Occasionally, I forget I am but a lone individual.
Mostly, this happens when I’m figuring out what to eat over the next week. I head to the grocery store, list in hand (or the modern equivalent, list on phone in hand), and only when I get home does it hit me that I’ve purchased food for three or four recipes, and each recipe usually makes six servings, so I’ve just committed to the next 18 to 24 meals.
“No problem!” I declare. “I will apportion them into single-serving containers and freeze them!” I open the cabinet door to set the glass containers on the counter to prepare for filling, only to realize most of the single-serving glass containers are already in the freezer, filled with leftovers from many previous meals.
That’s what happened last week: After I made the sloppy joes and the turkey and corn chili, my freezer was pretty much maxed out. But I’d bought everything needed for this recipe I’d ripped out of the September/October 2009 issue of Clean Eating magazine—including a fantastic boneless, skinless chicken breast from the butcher department at the grocery store, which was going to go bad if I didn’t put it to use soon.
So I had leftovers for pretty much every lunch and dinner last week, in an effort to clear out freezer space. And yesterday I transported another five containers out of the freezer and into the fridge for eating over the next few days … which still left me with a pretty stacked freezer.
(It made me miss being Mr. Brooks’ tenant at Casa Flor, where we sometimes agreed to share a week’s worth of meals. That meant I wasn’t responsible for polishing off six servings of any one dish … and when on those weeks he’d reimburse me for half the cost of the ingredients, that was just a bonus!)
All this, and I still didn’t get around to cooking one other recipe I’d shopped for! Luckily, most of the ingredients for that one are dried or frozen, so I think the only thing I’ll need to replace when the time comes is a bag of baby greens.
But in the here and now, there’s no denying the fact that the final incarnation of this dish looks like and has a soft, stewy texture I associate with hospital or institutional food. All the garnish in the world can’t disguise that! If I make it again, I would opt for thigh meat instead of breast meat, because I think it would improve the texture and flavor of the chicken.
That said, the stew is still very tasty! Perhaps it’s because of the sweetness of the carrots, but an almost molasses-like sweet note comes through every once in a while, which I really enjoy. I’ve been eating it as a filling and savory breakfast dish—think “hash,” but mushier and healthier.
CHICKEN BARLEY STEW
Serves 8.
Ingredients:
- 32 ounces low-fat, low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon garlic sea salt
- ½ tablespoon thyme
- ½ tablespoon basil
- ½ tablespoon cilantro
- ¼ teaspoon dill
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
- 12 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed (uncooked)
- ½ cup uncooked black-eyed peas, rinsed and picked through
- ½ cup barley
- 1 medium sweet onion, cubed
- 20 ounces potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 10 ounces carrots (3 large), peeled and cut into ½-inch slices
- 8 tablespoons low-fat sour cream, for garnish (optional)
Instructions:
- Fill a slow cooker with broth, 8 ounces of water, garlic, herbs and black pepper. Add chicken, black-eyed peas and barley, then layer onion, potatoes and carrots on top. Liquid should just cover vegetables; do not stir.
- Cook on low overnight, at least 4 to 6 hours. Remove bay leaves and stir before serving.
- Spoon 1 cup into each bowl and top with 1 tablespoon sour cream, if desired.
SAMMITT 