Hurricane Mommy

7 Steps To Decluttering Your Life For Good

OK, so maybe there's no hope for a mommy up against what the therapists call a "disorganized" autistic five year old...

But according to life coach Christine Kinney, there is hope for the rest of us - and not only in organizing our physical clutter. She runs online courses she calls Declutter Bootcamp to help us with our psychic clutter and our physical clutter. In 6 weeks, for $300, she says she can help you learn to banish all that clutter from your life to give you room to move forward.

Here's a taste of her philosophy... 7 steps to decluttering your life for good:

1. Understand where and what your clutter is.
Where's your clutter? Start a list of things that annoy you or aren't working in your life. Clutter shows up in all areas of our lives, including our mind, home, car, office, work/career, relationships, health and wellness, body and finances. You name it and you can have clutter there.

According to Kinney, "If not dealt with, clutter in your life can cause stress, fatigue and resentment."

2. Determine how your clutter is impacting you.
What is your clutter costing you? Before you can make a change in your life, you have to understand how the issue is impacting you -- whether it's frustration, time or money. The cost has to be big enough for you to make the effort to change.

Go back to your clutter list and rate how the issues are affecting you. Use a scale from a scale of 1 to 10 to get a clear picture of the impact the clutter is having.

3. Make the decision to take action.
Are you ready to take action? Every crossroads you come to in life requires you to make one of four choices. You can either runaway from the situation (not realistic choice for most of us), continue with the way things are (just more of the same), change how you feel about the situation, or you can make the commitment to do something about it.

The choice is yours. Choose to take action that will change your life.

4. Take the first step.
Where will you start? The first step can be the hardest one to take. Start with something you can achieve easily and quickly. "I worked with a client recently who started by taking control over the magazines she had in her home," adds Kinney. "Once she felt powerful in that area of her life, she began to take action in all areas of her life. She wouldn't have been successful with any of those challenges, if she hadn't taken the first step.

Choose to make a difference by beginning to work your clutter list. You may be surprised how addicted you will become to resolving the issues in your life.

5. Learn to say "No."
What are you saying "Yes" to that you'd wish you were saying "No" to? The true secret to stress reduction and keeping your life clutter free is your ability to confidently say, "No." That's it.

Your ability to say "No" and the boundaries you set, impact how others in your life treat you.

If you say "Yes" to things you really don't want to, you open yourself to be viewed as a pushover. But if you can say "Yes" to the things you are passionate about, you increase your standards and are able to set realistic boundaries for yourself and others.

6. Take on a "less is better" mentality.
Where can you start taking on less? We live in a society where having more is viewed as better. Whether it's more possessions or more appointments on our calendar, our culture defines success with excess. But all too often, more "stuff" equates to more responsibility, less freedom, and a cluttered life.

According to Kinney, "It's not always the things we add to our lives that can make them better, instead more often than not, it's the things we take away that really improve our situation."

Try on a "less is better" mentality.

7. Practice the discipline to keep clutter from coming back.
Are you disciplined enough to keep the clutter out of your life? Now that you've made the decision to limit the clutter in your life, it's your job to continue to have the discipline to manage this decision daily.

The "discomfort" you may feel in the short-term by maintaining your decision is minimal, but the regret of not sticking by your decision can be devastating, especially in the long term.

"Living a clutter-free life takes intention and a little practice, but the results are well worth it," says Kinney. "Reducing your anxiety and stress, realizing your dreams, simplifying your life and creating space for abundance to flow are just a few of the benefits you'll realize."

Why not clear off your plate (or platter -- as the case may be) and commit to doing just a few things and doing them well?

Recipe: Campbell's One Dish Chicken & Rice Bake

This recipe for Campbell's One Dish Chicken & Rice Bake is one of the most recommended recipes on the Campbell's Kitchen website. It's quick and simple...so simple that I can make it in only a few minutes! It's been a staple in our family for many years.

One warning about this recipe - the cooking time of 1 hour in the oven is almost never enough to cook the breasts to a safe temperature for us. You are going to want to rely more on judging the doneness of the chicken than on the clock. A meat thermometer set to go off at the right temperature makes this simple, or just check the interior of the chicken every few minutes after an hour has passed.

The creamy rice and the tender chicken that results from this dish are comfort foods, for sure. And adding to the convenience of the easy recipe is the fact that nothing fresh is needed for this recipe - the chicken breasts can be from the freezer (although they will need to be thawed before baking) and the other ingredients are pantry staples, so it is a great dish for those "what do we have in the house?" kind of nights of cooking. Since various versions of the soup can be used, such as low-sodium or low-fat, the dish can accommodate quite a few dietary needs. And of course, boneless chicken breasts are fairly healthy to begin with!

The traditional version of the recipe linked above cooks enough for 4 people, but there is also a version of One Dish Chicken & Rice Bake that serves 6 if you have a large family or company coming.

Yoga: Can You Flunk Breathing?

I've recently been trying yoga as a new way to get some exercise and some relaxation. It's a good choice for me because I have bad knees (mis-aligned patellas) and yoga is low impact on the knees. It doesn't pound on them like running or a lot of other forms of exercise does. And I really like that I feel relaxed when I am done. I never thought that was possible with a form of exercise.

I thought the most challenging part of yoga for me would be that it is intended for skinny, flexible people and I am plus-sized and decidedly not flexible. That hasn't turned out to be the case. I actually found a yoga video that is especially designed for plus-sized women. It's called Just My Size With Megan Garcia. The instructor is a plus-sized model and certified yoga instructor. The video includes a section on how to adjust the exercises to your own body's abilities, which has helped with my knees and some balance issues I have. It is also much more relaxing to follow someone who looks something like me in doing my workout than it would be to follow a size two model that I have no hope of ever looking like. It lets me do my workout - a positive thing - without introducing negative thoughts.

So the video took care of the one challenge I thought I was going to have. But I found another - embarrassing - one. I can follow along with the poses and positions. That's no problem. My problem is I can't follow the breathing instructions! Yes, I am flunking yoga breathing. It's breathing. I do it constantly, 24/7, just to live. But tell me to breathe in and breathe out at a certain point in a movement and I turn into a clutz! I am breathing in or out at the wrong time, or too fast. Or I find myself holding my breath to try to stay in sync with my movements. Breathing is hard, apparently, if there is yoga involved. At least for me.

I do the best I can. I figure that I am getting some exercise from the movement even if I am messing up the breathing and I hope that with practice I will get better. And I do feel relaxed when I am done. But still, it's kind of embarrassing to flunk breathing.

Some Yoga Links:

• 10 Minute Yoga
• How Yoga Stops The Clock
• Yoga May Help After Breast Cancer

 

Back-to-School Fundraiser Idea

Anyone with school aged children knows the drill: several times a year you are expected to cough up an outrageous price for mediocre quality cookie dough or frozen meals or other such item that you don't really need "to help the school".

Ever notice that while we spend a lot of time telling kids to eat well, a lot of horrendous food is sold as school fundraisers? Wouldn't it be great if you could buy something you really could use or wanted (instead of just expanding your waistline) while helping a school?

At an educational technology conference a few months ago I found a company that offers a great solution for school fundraisers that promotes technology, offers a unique product that is useful, and can be personalized. How would you like to buy a custom USB flash drive instead of those fat-laden cookies?

In fact, in some tech-savvy districts this might even be a great way to help students get ready for back-to-school since the students need USB drives as part of their school supplies.

Pexagon Tech offers several different school fundraising programs using their USB 2.0 thumb drives. Some of the programs are gift card based. The school can sell a gift card good for redemption via Pexagon Tech's website for a single 1 GB drive. The buyer then goes to the website to redeem their card by selecting the drive's color and personalization, and receives the drive via mail. I have tried this process and was impressed with the ease of gift card redemption. As of January 2008, schools could purchase the gift cards for $11.99 each, and set their own price for selling them.

For back-to-school programs, Pexagon Tech offers a revenue sharing program to schools that include Pexagon Tech's information on their school supply lists, or they will provide gift cards on a consignment basis for sale during school registration. They also offer a reselling program for school stores.If your child's school requires USB drives for students, this is definitely worth looking into as a quality product, a convenience for parents, and as a fundraiser. And now is the time to do it if you want to make arrangements for a back-to-school fundraiser!

Pexagon Tech offers their thumb drives in 14 colors. The prices include having them customized with laser engraving - 32 different "tattoo designs" are offered for one side of the drives, and the other side can have up to two lines of text engraved. Schools can provide their logos to Pexagon as a customization option. Name engraving is perfect for helping students keep track of their drives at school, or to ensure its return any time the drive must leave your hands, such as at a photo printing lab. Although the gift cards are currently only an option for 1GB drives, drives are available in 512MB, 2GB and 4GB sizes as well. (By the way, Pexagon Tech also sells their customized drives individually through their website or customized for businesses to use as promotional items.)

I have been so impressed with the quality and performance of my first 1GB drive that I just ordered another 2GB drive. The engraving is beautiful and the cap fits snugly onto the USB connector, lowering the risk of losing it. My notoriously cranky Vista PC has no problem reading the drive, and it is the only drive I've ever owned that will consistently eject from my computer when requested instead of inexplicably claiming to be in use when it isn't. Also, the metal construction of the drive is sturdy and feels durable compared to most cheap, plastic drives. The drive is fast too, rated at transfer speeds of up to 480Mb/second. And it didn't come with annoying proprietary sync or other software on it that eats up drive space and continually tries to activate itself. (For an ultra-geeky article about comparing USB drives, see Computer World's recent article Not All USB Drives Are Created Equal.)

I wish my daughter's school had enough computer users to make USB drives a successful fundraiser here! I guess I'm stuck buying cookies, but I hope this information is useful to other tech geek parents out there.

The Noise That Helps Me Sleep

I have slept - or rather not slept - with a professional quality snorer for years. When he is in full slumber volume, the racket can be heard at the other end of our home during the still of the night.

For a long time it seemed the only solution was to sleep separately much of the time. Then I discovered the miracle of earplugs and peace reigned while I slept, at least for awhile. Then the volume of the snoring increased and the earplugs no longer were enough to restore peace to my night.

After some restless nights (and him spending some nights on the couch), I stumbled across a suggestion on the internet. I was desperate enough to try even this ridiculous sounding suggestion and so we gave it a shot. The suggestion was that white noise would help drown out the snoring.

I found it impossible to believe that listening to a bit of static (while still wearing my earplugs) could drown out the earth-shattering snoring. But we had nothing to lose so we gave it a try. We experimented by just leaving a radio on a blank station, using the static as white noise. Surprisingly, it worked very well! The snoring blended in with the static into one background noise, instead of as start-and-stop noise that disturbed me. With the constant, low level of noise, the result was soothing instead of jarring. I was able to sleep!

We've graduated now from the gigantic radio on the nightstand to an actual white noise machine. They are available at a lot of places like bed & bath stores, or department stores, with names like sound therapy or sound spa. Our machine cost $19.99 and has a lot of nature sound settings. We use the waterfall one. It is the perfect white noise.

The noise doesn't disturb my husband's sleep, and it lets me sleep through his snoring (as long as I am also wearing earplugs to turn down the volume). I never would have thought that actually increasing the noise in the room would help me sleep! But since the new noise masks the jolting effects of the snoring noise, it really works.

Give white noise a try if you sleep with a snore monster at night. It could restore peace and harmony to your nights, and productivity to your days!

 

Preparing Your Personal Affairs For A Disaster

This past week marked the official start of the Atlantic storm season, so those of us who live in places like Florida are taking stock of our emergency supplies like water and batteries and reviewing our evacuation plans if we live in a coastal area. Wildfires in other areas have many people doing the same.

So it was a conveniently timely reminder from Lifehacker that there are other sorts of disasters that we need to prepare our affairs for too, things like medical emergencies that leave us incapacitated temporarily, or even the thing we least like to think about - our death.

Lifehacker provided some great links to help determine what you need to do to organize these things for peace of mind:

Lifehacker's In Case of Emergency
Maintaining A Master Information Document

If you run a business, emergency planning of your affairs is even more important. The impact of an emergency absence caused by an accident or medical crisis could be minimized if someone knows how to do things like keep your bills paid and inform clients of the situation.

We don't like to think of bad things happening to us but even something as simple as an emergency appendectomy could cause a problem if we are the ones who pay the household bills and no one else knows our system and how to use it. We need to make sure that a few other people know about and can access the information and tools that they would need to keep our affairs running in an emergency, or to settle them if it comes to that.

One thing that I use to help with that is a desktop password and accounts manager. By sharing access to this password with a few key people, I can give them all the information that they would need to access everything from my gmail accounts to my online banking if they needed it in an emergency.

There are many applications available to do this. I use ewallet myself, which is by IliumSoft. It is available as a Windows Mobile or Palm App, packaged with the desktop app, for $29.95. (I bought it as a Palm app myself to use on my Palm T/X that I'm about to probably replace with an iPhone.) The interface is simple to the point of being stark at times (although I don't own the latest version) but it is very easy to use.

If you don't have a smartphone and thus don't need a mobile app, there are other apps to use to do this that don't have a mobile app packaged with them. But I can't vouch for any having never used them. If you have one you like, please post it in the comments!

My Favorite Lifehacks

(Note: This entry originally appeared two months ago on another site I write, The Nally Notes. I am reposting it here because the lifehacking concept goes to the heart of the problems of many moms and I want to share my hacks with everyone.)

As an avid fan of Gina Trapani's first Lifehacker book and follower of the Lifehacker blog, I was thrilled to hear that edition two was coming out, titled "Upgrade Your Life":

I did something rare for me: I pre-ordered it and have been poring over it since it arrived, absorbing the new tips (and refreshing myself on the old ones to see if they may apply to me now) and deciding what I want to implement. I've already successfully implemented a few and am loving my new Foxmarks extension to coordinate my desktop web browsing with my laptop!

This "lifehack evaluation" has inspired me to want to share with the world some of my favorite personal lifehacks. Some of them are common place and some of them are my own quirky little things, but I hope that in there some of you find a nugget of something useful.

So, here are some of my personal favorite lifehacks:

• Two laundry baskets: I use two side-by-side laundry baskets, approx. the same size as my washer, to pre-sort dirty laundry as it is generated. Then when one of the baskets is full I know I have a complete load, all ready to go in the washer.
• A full pantry & freezer: I try to keep an extensive pantry and freezer on hand of all basic household foods and supplies which means that we are flexible on when we have to grocery shop except for a quick run for perishables like milk. This is great for when schedules get tight or we are all laid out by the latest cold or virus going around. This plan also extends to having backups for cleaners and toiletries - when a tube of toothpaste gets opened, it goes immediately on the shopping list to buy a replacement the next time out. We started this practice as an preparatory measure when I had a high-risk pregnancy with a high probability of bed rest, but discovered that it made our lives easier on an everyday basis and so we've kept doing it.
• Two shopping lists: I keep two magnetic shopping list pads on the refrigerator for easy writing on of items that we need to purchase. One list is for the grocery store, and the second list is for "other stuff" - fertilizer from the garden center, etc. Keeping the two lists separate avoids cluttering the grocery list with irrelevant items, and avoids the labor of rewriting it after shopping to put "non-grocery" things back on the list.
• Online shopping: Where we live it takes 20 minutes or more each way to get to any decent stores. I've found that for a lot of items I save time and money shopping online, comparing prices and just having the item shipped to me. I buy most of my electronics, books, and craft supplies online, as well as occasionally clothes and other items.
• Online bill pay: I use my bank's services to their maximum potential. Not only do I use the online bill pay to schedule automatic payments for items like the car and house payments, but I also have several bills set up to come electronically to my bank's bill pay service and then be paid automatically on the due date. I literally don't have to do anything! (I do receive a copy of the bill so I know what is being paid.) The rest of my bills are paid in seconds by entering the amount and the desired date into the bill pay service.
• Silk plants: They are always green and beautiful and require no watering, fertilizing or trimming. And even I can't kill them!
• Routine: Despite the fact that I work at home and could actually have a lot of flexibility in my day, I try to make as much of my day as possible run on a routine. Routines cut down on decision-making about what to do next, which takes time. Routines require no thought - they are automatic and thus quicker than deciding at intervals what the next step will be.
• Do like tasks together: If one small trashcan in the house needs emptying, I try to do all of them. I grab one big trash bag and just move from room to room. Doing them all at once when you already have the bag in hand is faster than getting a bag out every time one can needs emptying. Same thing for dusting. If I notice that my bookcase needs dusting, I grab the box of Swiffers and move about the house for ten  minutes hitting all the favorite dust hide-outs that I can for a quick touch-up on the whole place.  It's way more efficient (and means I only have to have one big allergy attack instead of several small ones).
• Storage Baskets: My husband has called me the basket lady on more than one occasion. (I suppose that is better than being a basket case?) I have baskets of all kinds in use all over our house to corral things and instill a sense of neatness while still making them easy to use. The bathroom counter has plastic baskets to contain the jumble of toiletries (and make them easy to move for cleaning). The living room bookcase shelves have fabric and woven baskets to contain the plethora of my daughter's toys and books that have invaded the space. Most of my craft supplies are stored on a bookcase in a variety of wood and woven baskets. I use baskets inside our kitchen cupboards to make things easier to pull out and get into. Baskets can be cheap, but can also be decorative if you want. For me, they are the perfect easy storage solution to instill order out of chaos.
• Keep things where I use them: If I find myself regularly getting up to get something, or walking into another room to get it, it means it is stored in the wrong place. That means I need to find it a new home near the place that it is being used most frequently. I did this recently with my stamps. I used to store them in the kitchen desk by my greeting cards, but found myself often walking from my office out to get them because I was much more frequently using them for business than for personal correspondence. They now have a home in my office to save me time and footsteps in my work day.

I hope that my list inspires some lifehacking in some of you! Go to it!

(Note: This entry originally appeared two months ago on another site I write, The Nally Notes. I am reposting it here because the lifehacking concept goes to the heart of the problems of many moms and I want to share my hacks with everyone.)

As an avid fan of Gina Trapani's first Lifehacker book and follower of the Lifehacker blog, I was thrilled to hear that edition two was coming out, titled "Upgrade Your Life":

I did something rare for me: I pre-ordered it and have been poring over it since it arrived, absorbing the new tips (and refreshing myself on the old ones to see if they may apply to me now) and deciding what I want to implement. I've already successfully implemented a few and am loving my new Foxmarks extension to coordinate my desktop web browsing with my laptop!

This "lifehack evaluation" has inspired me to want to share with the world some of my favorite personal lifehacks. Some of them are common place and some of them are my own quirky little things, but I hope that in there some of you find a nugget of something useful.

So, here are some of my personal favorite lifehacks:

• Two laundry baskets: I use two side-by-side laundry baskets, approx. the same size as my washer, to pre-sort dirty laundry as it is generated. Then when one of the baskets is full I know I have a complete load, all ready to go in the washer.
• A full pantry & freezer: I try to keep an extensive pantry and freezer on hand of all basic household foods and supplies which means that we are flexible on when we have to grocery shop except for a quick run for perishables like milk. This is great for when schedules get tight or we are all laid out by the latest cold or virus going around. This plan also extends to having backups for cleaners and toiletries - when a tube of toothpaste gets opened, it goes immediately on the shopping list to buy a replacement the next time out. We started this practice as an preparatory measure when I had a high-risk pregnancy with a high probability of bed rest, but discovered that it made our lives easier on an everyday basis and so we've kept doing it.
• Two shopping lists: I keep two magnetic shopping list pads on the refrigerator for easy writing on of items that we need to purchase. One list is for the grocery store, and the second list is for "other stuff" - fertilizer from the garden center, etc. Keeping the two lists separate avoids cluttering the grocery list with irrelevant items, and avoids the labor of rewriting it after shopping to put "non-grocery" things back on the list.
• Online shopping: Where we live it takes 20 minutes or more each way to get to any decent stores. I've found that for a lot of items I save time and money shopping online, comparing prices and just having the item shipped to me. I buy most of my electronics, books, and craft supplies online, as well as occasionally clothes and other items.
• Online bill pay: I use my bank's services to their maximum potential. Not only do I use the online bill pay to schedule automatic payments for items like the car and house payments, but I also have several bills set up to come electronically to my bank's bill pay service and then be paid automatically on the due date. I literally don't have to do anything! (I do receive a copy of the bill so I know what is being paid.) The rest of my bills are paid in seconds by entering the amount and the desired date into the bill pay service.
• Silk plants: They are always green and beautiful and require no watering, fertilizing or trimming. And even I can't kill them!
• Routine: Despite the fact that I work at home and could actually have a lot of flexibility in my day, I try to make as much of my day as possible run on a routine. Routines cut down on decision-making about what to do next, which takes time. Routines require no thought - they are automatic and thus quicker than deciding at intervals what the next step will be.
• Do like tasks together: If one small trashcan in the house needs emptying, I try to do all of them. I grab one big trash bag and just move from room to room. Doing them all at once when you already have the bag in hand is faster than getting a bag out every time one can needs emptying. Same thing for dusting. If I notice that my bookcase needs dusting, I grab the box of Swiffers and move about the house for ten  minutes hitting all the favorite dust hide-outs that I can for a quick touch-up on the whole place.  It's way more efficient (and means I only have to have one big allergy attack instead of several small ones).
• Storage Baskets: My husband has called me the basket lady on more than one occasion. (I suppose that is better than being a basket case?) I have baskets of all kinds in use all over our house to corral things and instill a sense of neatness while still making them easy to use. The bathroom counter has plastic baskets to contain the jumble of toiletries (and make them easy to move for cleaning). The living room bookcase shelves have fabric and woven baskets to contain the plethora of my daughter's toys and books that have invaded the space. Most of my craft supplies are stored on a bookcase in a variety of wood and woven baskets. I use baskets inside our kitchen cupboards to make things easier to pull out and get into. Baskets can be cheap, but can also be decorative if you want. For me, they are the perfect easy storage solution to instill order out of chaos.
• Keep things where I use them: If I find myself regularly getting up to get something, or walking into another room to get it, it means it is stored in the wrong place. That means I need to find it a new home near the place that it is being used most frequently. I did this recently with my stamps. I used to store them in the kitchen desk by my greeting cards, but found myself often walking from my office out to get them because I was much more frequently using them for business than for personal correspondence. They now have a home in my office to save me time and footsteps in my work day.

I hope that my list inspires some lifehacking in some of you! Go to it!

Do you have space to call your own?

Most of us share our homes - with our spouses, with our kids. But sometimes we need to get away, to take a break mentally or physically. Do you have a way to do that?

It doesn't have to be physical space - it could be mental space, a way that you have of creating a "time-out" for yourself. For one friend of mine, that way is rowing. In fact, for a lot of women it is some form of exercise. Perhaps that helps explain the popularity of yoga, which creates a mental break as part of the activity.

For me, my space is scrapbooking, and it is both physical and mental. Playing with my scrapbook supplies is a way to break mentally from the everyday grind. When I am handling paper and photos, contemplating colors and textures, and stamping and cutting, I feel the tension just seep out of me. I can leave everything else behind for a little bit.

Besides the mental break it gives me, I have my own physical space for scrapbooking too. It is one half of our third bedroom. The other half of the room is my office, with my computer desk, bookcase and file cabinets. I've been able to decorate the room how I like, with cheerful spring green paint, a lace curtain, and other decorations. Being able to go into that space and shut the door seals me into a peaceful space.

Do you have a space - mental or physical - to get away from it all? What is it?

Help me find cotton t-shirts that don't shrink!

I hope Hurricane Mommy's readers can help me with my biggest shopping frustration! With the extreme heat and humidity here in Florida for a good part of the year, cotton is the only comfortable fiber for about three seasons of wardrobe. Since my wardrobe is casual (jeans/shorts/sweats), cotton t-shirts are a staple top for me. It's practically all I wear!

You'd think they would be easy to find, but the problem is finding good quality ones that don't shrink! It got to the point where I was having to literally hang dry all my shirts - not exactly a very efficient way of doing laundry for this hurricane mommy. Otherwise, I'd buy shirts that fit in the store and wash them once (cold water, dryer on low) and they would shrink almost a full size it seemed!

To avoid having to hang dry (because, seriously, who has the time or space to hang dry every single shirt they wear?) I recently started buying all my shirts a size too large so they will shrink and still fit. Problem is that they don't shrink a full size in the wash...so now I am wearing baggy, albeit easier to care for, tops.

Help! Who sells good quality cotton t-shirts (in plus sizes) that don't shrink beyond recognition the first time they are washed? I used to order from Lands End but they have gone downhill since their acquisition by Sears it seems - some stuff shrinks now, other items are very thin. Plus they are so expensive and we don't have a store close for returns.

Any suggestions so that I can maybe stop hanging clothes dry or looking like a schlub?

Real Simple's Golden Chicken

Even though my husband does the vast majority of the cooking in our house, I am always on the lookout for good, simple recipes that I can make when I need to cook. Emphasis on the simple, because I can barely make macaroni & cheese from a box...

I found this one in Real Simple magazine a while back: Golden Chicken. It combines two of my favorite things for dinner, chicken and potatoes, but jazzes it up by adding some herbs and using red skin potatoes. It is simple enough to prepare for roasting in the oven that even I can make it. And yes, it tastes as good as it looks! The chicken ends up juicy and the potatoes end up flavorful. This one has a permanent home now in my "good reliable recipes" collection.