Last week, Alex was skiing in Jackson Hole Wyoming, while I was back in NYC, working.  There are a couple ways in which Alex being gone changed up my routine, but the most startling was that I was cooking for one.   When ALex is eating with a friend or works late, I often find myself uninspired and lazy about making myself food.  Cooking for two is easier, cheaper, and just more fun.  However, I couldn’t eat grilled cheese or omelets for a week, so I devised a plan to make a healthy and delicious meal each night with relatively little effort.  It all started with a family pack of chicken legs that cost me about $3.00 at Morton Williams and ended with this:

Monday

Roasted Chicken Legs

6-8 chicken legs

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and season your chicken legs with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Bake them for 40 minutes.  For the last two minutes, broil them to turn their skins crispy.  Enjoy with veggie and starch of your choice.

Tuesday

Southwest Chicken Soup and Guacamole

I had the brilliant idea that if I cooked chicken legs one night, the next night the leftovers could be made into another dish.  I went with soup, but chicken tacos also sounded good.  A recipe in Real Simple that inspired this soup, but it involved corn on the cob, which I found cumbersome to actually eat, so here’s my  take on that.

Soup

6-8 chicken legs, cooked, with meat pulled off the bone

4 cups unsalted chicken broth

1 cup water

1/2 onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon canola oil

1/2 can of black beans

1/2 can of whole corn kernels

2 tablespoons cilantro

salt

pepper

Guacamole (recipe from previous post)

First, work on your chicken legs, because this is the most labor intensive process of the soup.  Make sure your chicken pieces are small enough to fit on a spoon.   Chop the onion and cilantro, open your cans.

It’s soup time!  Cook the onion in the oil until clear in a large pot, then add the broth and water.  You can now add your shredded chicken, beans, corn, and cilantro.  Season the mixture to your taste and wait until the flavors have worked their way throughout the soup.

Make the guacamole, and as soon as its done, eat with tortilla chips and a bowl of your soup.

Wednesday

Leftovers

Heat up the soup over a stove and enjoy with some gluten-free bread!

Thursday

Chicken Soup with Spinach and Rice

Leftover Southwest Chicken Soup

1/2 cup of rice (I used basmati, you can use whatever)

1 cup of spinach

Heat up the soup in a saucepan.  Make rice by combining 1/2 cup water and rice in a small saucepan and let boil.  Once it boils, reduce it to a simmer and cover  and cook until water is absorbed.

Add the rice to the soup.  If you want to flavor the spinach before adding it to the soup, cook it in a small fry pan with some water for steaming, season to taste, and then add it to your soup.  Or you can add the spinach directly to the saucepan with the soup and let it cook that way.  Your choice.  ANyway, once the spinach is done and the soup is hot, meal #3 is complete.

Friday

Bar Food (GF of course)

Friends

Happy hour deals

Pat yourself on the back for feeding yourself for 4 days with minimal effort and maximum taste (and nutrition!).  Celebrate and go take advantage of Friday happy hour specials with friends.  If you live in the East Village, check out Common Ground for $5 cosmos and appletinis, and then East Village Tavern for the BEST sweet potato fries on earth.