My Bestie’s Lunch: Â Jerk Chicken, black beans, rice and cabbage
Lady G ain’t the only one who knows how to throw down in the kitchen.
Today, I decided to share a pic of my girl, Gloria’s, lunch–which was actually leftovers from her Sunday Meal.
No, seriously, all of my closest friends are bigly into cooking real good food.
Don’t get me wrong, it is sometimes necessary to drop express meals via microwave.
However, my friends, who are all working mothers, believe strongly in the importance of cooking ‘from scratch’ as often as possible.
But there’s a trick to making that happen and here it is…
When you come home after a long day, be it from work or play, go straight to the kitchen and get started cooking. Â It also helps if you do some advanced prep work like washing and seasoning meats or cutting up vegetables.
Now, after you’ve gotten everything simmering, baking or whatever the case may be, THEN you can go take your shoes off and put on some comfortable clothes.
Anyway, the ‘start cooking first’ trick works for me because I find that if I go straight to my bedroom and get too comfortable I will not feel much like cooking… and, at that point, a real good dinner quickly morphs into pizza, cereal or sandwiches.
NOT GOOD!
And so…
To sum it up, prepare as much as possible in advance and start cooking as soon as you walk in the door.
By the way, If you would like for me to share a picture of one of your real good meals, please shoot me an e-mail at: ladygflow1@gmail.com.
Be sure to put “Real Good Food” in the subject line and if it is real food that looks really good then I’ll highlight it here.  Be sure and add a quick backstory about your selection 🙂
Ok ladies, you know I love you but this one is for the fellas!
Why?
Because I feel strongly that more men need to learn how to cook real good food!
No more ‘getting by’ meals.
No more ‘struggle bus’ meals.
No more scrambled eggs…
OR cereal…
OR oatmeal…
OR cookies…
OR Toast…
OR noodles for dinner!
No more of that!
Lady G got you!
YAAASSSS!
And so…
Today, I am offering a simple, inexpensive and unassuming dish that does not require too much effort.
Here’s what you need:
A package of boneless, skinless chicken cutlets (season them to your liking)
A bottle of Italian Salad Dressing (Most any brand will do)- You won’t need the whole bottle!  Just eyeball it 🙂
1Â chopped tomato
Canola Oil (about a Tbsp per each cutlet)
Non-stick spray
That’s it!
Now…
Set the oven to 350 degreesÂ
Saturate the bottom of a deep baking dish with non-stick spray.
Coat your cutlets with the canola oil and place them in the dish (It’s okay if they overlap a little)
Pour on Italian Salad Dressing
Place chopped tomatoes on top
Cover the dish
Put the dish in the oven
Bake for 30 minutes
Here’s how it’ll look before cooking:
Don’t move because we’re not finished.
I’d like to challenge you to make a quick bowl of rustic mashed potatoes.
Stop sweating!
This is a simple dish so you can stop visualizing yourself in a military mess hall peeling bags of potatoes!
For today, all you need to do is take two large potatoes, cut them into medium sized cubes (I keep the peels on) and boil them until tender–use a fork to check for doneness.
Once the potatoes are done and drained, put them in bowl then add salt to taste, about 2 tablespoons of butter and 3/4 cup of whipping cream (Regular milk works too).
I’ve found that you should start with a minimal amount of cream then add more if your potatoes appear to be too dry looking.
Fellas, these potatoes are not pretty but they are delicious and they will, as the old folks say, fill a crack!
I prefer stiff mashed potatoes, some people like them creamy and wet.
OK, to round this little culinary experiment out, employ your microwave to prepare some frozen broccoli.
We did NOT do the broccoli ’cause we were too hungry to wait.
Here’s the final product:
Hey, let me know if you tried this dish. Â I’d love to hear your thoughts.