New Hair-Do, Roasted Rotisserie-style Organic Chicken Recipe, and Yummy Strawberry Muffins!!!

Every busy mama must make time for herself too!  Sometimes I get caught up with the kids and my husband and working so hard for them that I forget about myself.  Many days, I just pull my hair back, put on my yoga pants and call it a day.  But, even though I am very busy, I still want to try hard to look nice!  It had been 4 months since I had my hair done last.  I usually do it every 2 months but with Christmas, we were trying to spend as little as possible. 

So yesterday, I went to the best hair stylist in the Tulsa area, Amara at Ascend Hair Designs in Jenks.  And here is how it turned out:

It feels SO GOOD to have my hair done!!  I needed it so bad.  Thanks Amara!!!!

After I had my hair done, I made my way on over to Whole Foods Tulsa to get in on the Organic Chicken Sale.  They had whole organic chickens for $1.99/lb.  This was a big savings and I cook a lot with chicken so I bought 5 of them! 2 went in the fridge and 3 went in the freezer.

While I was there, I picked up 2 bags of organic granny smith apples (my kids' favorite after school snack)

4 cartons of organic strawberries (1 & 1/2 cartons for the strawberry muffins I had planned on making)

2 cartons organic blueberries

I had planned on getting some organic grapes but the guy in produce told me that they are not in season until May....guess I should have looked at my "what's in season" chart! 

I also got 4 more things or uncured hot dogs for the kiddos

A package or organic bacon (needed for the bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin eMeals recipe I'm making this week)

So you may be wondering, what do I do with a whole chicken?  Because a year ago, I would have been at a loss as to what to do with a whole chicken.  I preferred to buy my chicken already separated and cut up.  So, here is a recipe on how to roast a whole chicken.  Once it's cooked, you can separate the parts of the chicken and it's recipe ready! 

Roast Sticky Rotisserie-style chicken (from allrecipes.com)

• 4 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 onions, quartered
• 2 (4 pound) whole chickens

1. In a small bowl, mix together salt, paprika, onion powder, thyme, white pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder. Remove and discard giblets from chicken. Rinse chicken cavity, and pat dry with paper towel. Rub each chicken inside and out with spice mixture. Place 1 onion into the cavity of each chicken. Place chickens in a resealable bag or double wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight, or at least 4 to 6 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C).
3. Place chickens in a roasting pan. Bake uncovered for 5 hours, to a minimum internal temperature of 180 degrees F (85 degrees C). Let the chickens stand for 10 minutes before carving. 

Most of the other recipes I found had loads of butter and sugar.  So, I like this one because it is just spices.  You can cut the recipe in half if you're only roasting 1 chicken.  I will go ahead and do both of mine that I left refrigerated. 

So after I got home from Whole Foods and picked up the kiddos from school, I decided to get started on the strawberry muffins.  My daughter informed me the other day that she hasn't had time in the morning to eat her oatmeal (probably because she lollygags upstairs after her alarm goes off) and that she wanted to eat a muffin in the morning instead.  I found this recipe on Gracious Pantry and it is REALLY good!  Oh and the best part?  They have NO SUGAR OR BUTTER!!

Clean Strawberry Muffins (adapted from Gracious Pantry)

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 whole egg
1 egg white
1/4 cup safflower oil
1 cup apple concentrate, no sugar added (found organic apple concentrate from Whole Foods)
1 cup milk (any kind you use will be fine, I used organic light soy milk)
3 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
3 cups fresh strawberries, chopped

 ~Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Step 1 – In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and fresh strawberries. Set aside. (You want to coat the strawberries with flour so they don’t sink to the bottom of your muffins while baking)

Step 2 – In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, apple concentrate, milk, vanilla, and apple sauce.

Step 3 – Pour the liquid into the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined.

Step 4 – Spoon into muffin tins or papers and bake for approximately 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin pulls out clean.

Step 5 – Allow to cool completely. These are not like other muffins where they taste best out of the oven. These truly do taste their best when they are completely cooled.

 Oh yes, Addy loves them.  They will be perfect for breakfast.  And my husband had some for dessert and thought they were awesome!

Well, that's about it for now...thanks for reading!!!!