So, where were we?

Holidays really mess with schedules. Work does, too. And work has been massive.

Anyhow…

The 4th of July, everyone vanished or holed themselves up in their humble abodes, which meant no cooking for me. Day sixteen was rather a bust in the old challenge department, but some days are indeed like that.

The next day, however…

Dinner: chicken breasts stuffed with feta and spinach.

With more fresh tomatoes.

And some broccoli, steamed with lemon and garlic.

Wonderful stuff. Nutritious. Tasty. Lowfat. Affordable.

Chicken (boneless, skinless): 4 x 1.36 = 5.44
Spinach and feta mixture: 3.59
Broccoli: 3.19 (yeah, yeah)
Tomatoes: 1.00

Total meal, with leftovers: 13.22
Total per diner (4): 3.31

Day eighteen? Another no cooking night for me, as everyone was, once again, gone, working or otherwise occupied. Soup, ice cream, and cappuccino(!) on my menu. The cap is the output of my dandy new espresso machine, which I probably like more than is healthy.

I’m drinking quite a bit of cappuccino now that it’s so very convenient to do. Not a bad way to take in some extra no-value calories.

Day nineteen? Yet another no cooking night. My sisters are off to Orlando to visit our brothers. My mother is off with my aunts and a cousin I’ve not seen in over 20 years, playing some kind of game and eating. Yours truly had half a hamburger, half a tomato, some ice cream, and (soon) some cappuccino.

I can say that day twenty will be yet another day of no cooking for me, as a friend of mine is going to whip up a fondue to spare me from my non-cooking week.

Next week, however, will bring back more cooking. I posted some menu ideas from which the fam could choose. The top two were chicken breasts in a creamy lime sauce and rice pilaf with shallots and parmesan, and grilled shrimp with a sweet-garlic dipping sauce and a caprese salad (that’s fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil). There are other things on the list as well: pork tenderloin stuffed with apricots and shallots, vegetable lasagna, orange pork with rice noodles, citrus tilapia with a mango-coconut-ginger salsa and roasted asparagus, and so on. My sister caught part of a show I was watching and decided she wanted plums in raspberry sauce. I suggested plums poached in raspberry sauce with a lemon reduction and a small scoop of ice cream, which I think would be quite nice.

So, more cooking to come. In other news, I’ve decided to apply myself to learning Italian, for that day in the distant future when I go to Italy to be a tourist. Besides, as long as I’m butchering English on my way to recovery, I might as well butcher another language at the same time.

A presto.