Starving Artist

Every Sunday night I try to cook up a batch of something-or-other so that I don’t have to make lunch or dinner for the next couple of days. This week I had those cherry heirloom tomatoes to play with, as well as the pesto and marinara sauces that I made yesterday. I knew I had some chicken in the freezer, as well as some whole wheat couscous and brown rice.

What to make… what to make…

My mom recently bought me a cast iron grill pan that I had been desperately wanting (thanks mom!), so I decided to test it out by grilling up the tomatoes and chicken in a simple coating of evoo, s + p. Yum.

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I had 2 sauces to choose from, and was being very indecisive about which one to use. Obviously I ended up making 2 dishes so that I could use both of them. Since it was pretty much an exercise in mixing and matching, it was a culinary breeze once the key ingredients were prepped and grilled.

The first dish consisted of balsamic chicken with tomatoes and a creamy pesto couscous.

I drizzled the grilled chicken with balsamic vinegar. So simple, yet soooooo good. The couscous was a little experiment that luckily turned out really well (although I think I ended up eating half of it before I could portion and store away for lunches. Dangit.). Here’s what I did:

• Combine 1 cup of whole wheat couscous with 1 cup of water and 3 tbsp of pesto.
• Bring to a boil, then remove from heat, cover and let sit for 5 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed.
• Stir in 2 tbsp of part skim ricotta, 1 tbsp of Parmesan cheese, 1 tbsp of lemon juice, s + p to taste.

Voila! It was so creamy, with an almost risotto consistency, but took only 5 minutes. Love it.

The second dish was my simplified version of a chicken cacciatore (I guess you could call it that). All I did was mix together the chicken, rice, marinara sauce, and tomatoes. A hefty sprinkle of Parmesan cheese (clearly not shown in this photo. I load on so much Parm it’s embarrassing) and a dusting of parsley, and dish #2 was completed (and also my dinner for tonight).

And now I’m set until Wednesday! Gotta love it. I’m wishing it wasn’t already Sunday night – where did the weekend go?? I started watching that Georgia O’Keefe Lifetime movie, but it was terribly boring so I opted for the more intellectually stimulating You, Me, and Dupree.

Yawn. Bed soon.

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