Thursday, April 8, 2010

Adventures of Being a Student/Housewife - Part 1

This week, I received an invitation in the mail for a friend's bridal shower. Included was a request for a favorite recipe to pass along to the new bride. As I was filling it out I thought, I should have done this for my bridal shower... But, thanks to Facebook, I was still able to get a few new recipes just merely by putting a request in my status update. One of the first responders, Becca, gave me a recipe for Arroz con Pollo which I decided to try first.

But before starting to cook, I had to do a few things first...

First, I decided to make a cookbook of all the recipes I'd received. I actually started this book over a year ago, but hadn't really done much to it. But here is the ongoing project ...


Paul laughed at me because I am not a very crafty person and I stapled the labels on the inside separating the different types of recipes:)


Tuesday evening, I found out many of my classes were cancelled Wednesday and looked forward to a day of grocery shopping and cleaning for a break from the daily grind of homework. After making my cookbook, I created a dinner list for the next week and a half (since I started on a Wednesday, I figured I should go all the way through the next week.)



I realized later that I got a little too ambitious with my meal planning. I made the first meal and realized it would be enough for at least two evening meals and a lunch, too :) That said, I made my shopping list (which took a lot longer than I thought it would!) and called my mom to see if she'd like to go shopping with me.


Now I know some of my family (*coughJessicacough*) will be annoyed that I went shopping at Walmart ... but what can I say? They have a lot of good deals. I do try to avoid shopping at Walmart when I can, but when your budget is as limited as ours, 35 cents or more off a can of garbanzo beans, and 2.50 for a bag of 4 fish filets ... well, it's a necessary evil. 

After 3 hours of shopping, the trunk of my car was packed!




When I arrived home, I put away all the groceries and cleaned the house even though I was pooped just from the shopping! But I had to take my opportunity to get everything done while I had some free time. By the time I got ready to roll around to cooking, I was ready to give it all up and just go out to eat instead:) But I was already pretty committed to trying out my new recipe, I went ahead and started going for it.

This recipe, Arroz con Pollo, is from my friend Becca.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups rice
2 cups water + 1 extra cup, set aside
2 bunches cilantro, well rinsed and chopped
1 small potato, peeled and cubed
1 cup frozen peas and carrots
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 cubes chicken bouillon

First, chop up your potato into small cubes, and a liberal amount of cilantro. The cilantro does not need to be too well chopped because it will be put into the blender soon :) 


To cook:
Spray a medium sized saucepan (with tight fitting lid) and set to medium heat. Once pan is hot, add rice and stir so rice toasts a bit. Add the potato. At the same time, put cilantro and 2 cups of water in a blender and mix well.



Pour over rice/potato and let sit. Place extra cup of water in microwave with 3 cubes of bouillon for 1 minute. Mix well and pour over rice/potato mixture. To cook mixture, let it slowly come to a boil and once little craters appear and most of liquid is gone, cover and turn to low. Boiling should take about 10 minutes. Continue covered for 5 minutes, adding peas and carrots, and then continuing for an additional 5 (10 minutes total.)

Yum;)

As rice cooks, you'll have time to make the chicken. Cut each breast into two or 3 pieces. Salt and pepper to your liking. I sautee breasts in olive oil, but any cooking oil will work. Usually only takes about 5 minutes per side, turning once.

The finished product:





And the best part? A happy husband, eating a good meal in a clean home!



6 comments:

Kristin said...

I love this!!! This is sooo creative and such a great idea! Not to mention the food looks great! Amazing job Elizabeth, keep up the great job, your husband seems very happy as well, and i'm sure, full. : )

Chad and Clair said...

That recipe looks good....I think i will try that!

Jess(ica) said...

Don't worry about the walmart thing. I am sure the bare-foot kids in sweat shops are happy to provide you quality stuff at very affordable prices! =) hehe

And that recipe looked great until the cilantro part. I hate cilantro. Is there an alternate to the cilantro that you'd recommend or is it kind of the main thing?

not2brightGRAM said...

Jessica, you may have noticed on my FB page, I said we went yo "Costco, Trader Joe's and the grocery store". Well, now my cover-up has been exposed! LOL...

Elizabeth, I love the photos. You should be a food artist!

corvett said...

so cool. I want to submit something... what to give you? hmmmm...

Rebecca said...

Looks yummy =) Maybe you can make it for me this summer!

(Also, I can't figure out why your blog feed is no longer updating to my reader. Keep posting your links on FB because my normal way of checking your blog is on the fritz right now)