Post Surgery - Attempt to Cook Again

I neglected my blog because I haven't been cooking. I had surgery last week so I have been recovering with my Kindle, The Help, on the couch for quite a while now. Since I finished the book yesterday, I have had a real mean craving for fried chicken, but don't really know how to fry it.

Now I made 9 meals prior to surgery, bought nice new Tupperware, and put them in the freezer with good intentions. I had one and it was pretty nasty (white rice, no preservative soup, frozen vegetables, and chopped white chicken). So needless to say I lost a pound or two since I am limited to what is in the pantry and those frozen dinners.

Thankfully, some real nice friends and family brought over some delicious meals. Why is it that someone else's food always tastes better than your own? Maybe it's just my cooking.

So here I am today, still in minor pain, standing there at the grill and in the kitchen and attempted to regain my cooking strength.

Tonight's Goal: Southern Fried Chicken - but really just breaded grilled chicken, risotto, and spinach

Chicken:

Earlier in the day I grilled 2 large chicken breasts to make sure they weren't pink on the inside. I cut them up into bite size pieces and put them in a zip lock in the frig for later.

When I was ready to start cooking dinner, I poured buttermilk in the zip lock surrounding the chicken. Then I rolled each bite size piece in Food Lion brand bread crumbs. I placed these on a cookie sheet and broiled them on low for about 7 minutes on each side.

Spinach:

I put 1/2 cup of water, 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter, little coarse sea salt, cut up large tomato, and a block of frozen spinach into a 2 qt pot and let it boil for about 5 minutes.

Risotto:

I opened a box of Lundberg Organic Risotto - Florentine - Spinach & Mushroom. I followed the box stove top instructions.

Results:

Lundberg Organic Risotto is now going to be a staple in my pantry. At first I thought it tasted funny, but then I got to thinking about grilled tuna steak. Boy, it would taste amazing with grilled tuna steak. I would still top it with my spinach mixture, except I would have added minced fresh garlic (mainly because I'm obsessed with using my garlic mincing tool from Williams Sonoma) to the spinach boil if I had some in the frig.

Try out the risotto from Lowes Foods and tell me what you think.