Wednesday- Lots of cooking and cleaning

The apartment was getting pretty rough around the edges recently. I stayed home all day, swept, vacuumed in the corners and all the places where crumbs and cat litter like to hide, washed all the dishes, and did some cooking. Winter took the recycle out and picked up all her errant crap from the dining room/living room when she got home from school. I also moved some artwork around and hung up the postcards my dad framed for my birthday. And took a million instagram photos. And finished cleaning up my old netbook and put it up for grabs on the Buy Nothing group.

We have about $30 left through Saturday in the food budget, but I hate to buy more when we have so much damn food here already. The first thing I made was tropical fruit bread. I started with this recipe. I changed a few things based on what I had on hand and what I didn't. I used a cup of thawed frozen tropical fruit blend instead of the canned pineapple. I used light brown sugar instead of white. I used 1 whole egg and three T of egg white. I switched the butter for coconut oil. And I skipped the shredded coconut, but added 1/4 cup coconut milk and about 1/3 cup of white chocolate chips. I baked it for 65 minutes. It turned out very moist and custardy, and pretty sweet. We ate 2/3 of the loaf.

For dinner I wanted to use up some wilty veggies in the fridge, and a can of cranberry sauce I got in a bag of food from Buy Nothing. I decided to make cranberry and white wine glazed chicken, and a veggie rice and quinoa pilaf with almonds. The glaze had half a can of jellied cranberry sauce, about 1/4 cup each rice wine vinegar and white wine, dried onion, thyme, rosemary, and sage. I sauteed the chicken for a few minutes in olive oil, then added the sauce, and reduced it.

I planned to use bouillon in the pilaf, but we were out. I chopped up three large mushrooms, a carrot, and two celery ribs very finely. I sauteed the veggies in olive oil for a few minutes, then added two cups of water, dried onion, salt, and sage, and brought to a boil. Once it was boiling I added a cup of quinoa and wild rice blend and 1/4 cup slivered almonds, reduced the heat, covered the pot, and simmered for about 10 minutes till the water was absorbed and the grains were cooked.

It was really really tasty. I got a little pushback from Winter and Jeremy initially (Winter called it "fruit chicken") but they both said they liked it. It didn't taste anything like canned cranberry sauce. I would absolutely have it again.

After dinner we split the little birthday cake my boss gave me three ways. It was very rich and chocolatey.

Breakfast: Alpha Bits and milk
Lunch: tropical fruit bread
Dinner: cranberry and white wine glazed chicken, veggie quinoa and rice pilaf with almonds
Snacks/desserts: cookies, birthday cake
Beverages: water