Wednesday: Baby steps

So there I sat Wednesday morning, a work-at-home day, with an eggplant way past its sell-by date and a butternut squash of equal vintage. On my lunch hour the day before I had gone down to Safeway for some basics: low-fat milk, fat-free half-and-half for my coffee, and a cross-rib and a bottom roast, a pair of Cornish game hens, a tray of pork chops, and 3 half-breasts of chicken. I popped all but the cross-rib roast and 2 chops and 1 breast half into the freezer and roasted the beef in the oven. That accounted for dinner Tuesday night and, I afraid to say, breakfast Wednesday, when I took off at noon to pick up a ream of paper and stopped by a nearby Asian market for red Thai curry powder; I picked up a bunch of cilantro and some green onions while I was at it.

That evening, I sautéed the ancient eggplant in a blend of Indian spices and butter, then simmered it until it was soft and delicious. (Note to self: need some new cardamom pods, and where the heck are the cilantro seeds you bought last year?) A little chopped cilantro went on top. At the same time I made some lentils flavored with cumin according to a recipe I found on Chowhound. The lentils would be good for about 3-4 meals, the eggplant for two. The entrée was to be a half breast of chicken prepared according to the Cook's Illustrated methodology; however, when using a probe thermometer to ensure the proper doneness of meat, it's important to actually hook the cord up to the unit. I had some crispy chicken skin and my cat had some shredded, dried out meat.

None of this was rocket science, but it did ensure I had something to take to work for lunch on Thursday and Friday. I'm not saying there were all good dietary choices, but just getting it done is the goal for now. Friday morning I had a pita with scrambled eggs for breakfast and pan-fried the two pork chops in between showering and dressing, so I could take one, with leftover lentils, to work. This would have been great, but I had eaten it all by 10:30, so ended up going down to the Juice Joint for eggplant parmesan and a peanut butter cooking at 3 p.m. This was not in the plan.

On the plus side, I never did want any supper, just had my nightcap of two glasses of low-fat milk.