Week 3, Day 3 -- chicken, broccoli raab

I missed my weigh-in Saturday morning -- we had guests arriving at 10:30. But I happened to be at a health care establishment the day before, so I weighed myself there and it appears I lost another 3-1/2 pounds. I'm feeling pretty good about my ability to stay on program this week. I made my own little tracker in a small spiral-bound notebook, and actually enjoyed ruling the lines, filling out the column heads, and making little square checkoff boxes for my water, fruits/vegetables, dairy, and oils.

Last Monday's chicken made its final appearance as an entree last night. I believe we got 13 servings out of that $5 chicken. It's not completely done yet, though. I stripped the flesh on Friday and we put the bones on to boil. They ultimately reduced to a little over a pint of rich concentrated broth, which will be part of our flavorings for the coming week. Several of the chicken meals were eked out with beans.

With all the money I'm saving on meat, I splurged on a bunch of broccoli raab. We got two meals (2 servings each) out of it. I don't think I particularly like it as a vegetable, but as an ingredient it's not bad. Here's my recipe for chicken and broccoli raab over grits (something I made up, inspired by a recipe I read somewhere on teh intarwebs)

For the chicken/broccoli raab mixture:

Meat from one side of an oven-stuffer roaster breast, cubed
One onion, coarsely chopped
1 T olive oil
2 T tomato paste
1/2 cup concentrated chicken broth
4 cups broccoli raab (I removed the fat stems), coarsely chopped
Water as needed for consistency
Seasonings to taste: oregano, marjoram, cayenne, black pepper

The polenta substitute: In a saucepan, combine 2 c liquid (I used chicken broth), 1/2 c grits, 2 t fine cornmeal. (yes, we had no polenta...). Bring to boil, turn down to simmer and cook to taste, stirring almost regularly (about 15 min), until mixture holds some shape. Add 1/4 c grated parmesan or romano, black pepper, salt if desired.

In a large skillet, saute the onion in the olive oil until translucent. Add tomato paste, broth, water. Bring to boil, turn down to simmer. Add chicken. When the chicken is simmering again, add the broccoli raab. Cover, cook on low heat, removing cover to stir frequently.

Spoon a serving (2/3 c - 1 c) of the polenta/grits into a shallow plate; top with 1 to 2 cups chicken mixture, and serve.

Yield: one dieter's serving, one he-man serving.

Cooked this way, the broccoli raab added some bite to the meal. We'll have it again when it's on sale.