Hot Times in the Kitchen

Recently, I have been attempting to expand my prowess in the kitchen. The reasons for this are many.

1. I like good food.
2. It stimulates the domestic goddess within me. 
3. Broke.
4. Hungry.
5. Trying to lose weight.

Am I the only one who sort of dies a little bit every time I need to spend money at the grocery store? I mean, I do love to eat delicious food (see #1, above), but damn if it doesn't seem just a little bit sad to watch money going away that I won't even have anything to show for in a couple of days. At least when I part with money in exchange for a new purse or boxed set of fantasy novels, I've got something tangible that I can enjoy forever after. Once food is in my belly, well, that's the end of it. 

On top of which, I've been doing my darnedest lately to turn over a new leaf where my finances are concerned. There are just too many things I want and want to do to allow multiple weekly $30 trips to Safeway, when at the end of the week, my cupboards, somehow, are still bare. So to that end, I've lately been trying to get creative with the things I do have on hand, and to be smarter about stocking up on staples that will go a long way.

Plus, after busting my hump at the gym during the day, I'm really a bit loath to stuff my face with frozen pizza or other pre-made entrees, however economical they might be. 

Witness tonight's culinary genius.

As I've learned, the first step in all this is to start pondering dinner just after lunch.What do I have in my cupboard? What can I do with it? Do I need any small items to make a full meal out of it? This afternoon, I remembered I had frozen chicken breasts, two zucchini, a head of broccoli, leftover chopped onions from the turkey chili we'd had a night or two before, plus some butter and olive oil and parmesan, which are staples I always keep on hand. 

Let me take a moment here and sing the praises of a bag of frozen chicken breasts. A package of regular chicken breasts will run you something like $8 or $9, and you get 4 good sized breasts in there, enough for one meal for two, and leftovers for lunch. The Safeway brand 3lbs bag of frozen chicken breasts cost about $10, and while each individual breast is a bit smaller than what comes in the fresh pack, this bag is enough to last me for a least a week's worth of dinners, they defrost in the microwave in less than 10 minutes, and they make eating healthy a breeze.

Infomercial over.

After the baby was fed, I defrosted my chicken, cut up my veggies, and dumped the lot into a casserole dish. I drizzled on the olive oil, and added my personal favorite spice, garlic powder, in a relatively generous portion (because I love it), and a tiny dash of cayenne for heat. I drizzled a bit more oil on top, and three thin pats of butter to help crisp up the veggies as they baked. Plus a little pinch of salt.

I baked for 40 minutes altogether at 375 degrees.

Let me tell you, it smelled delicious.

The veggies were perfectly done, the dish as a whole had the perfect amount of flavor, and I topped mine off with some Parmesan cheese, which has like, 25 calories in a tbsp and is amazing on just about everything.

It was glorious. 

And I'm telling you, the more I just play around with ingredients, or cook from a recipe, I start doing more things like tonight, just sort of throwing a bunch of stuff in a dish and putting it in the oven and hope for the best. Which is good, because after I've done it once, it seems easy, and I begin to have fewer and fewer excuses for picking up drive-thru or falling back on the cheap and fattening option, because I know how little time and effort something better takes, and how much better I feel afterwards. Winner!