What’s in my kitchen?

Earlier this week, my fantastic friend/foodie & health mentor wrote a post about what was going on in her kitchen. I thought I’d respond with information about the first interesting thing that’s gone on in my kitchen since, well, we’ve lived here.

Yesterday, I did some crazy shopping (replacing foods, buying ingredients to make my own cleaning supplies, etc).
I ordered stuff that’s going to replace stuff in our house with healthier stuff.

And, I experimented with food.
I’ve kind of always hated thinking about food… What’s the most convenient option? I’ll take that. But, of course, I’m realizing that usually leaves me malnourished, hungry, or worse.

So, last night, I got out seasonings, had no meal plan, just ingredients, and set about
making dinner…

I decided that I’d make chicken, green beans, seasoned rice, and potatoes.
And, that I’d try something new with smoothies for drinks/dessert.
I also made popsicles from the smoothie liquid.

I poured all sorts of things into the sauce pan. I think I definitely ended up with too many seasonings. I evened it out with some cheese, though.
(Doesn’t cheese always make everything taste better? I’m convinced this is so.)

I baked the potatoes in the oven… I’d never done this before.
(I’ve only ever mashed my potatoes.)
Soaked them in my new cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil. I felt oh-so-fancy…

Potatoes, check!
Sauce, check!
(I’m not going to tell you all the stuff I put in. It’s embarassing. Really.)
Green beans, check!
Rice, check!
Smoothies, check! (while everything else simmered)
(1 cup organic apple juice,  lots of fruit: blueberries, strawberries, peaches, raspberries, & kefir)
I thought about adding some broccoli, but I wasn’t sure if J would drink a green smoothie.

I saved cooking the chicken for last. I hate when the meat gets cold, plus, I figure if I was trying to cook the meat with everything else, it would get ruined.
Finally, it was time for chicken.
I asked John to come help me with the chicken. He opened the freezer…

What chicken?

Oh, no. We don’t have any chicken?!?!

In all my shopping, I didn’t buy any, because I was sure we had some left in the freezer. Boo.

We ate all the food, anyway, dipping our various foods into the sauce I made.

It was such an awesome adventure! I was so proud of myself. I didn’t use a recipe. I didn’t stress.
We ate dinner together.  It was awesome, and so, so worth it.