S.N. Week 1 Day 2- Autumn Supper

I woke up this morning stiff and exhausted. It felt like I had been run over by a semi while I was asleep. However, two things brightened me up and got me going. One was remembering that it was the day to vote. How excited I was to exercise my right to do so! The second was hearing the wind blow the leaves outside my door and feeling the autumn chill in the air. Such a wonderful morning got me excited about my day and especially about dinner. I decided that an autumn inspired meal would be yummy and fun for dinner tonight.

After going through the propositions and candidates one last time, dressing my little 4 year old and arming myself with dum dum suckers for bribery, my grocery list and keys, we headed off to do our duty and vote.
It felt wonderful, having done my "homework" and voting. I felt up lifted and even hopeful that maybe the next few years will go better for this country. Either way, it was fun knowing that now I could at least gripe if it didn't get better,without a guilty conscience right? Heehee. My littlest one was pretty good while I was voting and after having finished his bribe, he thought he was going to help me turn in my ballot. We settled at letting him hold my purse for me instead.
Next we had fun picking up our few extra things that we needed for dinner. My 4 year old got to choose the carts that are more like cars. It was red. He was in and buckled before I could even reach down and ask if he needed help. I showed him the horn to honk just in case, cause mom likes to have fun too and "drive" the car-cart like she stole it down the grocery isles. Nothing beats hearing my little guy squeal in delight as we zoomed through the store. On our way home we shared an eggnog. Creamy, cold and oh so yummy! I think I got my little guy addicted. It's more fun to have a "drinking" buddy. Glad he's addicted too.
Well, dinnertime finally rolled around and it was time to get a cookin'. I decided to buy an acorn squash and russet potatoes to add to our chicken meal. Mash potatoes are always yummy with chicken and the acorn squash would be autumn perfect, glazed with a brown sugar, cloves and cinnamon mix.

The menu:
Roasted Chicken with Cranberry Apple Citrus Sauce
Butter Mashed Potatoes
Brown Sugar with Cinnamon and Cloves Glazed Acorn Squash

 There were a lot of adult flavors and textures. I'm proud of how well my little gang ate despite their food texture issues. It's SO much fun to cook something else besides chicken nuggets or plain pasta now that they're eating more complex textures!!!

I was surprised at how easy and fast the chicken was to cook. If you'd like to try it, here's the link for the recipe: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/whatsfordinner/m/channel/food/recipes/roasted-cranberry-chicken-540019/;_ylt=AiKSJF18_vEGDRRj8aSc0EPkgKU5

I added an apple, juice from an orange and a touch of it's zest to the original recipe. Squeeze half of the orange onto the chicken while searing it. Add the second half of the orange to the sauce along with the zest. Cook recipe as directed.