The First Night

Week One, Wednesday

Roy and I picked up the new food after work on Wednesday. I had already decided I wasn't going to try to cook something complete with it that night. The meat came frozen, and there was too little time to plan.

I made roasted chicken using the new olive oil. And I'd use the new brown rice, which I had never cooked before. Not real brown rice, anyway.

The brown rice.



I never cooked real brown rice before. I used this recipe from Alton Brown. It's rated easy, with 5-star user reviews. I halved the recipe, because I only wanted two servings.

Roy and I can't agree whether the rice was undercooked or overcooked. It picked up the flavor, but it was crunchy, like eating a seed. We got two pounds of rice, so I will try something different next time.

Minute rice to the rescue!


Of all our new food, we ate one roll (split between us) and I used some olive oil on the chicken.


Close up of the rice. I added roasted garlic, bell peppers, and onions to it. Roy called it un-fried rice.

I have to admit, I didn't get frazzled when I saw the rice didn't cook right. Even Roy noticed it. I think it's because the rice was in the oven, out of view, and I didn't see it until the time was done. If it were on the stove top, I'd be watching it and freaking out over what I should be doing to fix it. This time, the rice did its own thing, and I was able to cook something quickly as an alternative. Moral of the story: have a backup plan.

Everything tasted good, even if it didn't contain much of our new food.