Once Eaten, Twice Shy

Update: The slow-cooked chicken, 8hrs later.

I hate leftovers.

I do, I hate them.  I don't like eating the same meal twice, and until recently, there were several instances when I found it hard to eat a homemade meal in the first place.

That sounded bad.  I'm no snob.  There was a large part of my life that I spent finding no joy in cooking whatsoever.  It didn't come naturally to me, or at least I felt that way, and every dish I would make I was meticulous and over-worried about the outcome, sometimes obsessing and dreading it like a final exam.  Come to think of it, I approached cooking like baking.  Either way, there were times where I would stress so much over the meal that when it came time to eat it, I could barely bring myself to it.

Everything is a process, of course, as I have clearly gotten over eating my own cooking.  However, I still find it hard to eat a meal twice.  I'm talking same exact things on the plate--chicken, rice, green beans, etc.  J has no problem with this, something I greatly admire and appreciate.  After all, if I don't eat my leftovers, who will?

This "no leftovers" thing has got to stop, as I am constantly looking for ways to cut down on spending.  A meal eaten twice is money saved, so something must give.

Lately, to help ease my transition out of the princess world, I have been reusing leftovers.  One such recent case has been the slow-cooker chicken.   A fully-cooked chicken is a world of possibilities!  Cut it up and make chicken salad, throw it over a salad, put in a taco, on bread, in a pita, in pasta...it's the white canvas of the culinary world.

The other part of my story is that J was sick on Friday with a head cold.  I don't like when he's sick, nor does he, but it's usually a treat as I get to make lots of soup and serve cups and cups of tea with honey.

Charged with my task at hand, I woke up Friday afternoon and set about using the last of the chicken to make stew.

There wasn't much in the fridge or pantry but some garlic, bay leaves, chicken stock, pearl barley, 1/2 carrot, thyme, and one shallot.  Nearly perfect--I would have wanted to use egg noodles, but sadly, we were out.

I made a quick-and-dirty bouquet garni with the bay leaf and thyme, and threw it in with a few whole cloves of garlic and the barley once the chicken stock (and some water) had started boiling, then brought the heat down to a simmer.  I have been told that one should soak barley overnight, but a little longer cooking time would do the trick, and I didn't have overnight anyway.

Halfway through simmering I chopped two more cloves of garlic, the carrot and shallot, and quickly threw those in to stew.  Finally, at the end (35 minutes!) I put the chicken in and let simmer a little longer.

To plate, I took out the bouquet garni, and added salt/pepper.  

So limp...so sad...so delicious!

It came out tasty enough, and did the trick--helped J feel better and it used leftovers in a way that I could stomach.   Second day was even better, as the barley soaked up the chicken broth/water combo, and softened even more.

As a side-note, I must say I was mostly flabbergasted that I was able to freehand a meal that was so tasty.  It wasn't anything too difficult, it was soup, after-all, but it still amazed me.  "I made something edible!" I exclaimed, as J just looked at me like I had a third eye.