Can I borrow some rosemary?

So with the new challenge in mind what did I decide to cook first off? A roast. Yep. A long winded, long ass, millions of ways to cook a roast, roast.
I was staying at my boyfriends and said to him "Won't it be fun if we cook something together?"
"Sure" he replies. So off we set to our local Coles to pick up some goodies for this roast. I had my heart set on beef, so headed straight to the beef section. Unknowingly picking this recipe I didn't realize that 1kg of beef works out at around $30. Now only working at night and not for very much per hour I find that this is WAY out of my budget. Next stop - chicken.
How do I choose a chicken? A big chicken or a little chicken? An Inghams chicken or a Coles chicken? A stuffed chicken or an emptied cavity chicken? Why are there so many types of damn chickens?! I can't remember what I got in the end.
Potatoes, pumpkin, garlic, onion and carrot were my vegetables of choice. I also bought 2 tomatoes which I didn't even end up using.
As mentioned earlier I'm obviously not a cook. So being a person born in the technological age, I started Googling how long I should cook my chicken. Jamie Oliver says 1 hour and 20, others say 45 minutes, some people even specifically cook their chicken for 1 hour 22 minutes and 35 seconds - I'm way in over my head here. Not to mention I haven't a clue how long to cook the vegetables for. So my next step after being failed by Google and its millions of results is to text my dad. It went something like this
Me - "If I cook a roast chicken for an hour, long long til I should put the vegetables in?"
Dad - "Now"
I can tell he isn't going to be much help.
After venting my frustrations to my patient boyfriend he says we should just wing it (enjoy that pun)
The journey home was short and I warned him that it was a long cooking experience. He didn't like the sound of that so I fed him a timtam and popped him in front of the TV.
Okay so I have the chicken, I cut it out of its bag and squirm a little over the squidgyness of the beast. I drizzled it in oil, covered it in salt, pepper & rosemary and massaged it all over. I then put some oil in the base of a pan, broke open my garlic into bulbs and let them run free in the pan with my chicken. Oh, I also read from Jamie Oliver to put a lemon up the "cavity" so I did. And that was a first. In the end of this ordeal, the meal looked something like this:

So far so good. 

The next step is to chop my vegetables. After seeing my dad do this a couple of times I very vaguely remember him saying to chop the veggies quite large, so I do this.
45 minutes goes past and once again according to Mr. Oliver I look at my chicken and see its already super brown on top. I poke it with a knife and juices start coming out! Looks really good so far! But then I freak out. Is the chicken almost done?! What about the veggies?! We can't have a chicken without the vegetables. Crap crap crap!
So in a fluster of worry, without microwaving or boiling the vegetables first I just pop them in the pan (raw) and quickly shove it back in the oven (note the stabbing mark on the chicken)

I think it was at around an hour and a half that the chicken was looking mighty cooked and I decided that my vegetables would just have to do. In the end they still tasted really nice but the pumpkin was a little soggy, I didn't end up eating the onion because I was so full on potatoes which were delicious but not crunchy and the carrot was probably perfect - so that's a plus!

The boyfriend was incredibly happy with my meal and managed to top off 3/4 of the chicken - to say he was hungry is a massive understatement. I didn't end up getting a nice presentable picture of my chicken because when I cut it up I made a big old mess, so here's what it looked like when it came out all finished 

All up I'm pretty impressed with myself and this roast dinner, I think its a good sign. 

bon apetite! 

harper.

What I learnt:

- Microwave or boil at least the potatoes before roasting them

- Don't cook a roast on an empty stomach

- Pick a green vegetable to brighten up the plate some more