Leftovers and a sweet treat

I’ll start with the leftovers – not much to say here, same as last night minus the nice presentation!

Pineapple Chicken Stir-Fry à la micro-onde. Easy, tasty, perfect for an easy lunch after a not-so-easy breakfast

On to the part where I have a guilty look on my face: desert! At lunch!

Chocolate Peanut Butter “ice cream” straight from the tub By now, you probably get that I hate washing dishes, so I try not to unnecessarily dirty bowls. Apparently today this didn’t merit dishes Do note that I did manage some portion control, even without a bowl – I did not eat the whole thing (as it may appear in the photo!) Now I’m going to get my butt to the computer lab to get some work done. Yes, I own a computer and still need to go to the lab for the programs I need – so frustrating!

Clean dishes!!

Okay, that was a silly title, but I always feel ten times better when my kitchen is clean. I know, I’m weird.

Anyways back on topic, this afternoon I did take advantage of the sun (although it only got up to 11, not 16) and went for a walk/run. I had planned on doing some intervals on my bike, but when I looked at todays forecast I decided to do them on foot and cut them down a bit since running is a bit harder on the joints than biking. I did a good warm-up, followed by some hard medium length intervals.

For supper I made a great chicken stir fry tonight, loosely based on Veganomicon’s Pineapple-Cashew-Quinoa Stir-Fry. I guess I could probably write out a recipe since I added chicken and rice and subtracted the cashews, pineapple, edamame and quinoa (I didn’t have any of these on hand) and probably changed a whole bunch of other things, but I’m tired and still studying. I will try to remember to do that later though. OK, instead of studying, I added the recipe

I bought some corn on the cob last night even though it’s nowhere near being in season, so I think I may have that for a snack later on. I ate dinner fairly early, so I’ll need something with some nutrients to keep me going until bedtime. Plus, I love corn

Sunday Dinner for One

I decided to make myself a real Sunday dinner tonight – a whole piece of chicken, served with rice and vegetables. I have to get back to studying, so I’ll spend my blog time writing the recipe instead of describing the boring details of my day

Carrot & Zucchini Pilaf with Crispy Chicken

Makes 2 servings: 420 calories, 6g fat, 3g fiber, 51g protein

Ingredients:

Rice:

• 1/3 cup long grain brown rice, raw
• 1 small carrot, finely chopped
• 2 small zucchinis, finely chopped
• 2/3 cup water or stock – I used chicken
• 1 tsp olive oil

Chicken:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (370 grams)
• 1 egg white
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 20 grams panko bread crumbs
• 20 grams finely shredded cheese
• salt and pepper

Method:

Rice:

1. Heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add rice and toast until it smells toasted (not burnt!)
2. Add carrots and water or stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes.
3. Add zucchini and continue to simmer until rice is done, about 15 minutes.

While the rice is cooking, get started on the chicken:

1. Pound out chicken to uniform thickness. I got impatient with this and later wished I had pounded it out a bit thinner.
2. Prepare coatings: on the first plate is the egg white, on the second is the flour and the third is a mixture of the panko, cheese, salt and pepper.
3. Dip each piece of chicken in each plate, in that order. It just occurred to me that you may need more flour or breadcrumbs if you pound out your chicken thinner, due to increased surface area, so keep this in mind and adjust as necessary.
4. Heat a large nonstick frying pan that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Add the chicken and cook until both sides are nice and crispy and chicken is cooked through.

“Acropolis Sandwich”

One of the things I love about the three cookbooks by Janet & Greta Podleski is that all the recipes have such fun names! Tonight I’m eating an Acropolis Sandwich from Looneyspoons:

This is actually supposed to be a Greek-style pita stuffed with chicken, veggies and tzatziki sauce, but I used a tortilla since that’s what I have on hand. I definitely prefer these tortillas warm and toasted, this one was too processed-tasting and doughy (not in the good way!) I hate it when my tortilla gets stuck to the roof or my mouth!

For desert, I cut up an apple and was planning on sprinkling it with cinnamon, but I sat down at my desk and realized that I had left the cinnamon in the kitchen. I was too lazy to go get it, so I ate my apple slices as they were.

Would you beleive that’s just one *small* apple, maybe 2″ diameter? I was amazed that by slicing it thinly it looked like so much more!

Evening snack: cheese quesadilla and mixed fruit with yogurt. Living alone, it’s hard to buy things like bread because I either have to eat a lot of it or it goes bad. I know it freezes, but my shoebox-sized freezer just doesn’t have room in it. Tortillas are no exception, so be prepared to see them fairly often this week!

I made this guy pretty thin, with just enough cheese to stick the two sides together basically! I also put some jalapeños and (of course) BBQ sauce in there. If I had any salsa, I would be in heaven! Unfortunately, I don’t have any and I’m not going to buy any because I’m starting the process of cleaning out my cupboards in preparation for my end-of-school move.

Of course, I was still hungry after eating this, so I decided on some more of my yummy frozen fruit, which I dropped into the bottom of my yogurt container (maybe 1/4 cup of yogurt?) I didn’t take a photo because the tall yogurt container cast too many shadows in my dimly lit kitcken and you couldn’t really tell what was in there. I definitely should have thawed the fruit first – I’m freezing now! On that note, I’m off to warm up in my nice cozy bed, see you in the morning!

Chopsticks Anyone?

I decided on an Asian themed meal this afternoon, so out came the chopsticks. Of course, I forgot to put them in the photo! That’s OK though, they’re nothing to write home about anyway.

I made my version of Pad Thai for lunch. I’m sure it’s nowhere chose to authentic, but it was a delicious noodle dish either way!

I posted the recipe in the previous post and added it to the recipe section as well.

Now that I’ve eaten my lunch, I really have to get studying for my exam on monday. It’s so boring, I’m having a lot of trouble getting into it. I think I have a bad case of end-of-year lack of motivation Somebody tell me to hit the books please!