Tuesday Afternoon…

Love that song. My Tuesday afternoon was pretty good. Nothing is definite yet, but I may be able to work PT at my job after I leave in August to go back to school… that would be awesome! It would definitely solve some of the anxiety I am having re. money, so keep your fingers crossed that it will go through.

After staying late at work, I came home starved! I knew already that I had to make something with mushrooms, since I had a whole bunch of baby bella in the fridge that were calling my name. I ended up making mushroom stroganoff– I sauteed some chopped onion, added the mushrooms, some salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper and cumin (I didn’t have any paprika), and cooked it down. I add some crushed cashew nuts and a slug of red wine towards the end just for fun. When everything came together, I took the mess off the heat and stirred in half a cup of sour cream and half a cup of Fage yogurt. I served the mushroom mix over egg noodles– so good! I will be looking forward to my lunch tomorrow, when I’ll have the leftovers.

After dinner I felt like having something sweet. I know I probably shouldn’t have, but for some reason I had a HUGE craving for peanut butter, so I made some peanut butter cookies. They were really fast and easy– 1 cup pb, 1 cup sugar (I used 1/4 cup brown and 3/4 cup cane), 1 tsp baking soda, 1 egg, dash of vanilla all mixed together and baked at 375 for 10 minutes. I miscalculated and overcooked the cookies, so some of them were pretty burnt on the bottom. They were still yummy and I ate two (they were broken! I had to!). Now I’m feeling slightly guilty, but I’ll do some weights later tonight to try and make up for it. I’ll take the rest to A. tomorrow, and I’m sure he won’t mind eating my mistakes.

I have a confession to make, I still haven’t made it to the gym. EEEEE!!!! I know, so bad. I have to just force myself to go after work, but it’s tough since that’s when I just want to crash. The alternative would be to get up earlier in the morning and go then, but we all know that I am so NOT a morning person…. I gotta get my butt in gear. Ugh.

Do the Chicken Dance

When the Boy asked me to make dinner for us yesterday night, I said ‘Yes’ gladly. I love to cook, and I have barely sniffed the inside of a kitchen since winter fled several months ago. Since our schedules have limited the amount of time we can spend together, we have slipped into the bad habit of eating out on a regular basis. It is so much easier trading jabs over whose turn it is to pay for the latest meal out than bothering to buy groceries and whip something tasty together. Did I mention that the Boy does not cook? At all? It’s one of his few character flaws. . . seriously disappointing! As a result, his kitchen is sorely lacking for edible content.

Eating out has been easy (though perhaps our wallets wouldn’t agree so), but I never thought that cooking a simple home-cooked meal would be so hard! Lack of cooking anything has caught up to me in a big way, and I faced that fact with a sinking heart last night: “Sure honey, I’ll just make us a quick and easy dinner. It won’t be any trouble at all.” Yikes.

Luckily, my old friend Google sprang to the rescue. Quick and easy chicken dinners- aha! One quick trip to Stop and Shop later, the rice pilaf was simmering away and the wine and lemon juice fumes were causing temporary drunkeness of conversation… “Oh my GAWWWDD that smells SO goooooooooddddddd…. I’m awesome! Yeaaaaaahhhh baby…” We might have to do this more often.

Chicken with White Wine Sauce and Garlic (from epicurious.com)

1. 12 oz. chicken breasts (I used about one pound of flattened chicken breast cutlets)
2. 1 tbsp minced garlic
3. 1 cup mushrooms
4. 2 tbsp olive oil
5. 1 cup white wine
6. 3 tbsp lemon juice
7. minced parsley

• Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add the mushrooms and garlic; cook for approximatley 5 minutes.
• Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Transfer mushrooms to a separate plate. Cook chicken, turning once, approx. 6 min.
• Add mushrooms back to pan (you can leave the chicken in if you want, but I took them out so it would be easier to thicken and reduce the sauce). Add wine and lemon juice. Add 1-2 tbsp butter if desired.
• Once sauce is reduced to your liking, spoon it over the chicken and serve. Garnish with parsley.

Notes: Recipe serves 2, with enough left over for one yummy lunch the next day. I also added onions to make the sauce a bit more substantial. The original recipe calls for 3 tbsp white wine and 1 tbsp lemon juice, but really? Who doesn’t like more wine and lemon juice. I can guarantee you the smells will be fantastic. We both ate until we were stuffed, and the Boy declared this his most favorite chicken dish that I’ve ever made for him. Best of all, this took only 30 min to prepare. Not bad for a Sunday night whip-up!