one pot slow baked tomato and olive chicken

I don't know what has come over me lately but I am really getting into cooking. I'm reading cook books, asking friends for recipes and even found myself looking at the cooking magazines in the library the other day. And normally in the magazines I read I flick right past the cooking pages but I'm now looking at them too and even cutting a few recipes out to try, very unlike me!  My hubby is a really good cook but it's time for me to make a much better effort and do more of the cooking- I'm even realising that it doesn't take that long, especially if I do most of it at lunchtime while the girls are eating their lunch.  It's still a bit too full on in the evenings to cook then as Jack usually needs feeding around 5/5:30 so meals that can be prepared earlier are the way to go for now. In the last two weeks I've cooked every meal except two and that is unheard of in our house. Wonder how long this burst of enthusiasm will last....!

This chicken recipe (from one of the Herald's Canvas magazines last year) is such a good one - all done in one pot, really budget friendly especially if you use chicken drumsticks and it literally took 5 minutes to throw everything into the pot and put it in the oven.

4 chicken marylands (the thigh and the leg attached together and on the bone) or 6 drumsticks
small bunch of thyme
4 bay leaves
5 cloves of garlic, unpeeled yay!
1 tbsp lemon zest
250 g cherry tomatoes (I bought a tin of Delmaine cherry tomatoes from the supermarket)
1 cup tomatoe puree
half cup red wine
half a cup mixed olives (I just used kalamata olives)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Place all the above ingredients in in a large, heavy based saucepan or a casserole dish with a lid. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover with a lid and bake for one hour. Remove the lid, increase the heat to 200 degrees and bake for a further 30 minutes or until skin in golden.
Serve with mash and vegetables.

I've added a little list (yes another one!) down the side of my blog with our meals for the week- it's been really helpful doing a little meal plan so when I do the groceries I can get everything we need for each meal and it's good going through a few recipe books and choosing one or two new meals along with our usual ones. Things don't always go to plan though- ended up with fish and chips one night after a crazy day!

For more meal ideas and some lunch box ideas too, read Widge's post here...
Megan x