Stocking up for the recovery period
At the end of the month (Aug 30, to be exact) I'm having my 3rd hip replacement.
I'm only supposed to be in the hospital for 2-3 days and then will be home, on crutches, while I heal up. I'm trying to do some early cooking as I don't want to have to order pizza too often, nor force my nephew (who gets to come and stay with/take care of me) to do too much cooking either. :)
So, yesterday I turned the last of the chicken breasts (cost = $5) I had in my freezer into 1 1/2 pounds of chicken fingers aka chicken tenders. I ran out of plain bread crumbs (mixed with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning herb mix and a bit of garlic) half way through so I used panko crumbs (salt only) for the other half. The Italian seasoned fingers are on the left, while the plain, panko version ones are on the right, of the platter.
Chicken Fingers - The larger ones are about 4" long so the picture is a bit deceptive. There's a lot of chicken there. :)
I also harvested (too late so I lost about half the leaves) 4 of the 5 basil plants I had in containers in the back garden and made basil-walnut pest. The dark colour is because I didn't bother skinning/peeling the walnuts. In any case, there are 5 x 1/4 cup packages of the pesto in a tupperware container in the freezer. Each portion is sufficient to add to about 200 gms of cooked pasta.
Basil-Walnut Pesto
I've also got a large beef shank sitting in my fridge ready for braising tomorrow.
Unfortunately, I don't have the energy to do TOO much more cooking and little room to store what's prepared so we'll see what September brings in the way of food at my house. :)
I'm only supposed to be in the hospital for 2-3 days and then will be home, on crutches, while I heal up. I'm trying to do some early cooking as I don't want to have to order pizza too often, nor force my nephew (who gets to come and stay with/take care of me) to do too much cooking either. :)
So, yesterday I turned the last of the chicken breasts (cost = $5) I had in my freezer into 1 1/2 pounds of chicken fingers aka chicken tenders. I ran out of plain bread crumbs (mixed with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning herb mix and a bit of garlic) half way through so I used panko crumbs (salt only) for the other half. The Italian seasoned fingers are on the left, while the plain, panko version ones are on the right, of the platter.
Chicken Fingers - The larger ones are about 4" long so the picture is a bit deceptive. There's a lot of chicken there. :)
I also harvested (too late so I lost about half the leaves) 4 of the 5 basil plants I had in containers in the back garden and made basil-walnut pest. The dark colour is because I didn't bother skinning/peeling the walnuts. In any case, there are 5 x 1/4 cup packages of the pesto in a tupperware container in the freezer. Each portion is sufficient to add to about 200 gms of cooked pasta.
Basil-Walnut Pesto
I've also got a large beef shank sitting in my fridge ready for braising tomorrow.
Unfortunately, I don't have the energy to do TOO much more cooking and little room to store what's prepared so we'll see what September brings in the way of food at my house. :)