cookability

I'm a little hesitant about posting this here, because this isn't the sort of thing I could cook on a day bad enough that cooking were hard but good enough that I could actually do cook something. Still, it's a one-pot meal (two pot if you make pasta to go with it), and once you do the chopping you just throw some stuff in and cook it, and then throw more stuff in and cover it with enough liquid that it won't burn and leave it alone for a bit. And then it's done. And it has protein and veggies, and can include carbs too (I'm experimenting with avoiding grain right now, but no reason this wouldn't be awesome over pasta). And you can eat it out of the pot, if you like, and it refrigerates well - I can't speak to freezing, since I have little experience in freezing foods, but I suspect this would freeze well, too. So I suppose it could work well for some kinds of spoon shortages.

This recipe requires a fair amount of chopping (or you can use pre-cut frozen veggies) and at least a few minutes of standing over a stove and either grating cheese or buying pre-grated cheese (or not bothering with the cheese). You can probably walk away from it during step #3 (so long as there's enough liquid and the heat is low), though checking on it occasionally is recommended.

The ingredient amounts are approximate, and I don't have a good sense of time and wasn't keeping track so not sure how long everything took. Maybe 45 minutes, including prep?

Ingredients:
~about a pound of boneless chicken, sliced thin*
~one red or yellow or green pepper, chopped
~a handful of mushrooms, chopped

~half a small onion, chopped

~four or five cloves of garlic, diced

~half a jar of tomato sauce, or some canned tomatoes, or some fresh tomatoes**

~grated cheese (parmesan and/or mozarella recommended)

(You can use other vegetables, like summer squash or eggplant - anything that'll have approximately the same cook time as the other stuff. Frozen veggies should work fine, and if you need/want to avoid chopping you can just toss in a bag of your favorite frozen pre-cut veggie mix.)

Instructions:
1) Saute chicken in olive oil. Remove from pan and set aside. Leave the pan juices in the pan. (Or, bake a couple chicken breasts, if that works better for you.)
2) Throw in all the veggies and maybe a little more oil if you need it. Stir them a bit - just to coat them with the oil and the pan juices.

3) Throw in the tomato sauce - it should be enough that the veggies are not just covered but swimming in it. Cook over low heat until veggies are done. Add any salt or pepper you might want at some point during this step. If you're making pasta, now's a good time to put the water on to boil.
4) Add chicken back to pan to heat up and to stir into the sauce. If you flavor it with fresh herbs (basil or cilantro, for instance), add them with the chicken.

5) Pour chicken and sauce and veggie mixture over pasta, if that's how you're eating it. Sprinkle with grated cheese, unless you're not eating it with cheese, and serve.

*You can also make the veggie sauce and pour it over baked chicken breasts, if you can't/don't want to slice and saute chicken.

**I used tomato sauce. I would have preferred fresh tomatoes. I'm not sure if fresh tomatoes would be liquidy enough that you'd be able to walk away from it, though. Still, you wouldn't have to constantly stir it.

ETA: Tried to put part of the post under a cut, RTE did that thing where it moves my /cut way up, I don't have time to sort it out because I really need to get some food in me. Sorry for cluttering up your blogroll!