanksgiving dinner idea.

This was a really enjoyable experience for us. We were so tired after a long weekend of travelling and car problems, and an easy dinner sounded ideal. It was so great to be able to cook together and have it still be considered homework. And sitting down to a really good dinner and dessert meant we had time to talk about our weekend with no technology interferences. We had agreed that we would take the night to leave all of our devices in our backpacks and not stress too much about school. This reminded me of when we discussed cell phone jails in class, and it kind of felt like a self-inflicted cell phone jail. But I soon came to realize that having zero technology, even just for dinner, was such a great idea. Often times I watch a TV show or catch up on readings while I’m eating, but putting it all away and having dinner with my partner allowed for a great time with good conversation. Plus dinner was surprisingly great, considering a lot of it was pre-made. The only instructions I needed from the internet was approximately how long to boil the potatoes for. I will provide the link I used below.

Roasted Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Asparagus

Ingredients

(portioning dependent on your taste)

• Yellow potatoes
• Herb and garlic whipped cream cheese
• Butter
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic Plus
• Asparagus
• Roasted chicken
• Olive oil

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
• Wash the potatoes and place them on a cutting board. Take a fork and poke multiple holes in them before cutting them in half.

• Add the potatoes to the boiling water for approximately 12-18 minutes. You can check whether they are done by poking them with a fork and checking to see if they are soft.
• Rinse the asparagus with cold water and pat them dry with a paper towel. Cut the white ends off of them and put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Drizzle the asparagus with olive oil and and make sure they are equally covered by using your hands. Sprinkle on the spices/ herbs of your choice (I use garlic plus, salt, and pepper). Then place the baking sheet in the oven for 15 minutes.

• Pour the contents of the gravy mix and 1 cup of water into a small saucepan.
• Pour the contents of the cheese sauce mix and 1 1/4 cup of milk into a small sauce pan.
• Cook both the gravy and cheese sauce over medium heat, stirring constantly until they come to a boil. Let the gravy simmer for 1 minute, and the cheese sauce for 3.

• When the potatoes are done, drain the water from the pot. Use a potato masher to begin mashing the potatoes, adding butter and whipped cream cheese until they are the right taste and consistency for you.
• Carve the roasted chicken, and put it on the plate with the asparagus and the mashed potatoes. Drizzle the cheese sauce and gravy on whatever you like.

• Put the leftover food into your meal prep containers for the week.

By the end of the week, this meal still held up. It reheated nicely and wasn’t too yucky when Friday came around. I made sure to get thicker asparagus stalks this time so that they wouldn’t be mushy after they were reheated. My only complaint would be that the potatoes got a little bit dry because I didn’t have any leftover gravy. I think next time I will make a little bit of extra gravy or bring a small container of butter to school.