Cooking for One

Day Four of no Jota and the dishes are clean, I've taken the trash out, and Duff hasn't destroyed anything while I'm at work. I'm getting used to this taking care of myself, by myself thing. I may not be enjoying it, but it's almost over.

Last night I didn't get home until way late, and almost decided to order in. My mom is notorious for grabbing the most random items out of the fridge and making a great meal. So instead of grabbing noodles from Mao's, I crossed my fingers and said a little prayer that her gene for concocting great meals was passed on to me.

And oh did it. After just 15 minutes, I had the tastiest dish ever, or at least this week. I feel it's my obligation to pass on the goodness. Being my mother's daughter, I don't exactly measure things while cooking. Deal with it.

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed

1 small chinese eggplant, thinly sliced

couple tablespoons of A1 Chicago Steakhouse marinade. Ehhh for steaks. Amazing on chicken.
maybe a 1/4 cup of low sodium chicken broth

3 or 4 tablespoons of ricotta cheese

In your skillet, heat up a teaspoon or two of olive oil while you cube your chicken. Toss that in there, and you know, get it cooked so you don't get salmonella.
Slice your eggplant and salt it to sweat the bitter out.
Pour some of the marinade in your pan, enough to coat the chicken.
Once the chicken is done, toss the eggplant in, and then add the chicken broth.
Simmer until the eggplant is finished, and then toss your ricotta in at the end.

I'm sure this would also be great with some tomatoes tossed in, and served with whole wheat pasta.

Housekeeping...

You want fresh towels?

List of things I need to do soon in no particular order...

1. Add all of my new twitter buddies to my blogroll. That way I will actually read everything and not miss stuff.
2. Give Duff a haircut and a bath. Homeboy needs his flea meds next week and is looking pretty scruffy.
3. Get back on a regular gym habit. Between my birthday, the poison oak, and my laziness, I've totally lost all of my cardio shape. Seriously, I almost puked after 13 minutes on the treadmill last night.
4. Go to Sports Chalet for the following: softball glove, cleats, boxing gloves, spin shoes, and a tennis racquet. Since when did I morph into Sporty Spice?
5. Do some research on eating/cooking vegetarian meals. I'm not giving up steak just yet, but I do heart me some beans.
6. Get rid of the gigantic Ikea desk taking up precious space in the living room. In the process of looking for a chair that converts to some type of bed that's not mad expensive. PS this would be for you Byn!
7. Figure out WTF I'm going to do with Jota gone from Sat to Thurs. I'm trying to not watch all of the shows I dvr'ed (Did I really just use that as a verb?) this week.
8. Lay off the booze for a bit to optimize weight loss. Momma comes to town on the 20th, and sadly I need to look as thin as possible. Especially since she's bringing all of my HS homecoming/prom dresses for the girl's party on the 27th.
9. Try not to get so worked up about the election.
10. Remind myself that just because someone doesn't see that my way is the right way, it doesn't mean they're a freaking idiot. Control freak? Yesthankyouverymuch.

PS, I only discuss politics with Jota because he can't get rid of me. But if you want my opinion, check out my girl Kiah. She says everything I want to say without getting in a flustered huff.