So I'm trying to see how well I can make "real food" for myself while still being busy and single.
Actually, when it comes to food, it's so wonderful being single...if I feel like eating cold cereal for dinner all week long, I can and no one can stop me! And if I want to stay up until 9 PM making a fancy meal, no one's going to complain that dinner isn't ready yet. It's great.
I still try to make healthy choices, though, and make stuff from scratch as much as possible. It can get hard when I work until 7PM many weeknights and come home tired and hungry and not at all motivated to cook something from scratch.
I hope to spend a few posts explaining how I get around these unique cooking barriers. Here's the first thing I did this month and it has been great.
I went to Roth's the first weekend in January and picked up a whole chicken for about $5. I usually use the humble boneless skinless chicken breast for my chickenly needs, but I really, REALLY like bone-in chicken better and was craving a whole roasted chicken.
I took the chicken home and cut off the drumsticks and used those to make Tagine (the north african dish I ate a lot of over Christmas...I brought home the special pot you need to make Tagine). That lasted me two meals.
Then I roasted the remainder of the chicken whole. I got this great rub that I rubbed under the skin first from a great cookbook I'll talk more about in a later post called "The Pleasures of Cooking for One." I roasted the chicken with the typical Root Vegetables that Get Roasted With Chicken and Stuff. (you know, carrots, potatoes, onions....) I did it during the day since I had some time and then ate some of it for lunch. Third meal with said chicken.
Oh, but before I roasted the chicken I cut out the entire backbone so the chicken would cook faster and because I wanted chicken noodle soup. So the next day, I tossed the rest of the veggies, the chicken back, and some more appropriate veggies for chicken soup into the crock-pot and left it on for the day. Upon arriving home, I stuck some rice noodles in the broth, plus some of the cut-up white meat from the roasted chicken. I ate that for dinner and then the following lunch. Fourth and Fifth meal with the same chicken. Then I froze the two remaining portions of the soup in tupperware containers so that when I come home tired and hungry, i just have to nuke one of the giant chicken noodle soup cubes and have warm soup for dinner. Brilliant. I've already done this before with leftover bean soup and pumpkin soup. So potentially two more meals with the chicken, making 7 meals total so far.
Then I made chicken quesadillas with some cut-up wing meat for a quick lunch on the go one day.... 8.
And one night I added some cheese, taco sauce, and salsa to more cut up meat all in a whole wheat tortilla and had chicken tacos....9. Yeah, culinary prowess and brilliance right here....
And one morning I made an omelet with more of the cut-up chicken and a slice of bacon.... yum...9...
And I think I had a chicken sandwich with a pickle somewhere in there as well. I think that was the day of the first round of chicken noodle soup....11....
Then I made this AMAZING lentil salad that I'll have to share sometime. It's great. I cut up the rest of the chicken and mixed it in with the lentils, quinoa, and veggies tossed with vinegrette. That has lasted me three meals so far and I think I have enough for one more. 15.
How cool is that? Pretty much a whole week's worth of lunches and dinners, all from one chicken that I got on sale at Roth's! Of course, I am a little chickened out right now, but again, everything was different enough that it stayed pretty interesting and no one else was there to complain about there being chicken again. I think if I ever get married it will be an adjustment. Maybe I'll just tell my husband to shut up and be thankful he's getting food, even if it's quinoa and lentils for the 17th time in a row....pretty sure I'm going to be *that* kind of cook....
Happily stuck in a rut,
Karen
Actually, when it comes to food, it's so wonderful being single...if I feel like eating cold cereal for dinner all week long, I can and no one can stop me! And if I want to stay up until 9 PM making a fancy meal, no one's going to complain that dinner isn't ready yet. It's great.
I still try to make healthy choices, though, and make stuff from scratch as much as possible. It can get hard when I work until 7PM many weeknights and come home tired and hungry and not at all motivated to cook something from scratch.
I hope to spend a few posts explaining how I get around these unique cooking barriers. Here's the first thing I did this month and it has been great.
I went to Roth's the first weekend in January and picked up a whole chicken for about $5. I usually use the humble boneless skinless chicken breast for my chickenly needs, but I really, REALLY like bone-in chicken better and was craving a whole roasted chicken.
I took the chicken home and cut off the drumsticks and used those to make Tagine (the north african dish I ate a lot of over Christmas...I brought home the special pot you need to make Tagine). That lasted me two meals.
Then I roasted the remainder of the chicken whole. I got this great rub that I rubbed under the skin first from a great cookbook I'll talk more about in a later post called "The Pleasures of Cooking for One." I roasted the chicken with the typical Root Vegetables that Get Roasted With Chicken and Stuff. (you know, carrots, potatoes, onions....) I did it during the day since I had some time and then ate some of it for lunch. Third meal with said chicken.
Oh, but before I roasted the chicken I cut out the entire backbone so the chicken would cook faster and because I wanted chicken noodle soup. So the next day, I tossed the rest of the veggies, the chicken back, and some more appropriate veggies for chicken soup into the crock-pot and left it on for the day. Upon arriving home, I stuck some rice noodles in the broth, plus some of the cut-up white meat from the roasted chicken. I ate that for dinner and then the following lunch. Fourth and Fifth meal with the same chicken. Then I froze the two remaining portions of the soup in tupperware containers so that when I come home tired and hungry, i just have to nuke one of the giant chicken noodle soup cubes and have warm soup for dinner. Brilliant. I've already done this before with leftover bean soup and pumpkin soup. So potentially two more meals with the chicken, making 7 meals total so far.
Then I made chicken quesadillas with some cut-up wing meat for a quick lunch on the go one day.... 8.
And one night I added some cheese, taco sauce, and salsa to more cut up meat all in a whole wheat tortilla and had chicken tacos....9. Yeah, culinary prowess and brilliance right here....
And one morning I made an omelet with more of the cut-up chicken and a slice of bacon.... yum...9...
And I think I had a chicken sandwich with a pickle somewhere in there as well. I think that was the day of the first round of chicken noodle soup....11....
Then I made this AMAZING lentil salad that I'll have to share sometime. It's great. I cut up the rest of the chicken and mixed it in with the lentils, quinoa, and veggies tossed with vinegrette. That has lasted me three meals so far and I think I have enough for one more. 15.
How cool is that? Pretty much a whole week's worth of lunches and dinners, all from one chicken that I got on sale at Roth's! Of course, I am a little chickened out right now, but again, everything was different enough that it stayed pretty interesting and no one else was there to complain about there being chicken again. I think if I ever get married it will be an adjustment. Maybe I'll just tell my husband to shut up and be thankful he's getting food, even if it's quinoa and lentils for the 17th time in a row....pretty sure I'm going to be *that* kind of cook....
Happily stuck in a rut,
Karen
3 comments:
Cooking for just yourself does have its own challenges, but I agree that it is nice to not have to worry about what someone else likes.
Usually if I'm doing really good, I'll make some large meal on the weekend, and then eat it through the rest of the week. It nice, when I actually do it...
Solution! Just marry someone like your dad who never complains about the grub I stick in front of him!
Awesome job, Karen! I love using whole chickens and seeing how to make them stretch... although for my family that means using big 9 pounders and even that only lasts two or three meals ;)
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