Healthy people eat chicken; I eat chicken; therefore, I am healthy. 

That’s called a syllogism.  A syllogism is a type of argument with a major premise (general statement), a minor premise (specific statement), and a conclusion (based on the two premises).  I’m an English teacher – I know these things.

I eat a lot of chicken – chicken pot pie, fried chicken, chicken tortilla soup, chicken enchiladas, chicken fettucine alfredo, chicken salad, etc., etc., etc.  Hmmm. . .  Healthy?  Not necessarily.

See – the problem you can run into with a syllogism is that it may not be valid.  Uh-Oh!  In fact, it’s pretty easy to have a syllogistic fallacy – like the one about chicken and me being healthy – and there are healthy people who don’t eat chicken.

Of course, I do eat plain old chicken breast – baked or grilled.  That’s healthier.

But enough about sylly-gisms!  What about chicken?  Food?  Yummmm. . .

I’m trying something new in the kitchen.  (No, I don’t mean trying to take a bath in the kitchen sink. . .  Oh, Please!!  Get that picture out of my mind!)

In an attempt to be more practical and organizational and monetarily parsimonious (that’s stingy), I decided to try to use up the stuff in my pantry and freezer before buying more groceries — you know, that stuff you pick up at the grocery store because you have these great plans to actually cook something that requires several ingredients and you think you’ll use it at some point but then it just sits in your pantry or freezer and you never use it because it’s too much trouble to actually make food that requires you to do anything besides open a can and heat whatever is in it —

You all probably never do this.  Now you know one of my dirty little secrets.  Well, the food in the pantry isn’t “dirty” – but you know what I mean.  (Sigh. . .)

— Remember, coffee and chocolate do not fit in this category and can be replenished whenever needed or at every trip to the grocery store or at addiction-generated extra trips to the grocery store – whichever comes first. —

Now, I don’t want to give you the idea that I never cook (this is mostly true, but I don’t want to give you the idea).  But I don’t have a lot of time lately.  So spending time cooking (and by time, I mean anything more than 1.5 minutes to prepare and 6 minutes in the microwave) is not something I really want to do. 

I am, however, determined to carry through with this challenge to myself –

or at least give it a legitimate attempt –

or at least try it once!

In my pantry, behind the French’s french fried onions and the can of jellied cranberry sauce left over from Thanksgiving, I found a box of brown rice with vermicelli and a can of chicken broth.  In my freezer, I have a bag of skinless, boneless chicken breasts.  Don’t ask me what vermicelli is.  I don’t really know.  But I did find out that I like it!

First, I browned the rice and vermicelli in butter.

Then I added 2 ½ cups of hot liquid – the can of chicken broth and water to make 2 ½ cups.  I brought it to a boil, covered, and simmered for 15 minutes.

While the rice and vermicelli were simmering, I grilled two frozen chicken breasts.  I love my George Foreman grill!

It takes about 10 minutes for a frozen chicken breast, and only one chicken breast fits on the grill, so I had to take the skillet with the rice off the burner until the second chicken breast was cooked.  (So much for being organizational.)

I cut the chicken breasts into bite-size pieces and added the pieces to the rice and vermicelli.

I added a little more water and covered the skillet for a couple of minutes just to heat.  And then it was ready!  Whew!

Voila!  A chicken dish – yummy and healthy!  Thus, we circle back to the syllogism at the beginning of this post. 

 I’m feeling healthier already!!  And practical!  And organizational!  And parsimonious!  (Okay, well, I’m still working on the organizational.)