Simple oven dinner - baked sweet potatoes and drumsticks

There are days when I just can't bear the thought of firing up a skillet and hovering over a stove for an hour just to make dinner. For those times, I like to rely on my trusty drumsticks and a coating of Shake 'n Bake to take over. But as the price of food as increased dramatically, I recently invested in a large (read: cheap) container of parmesan seasoned bread crumbs, and thought that maybe I could use it to make a substitute for Shake n' Bake (which runs for a couple of dollars for 8 servings or so). It was easy enough, since the bread crumbs were already seasoned, I just had to give my thawed drumsticks a toss in a ziplock of crumbs and it was ready for some oven action (375 degrees F for about 40 minutes or until juices run clear when poked).

The best part is that I can do the vegetables at the same time, by roasting a sweet potato in the oven simultaneously. Ah, how I love the sweet potato (I just can't stop calling it a yam, because I grew up thinking they were the same thing). Anyway, I like to cut the sweet potato in half lengthwise, leaving the skin on. Then I wrap up each half with foil, and lay them flat side up on a baking sheet for the same amount of time as the drumsticks (these things don't overbake anyway). They're ready when they are soft and start to leak caramelized liquid. You can stir up the flesh of the sweet potatoes with a little salted butter, brown sugar, and lots of cinnamon. Soooo delicious! And when you're all done, the only cleanup necessary is to ball up the foil and throw it away :)

Baked sweet potatoes and drumsticks