Roasted DELICIOUSNESS: Potatoes, ham, tomatoes, herbs, chicken broth

Some of you might be able to use some leftover Easter ham in this type of dish! Yea right, who ever has Easter ham leftover...

Roasting dishes is what got me through my senior year of college.  If you ever need an easy meal that is pretty much foolproof, the general equation is veggies cut thin + meat + seasoning + a little water and butter = HEAVEN.  Although you have to wait for an hour.

For this particular full glass dish (approx. 13x9ish dimensions) I cut up 5 small red potatoes into cubes, plopped my container of tomatoes in various colors down in it, put a few rings of an onion chopped fine, and 3 slices of hand torn up into bits.

I seasoned mine with basil (a lot), rosemary (a little), seasoning salt (a lot, it's potatoes after all), and pepper (some).  Then I poured in 3/4 C homemade chicken broth, a TB or less of butter in small pieces (as I knew I would get some flavor from the stock, you can use water too just add more butter). 

I roasted it covered with foil at 350 for about an hour.

I used to do this a lot with chicken, usually using closer to a cup of water, and would drain off the "stock" left in the pan after roasting and use it as a base in soup.  Since mine tend to have a medley of veggies and herbs, the juices left behind are perfect to get a small pot of soup going.  I would say that in my senior year, I probably roasted something close to once a week, and always used the broth leftover in some sort of soup concoction.  You can use the broth AND leftover meats and veggies in a soup as well.  Allow me to suggest tortellini in soup.  Yum, now I am hungry again.

It is a really great option for those days when you get back to your apartment, want to just lay on the floor and try to take in the incredibly hectic day you had.  You can throw all this in a pan with very little prep needed, and even take a nap for the next hour as long as you are a responsible human and set multiple alarms and timers so that you don't forget. You can absolutely make similar dishes in crockpots, but for those days that just don't go as you planned and there isn't a crock pot of yumminess waiting for you, it isn't a bad option. 

I usually take roasting times to catch up on dishes or other loose ends as I rarely budget the time to do dishes after breakfast in the mornings.

Foolproof, minimal dishes, minimal work...highly recommended for new cooks, college kids, and anyone who has had a stressful day and just wants some comfort food.

If it was a really bad, terrible day....up the butter.  HAH!

Happy crafting!