Ready, Set, Weekend with Simply Beautiful Eating

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Before I begin this post, I want you to know that the only reason I made this dish was to challenge myself while Steve was away on his annual LONG motorcycle trip last week.

Why was it a challenge? I’m gonna tell you because I’m sure you want to know.

You see, it’s like this….

I HATE EATING ALONE. I MEAN….I REALLY, REALLY HATE IT.

I’m fairly certain I have told you this before but then again I think I’m starting to repeat myself so I will chalk it up to the fact that:

A. I’m too preoccupied with stuff going on with more renovations in the house and,

B. I’m getting OLD.

So what was the big challenge here with this recipe?

Easy.

To make it last long enough so I didn’t have to cook for myself every night. Does that sound super lazy to you? It’s not. I had so much to do and so little time to spend futzing around in the kitchen.

I bought a load of fresh ingredients and made sure that the portion was big enough to feed six hungry people. But technically, there was just me, myself and I here so I was basically cooking for ONE.

Once I prepped the spiralled veggies, chicken and other ingredients I knew that this meal would last for at least four nights in a row. Now, I know what you must be thinking. Why in the world would someone want to eat the same thing night after night after night after night?

Well.

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It was tasty and I honestly didn’t have the mindset or the energy to make anything else this week. Wanna know why? I had ONE MAIN MISSION. And that was to organize my new walk-in closet (formally known as my son Jesse’s room). As soon as he moved out, I earmarked that room to become my own dream space. (Buh Bye Jesse, I miss ya but I wanted your room).  More on that and a full reveal of how it turned out once it’s fully completed. So far, I’m in LOVE and happy that I finally had the opportunity to purge clothing that I was emotionally attached to but haven’t worn in years.

How can one be attached to clothes? Simple. If I wore something to a milestone occasion (14 years ago) I couldn’t imagine donating it to the big blue box. But guess what? I sat down in the middle of the room and threw stuff into a bag without looking back. Then I quickly drove over to the donation depot before I changed my mind. Once I arrived back home, with pit in my stomach, I thought about turning around and going to get my stuff back but instead I talked my way through it, with a bag of popcorn and an episode of The Bachelorette.

All good.

Are you wondering if this dish lasted four nights? It sure did! I survived my single days without Steve on one recipe/meal AND I didn’t even use the dishwasher all week.

The moral of this story is…..if you are single or eating on your own most nights, then you already know the struggle to finding recipes for “one” is a pain in the butt.

I’m also sure that you are going to get sick of eating the same thing every night like I just did. The way I saw it was this…..I had the majority of my food groups here in one recipe. What more did I need? A slice of pizza maybe but that’s about it.

Cheers to being on my own, completing the mission but missing Steve at the same time.

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MANGO COCONUT CHICKEN WITH ROASTED PEANUTS

Serves: 2

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 boneless and skinless chicken breasts, cubed and seasoned to taste
  • 6 tablespoons canned coconut milk (I used light)
  • 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice + zest from 1 orange
  • 1 fresh mango, pureed and strained through sieve
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ¾ teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Heat one tablespoon of olive oil In a large skillet. Sauté cubed chicken breasts for two minutes. They will still be raw inside, but you are going to continue cooking with the balance of ingredients.
  2. In a small bowl, mix coconut milk, mango puree, brown sugar, ginger, garlic powder, basil, salt and pepper. Whisk and pour over chicken in the skillet.
  3. Cook until well coated and chicken is no longer pink inside.
  4. Serve with coconut sticky rice and mixed spiral steamed vegetables. Garnish with chopped peanuts and fresh parsley. I also added tiny champagne grapes for a twist.
  5. For the sticky rice, cook basmati or jasmin rice and substitute coconut milk for the water portion.
  6. Feel free to double this recipe like I did to make it last or to serve 4 - 6 people.
RecipesDebi TraubComment