Cooking victory
Working hard this week. I'm trying to catch up with my finances and not put anything on the credit card, and I had an outrageously small amount of money left over for living expenses for this 2 weeks, but I've been trying to live on it. The main focus this week is to make my own food. I had lunch out today because a client took the whole company out to fancy lunch in Milson's Point, just at the foot of the harbour bridge, so I didn't have to bring lunch today, but every other day I have.
I'm feeling the strain of developing new habits. Eating at my desk and not having any change of scenery during the day results in a kind of madness. Sometimes it's like a work trance that lifts when you head home, sometimes it's like prison. But I've noticed that no one else seems to leave for any extended period during the day, so it must have been strange all this time, me disappearing for up to an hour every day. They probably all know this trick of saving money.
Tonight I really didn't want to cook anything. I even stopped at my usual pub for a beer and cheese and onion chips - which I sort of now regret but needed at the time. I had all sorts of alternative thoughts - go get sushi, go get Thai, go get noodles. Get a bagel and have a bagel and an apple. Forget the whole thing and go to bed. But I had defrosted my unreliable fridge overnight (when the fridge part gets to basically room temperature and you have to put the beers in the freezer for a while before drinking them, it's time), and had two chicken breasts that had defrosted (slowly, over 24 hours, as they recommend), and I didn't want to throw them away, did I, because of the focus on budget, so I had to cook them up. I was just going to cut them in cubes and cook them and freeze them for a stir-fry later, but then I had an idea - chicken salad!
The CWA Cookbook didn't have an entry on it, but Mom's old Colorado Cache had four. I sort of used intuition validated by their recipes and made up a recipe myself! I cooked the chicken breasts on the stove, in a pan, with olive oil, and they turned out, a bit browned on the outsides, but really well. I mixed them with grapes, celery and walnuts, then some low-fat mayo (not really mayo, that mayo substitute they have here), and then I added a sprinkle of chopped green onion. Brilliant! And I was sort of not very hungry so I packed up most of it for lunch tomorrow and just had what was left.
And felt a euphoric rush of virtue.
Maybe there's something to this cooking thing after all. I will keep you posted.
I'm feeling the strain of developing new habits. Eating at my desk and not having any change of scenery during the day results in a kind of madness. Sometimes it's like a work trance that lifts when you head home, sometimes it's like prison. But I've noticed that no one else seems to leave for any extended period during the day, so it must have been strange all this time, me disappearing for up to an hour every day. They probably all know this trick of saving money.
Tonight I really didn't want to cook anything. I even stopped at my usual pub for a beer and cheese and onion chips - which I sort of now regret but needed at the time. I had all sorts of alternative thoughts - go get sushi, go get Thai, go get noodles. Get a bagel and have a bagel and an apple. Forget the whole thing and go to bed. But I had defrosted my unreliable fridge overnight (when the fridge part gets to basically room temperature and you have to put the beers in the freezer for a while before drinking them, it's time), and had two chicken breasts that had defrosted (slowly, over 24 hours, as they recommend), and I didn't want to throw them away, did I, because of the focus on budget, so I had to cook them up. I was just going to cut them in cubes and cook them and freeze them for a stir-fry later, but then I had an idea - chicken salad!
The CWA Cookbook didn't have an entry on it, but Mom's old Colorado Cache had four. I sort of used intuition validated by their recipes and made up a recipe myself! I cooked the chicken breasts on the stove, in a pan, with olive oil, and they turned out, a bit browned on the outsides, but really well. I mixed them with grapes, celery and walnuts, then some low-fat mayo (not really mayo, that mayo substitute they have here), and then I added a sprinkle of chopped green onion. Brilliant! And I was sort of not very hungry so I packed up most of it for lunch tomorrow and just had what was left.
And felt a euphoric rush of virtue.
Maybe there's something to this cooking thing after all. I will keep you posted.
posted by Ellen at 11:06 pm
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