The recipes I share aren’t based on Google trends of what’s popular; they’re simply what I’ve been cooking for myself over the past week.

For instance, I love breakfast, but after weeks of scrambled eggs and toast, I wanted something different. This easy take on a Monte Cristo sandwich captures the sweet and salty combination that we all love for breakfast.

I also love a roast chicken dinner. This one becomes something special after drizzling the roasted chicken and vegetables with a tahini yogurt sauce.

By the way, don’t throw out the chicken carcass! As I write this, my stripped chicken carcass is simmering in a large pot of water with onion, garlic, carrots and parsley to create a delicious chicken stock I’ll use for soup.

The leftover chicken meat will be used for sandwiches, soup or a chicken pot pie. Stay tuned, I’ll cover that in my next column!

Easy Monte Cristo breakfast sandwich

This breakfast sandwich is a quick and easy version of a Monte Cristo for one.

• 1 egg
• 1 Tablespoon of butter
• 2 slices of bread
• 2 slices of ham
• 2 slices of Swiss cheese
• Maple syrup

Preheat broiler. Whisk the egg on a large plate, and dip each slice of bread in the egg, coating both sides. (I used challah bread.)

Melt the butter in a frying pan, then fry the bread slices until lightly browned on both sides, just like French toast.

Place the bread on a sheet pan, and add the ham and cheese to each slice of bread. (I like thin-sliced deli ham and medium-sliced Swiss cheese.)

Place under the broiler until cheese is melted and bubbly. Place bread slices together to form a sandwich, then cut in half and drizzle with maple syrup. Enjoy!

Sheet-pan spatchcocked chicken dinner

This effortless sheet-pan roast chicken dinner is elevated with a quick tahini yogurt dressing. It’s easy enough for a weeknight but special enough to serve for dinner with friends.

• 1 roasting chicken
• 1 pound fingerling potatoes, cut into quarters
• 1 bunch broccolini, ends trimmed
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely diced
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 tablespoon rosemary leaves, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 375. Soak potatoes in water for 30 minutes, then start on spatchcocking your chicken by cutting out the backbone and flattening it so that it lays flat, breast-side up.

In a small saucepan, over a medium heat, melt together the butter, oil, rosemary, lime juice and garlic.

Place spatchcocked chicken and potatoes on a sheet pan, and spoon the garlic butter over the chicken and potatoes. Roast the chicken and potatoes for 45 minutes to one hour, until chicken meat is cooked through. Spoon the drippings over the bird one to two times as it cooks. If you’d like a crisper skin on the chicken, increase the heat to 425 for the last 15 minutes of roasting.

Remove the chicken and potatoes to a plate and add the broccolini to the sheet pan, allowing it to absorb the drippings. Roast for 10-12 minutes, keeping an eye on them to make sure they don’t burn.

Drizzle the chicken, potatoes and broccolini with tahini yogurt sauce:

• 2/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup tahini
• 1 lime, juiced
• 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together, and thin with a splash of water if it is too thick.

Suzanne Elizabeth Anderson’s column “Home Cooking” publishes biweekly on Thursdays in the Summit Daily News. Anderson taught herself to cook after college when she discovered dinner parties were a cure for loneliness. Her latest cookbook is “A Year in the Mountains Cookbook.” She has lived in Breckenridge since 2016. Contact her at suzanne@suzanneelizabeths.com.