You ever tried baking food in your car?…It takes way too long. Don’t try it. LOL. Even though it’s been hot as a b*tch here in LA! Anyway, welcome to the same shit cooking tutorial, Baking Edition. (If you follow my snap or watch my IG stories – Handle: B.Motiv8ed – , then you know that this is my go-to meal!) There are plenty of different ways to cook your foods – (BBQ, pan fry, bake etc.) Each of them have advantages and disadvantages. It all really just comes down to personal preference. In this particular post, we will turn our focus strictly to baking. Let’s get baked!
Ingredients:
First and most importantly is your ingredients. For this meal, I chose organic chicken breasts, organic baby broccoli and an organic sweet potato. (If you haven’t noticed, I’m heavy on the organic stressing). I buy all of my ingredients from Trader Joe’s (they should really sponsor me by now).
Wash your produce!
Make SURE you wash your produce thoroughly. Even organic products aren’t as clean as we’d like them to be! Potatoes need a bit more work to clean completely so make sure you give those babies a little extra love under the faucet!
Potato Prep:
We are going to start with the potato. It takes the longest to cook, so it should be the first thing going into the oven. Start off by pre heating your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
The oven should be ready by the time you get the potato in there. Next thing we are going to do with the sweet p is stab it up with a fork.
This will allow the potato to breathe while it’s being baked away to a slow, painful death.
Random Sweet Potato Fact:
The sweet potato is the single most nutrient packed item in the entire produce section of the grocery store. #FACT
Let’s continue. Next, we are going to wrap the potato in foil.
Once she’s wrapped, place her on the top rack of your oven! I’d suggest placing it onto another piece of foil or on a cookie/baking sheet because it WILL drip out of the foil it’s wrapped in.
Potato Bake Time: 40 mins (or until soft)
Prepping Chicken and Broccoli:
Now let’s get to the goods. When I cook my chicken and broccoli, whether I bake it, pan fry it, etc. I usually tend to cook them on the same piece of cookware. It’s not for any special reason, it’s just one less dish I need to wash!
So once you’ve washed your broccoli, place it a piece of foil on a baking sheet and place the broccoli and chicken on the foil. (It’s much easier to throw away a piece of dirty foil than it is to clean a dirty baking sheet!)
Oil These Babies:
First step is to lightly brush oil onto both sides of your broccoli and chicken. MAKE SURE YOU BRUSH THE VEGGIES FIRST SO YOU ARE NOT CROSS CONTAMINATING WITH THE CHICKEN! Caps AND bold, hopefully that makes it crystal clear how important that step is.
I prefer to use avocado oil to cook my meats and veggies. My second choice would be coconut oil and third being extra virgin olive oil. Once we’ve brushed our soon to be food baby, time to season!
I don’t go too crazy with my seasonings. Hell, 90% of the time I don’t even season with any salt! This is just my preference. Small amounts of sodium is not going to hurt you, so don’t be scared to put a little bit of salt on your foods. And I said a LITTLE BIT. Don’t get crazy. A couple natural seasoning options I prefer to use are black pepper, cumin, curry powder, chili powder, turmeric and cayenne pepper.
Once we’ve seasoned to our preferred amount, I like to make small slits into the top of my chicken to allow the meat to breathe a little while it’s cooking.
We are now bake ready. Place the sheet/s on the middle rack of your oven.
And now we wait.
Broccoli Bake Time: 15 mins (I prefer a little crunch in my broccoli. Bake a few mins longer if you like yours softer)
Chicken Bake Time: 20 mins
This means you will need to remove your veggies from the oven before you take out your chicken. You may also place the veggies in the over 5 mins before the chicken to pull them out at the same time. Whichever you prefer.
The only thing left to now is to pull out your food, plate it up and ENJOY!
How delicious does that look though?! Extremely easy without being too time consuming or using too many dishes! The best part about it is when you cook a whole pack of chicken and broccoli, you have another meal for later!
I will usually cook at least 2 sweet potatoes when I bake to throw into my meals later since they take so long to cook. Food prep is important and cooking time/clean up is the #1 reason people tend to stray from it! Always try to be as efficient as possible.
Lastly:
I hope to see you guys out there cooking up “the saaaaame shit” after reading this! Realize that the foods in this tutorial can be substituted for alternatives if chicken and broccoli aren’t your first choice. Instead of broccoli, you can do the same exact thing with: asparagus, brussels sprouts, peppers and onions, cauliflower, etc. Instead of chicken, you may sub it for fish (adjust cooking time) or turkey and prepare it the exact same way. Let’s get working on our diets and start fueling ourselves with the best of foods to help build the best us!
Eat Better, Feel Better, Look Better, LIVE BETTER.
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