I've been cooking a lot with rice lately. I add in some veggies and some chicken to go with it. There are so many options with those three ingredients I can enjoy a different lunch every day for a week at work. Last week, I added some Cajun seasoning to the water when I cooked the rice. I generally like flavoring the rice rather than the chicken. (I'll do this with curry seasoning and fajita seasoning as well.) I just like how the rice absorbs the seasoning. One exception to that rule is when I to sweet and sour chicken. In that case, I pour the sauce over the chicken as it's cooking to get that nice coating on the meat. Sometimes I don't season anything until it is all thrown together in the pan and usually I toss some Soy sauce on it and let everything soak up some flavor. I like some Oriental flair in my food my food now and then. Cooking this way is good for someone like my who sits in a cubicle all day and doesn't really get much exercise other than walking the dog and cutting the grass. (Yes, I could force myself to do more, but baby steps here. Healthy eating is step one for me.) I'm trying to stick to chicken as much as possible for my lunches simply because it's much healthier than red meat. I do keep some thin cut top sirloin in my freezer just for that one day I'd like a change. When I go the beef route, it's nearly always a teriyaki fused meal. You can't go wrong with that. And I do not add any butter to my rice. (Sorry Paula Deen.) I want to eat as healthy as possible and pouring butter on rice is not the way to do that. Don't get me wrong, I will indulge in some unhealthy meals once in awhile. I like some Long John Silver's and Papa John's as much as the next person. But I'm approaching my 37th birthday in December so I feel an obligation to myself to eat healthier as often as I can.
I plan on experimenting with some Thai inspired meals as well as I have developed a liking for that style of cooking. I may use more pork for the Thai cooking if I can get some nice pork loin on sale at the grocery store. It would give me some variety and loin is generally a better cut of meat. I'd likely do it in the slow cooker to get it as tender as possible and full of flavor. I would also have a nice sauce to go with the meal. It's not something I usually do, so that would also be a nice diversion.
As for the veggies, it just depends on my mood when I am preparing the meal as to what I grab from the freezer. I prepare my lunch the night before so it's whatever I feel like at the moment. The easiest option is the mixed vegetables. You know, the kind that look like the veggies in Campbell's soup. A couple of handfuls of those with the rice and chicken make a nice looking dish. Sometimes I go for a California blend or get really motivated and cook up some fresh zucchini and yellow squash, but the latter is mostly when I do an herb-fused chicken dish.
So yeah, that's part one of my journey into eating healthier. I'm cooking more with pasta lately as well, but that's a discussion for another entry. Thank you again for reading. And as always, if you cannot be a poet, be the poem.
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