purewellnessamy

Have you ever had cabin fever? Gone stir crazy? I have! This week! And I’m feeling a little batsh*t crazy right now, to be honest! 

In fact, Peter and I both feel a little like this:

(Except less happy and more crazy. Crazy, Crazy, Crazy.)

Peter’s stomach bug was the main reason for staying housebound, but for half the day yesterday we had no choice but to stay home since the Department of Public Works was working on the sewer right outside of our house. We had NO WAY to leave our driveway.  They didn’t even knock on our door to tell us what was going on! Ugh!

It ended up being fine since Peter had a recurrence yesterday. All over himself and the living room floor. Double Ugh!  The upside (there’s always an upside) is that I’ve been forced to Swiffer mop the house.  

He seemed better on Tuesday, so when he asked for raisins and a waffle for breakfast yesterday morning I said “okay.” Big mistake. BIG. HUGE. (Pretty Woman is one of my favorite movies. Can you believe it’s 20 years old?!?)

Risking the chance of a recurring, uh, recurrence today, I shipped homeboy off to school this morning.  And after school, we are going to the dry cleaners and the grocery store! Wahoo!  We’re leaving the house! This is funny:  this morning I told him that we are going to run “errands” after I pick him up from school and he got all excited thinking that I was saying we are going to my sister “Erin’s” house to play with his cousins.  That’s funny, right?

Can you tell I haven’t talked to many people in four days? Let’s see, what else can I tell you? Well, there was that one time? In band camp? Just kidding. I never went to band camp.

Seriously now, as I mentioned yesterday I haven’t been to the grocery store in a while because we were away last weekend and I had no reason to go this week since Peter hasn’t been able to eat much.  (My husband is on his own. Tap into those hunting and gathering instincts, buddy.)

I was dying for a healthy lunch, though, so I went through the fridge and cabinets to create what I’m calling my “Stir Crazy Rice Bowl.”

I had a container of cooked rice leftover from the “rice broth” I made for Peter on Monday, so that was going to be my base. Next I was on the hunt for mix-ins and I managed to wrangle up these things:

Stir Crazy Rice Bowl

3/4 cup cooked brown rice

1 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 small onion, chopped

1 celery rib, sliced (the ONLY fresh vegetable I have in the house! What to the WHAT?)

2-3 tbsp. crumbled feta cheese

2 tbsp. kalamata olives, chopped

4 artichoke hearts, quartered

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Heat oil in pan. Add chopped onion and saute until onion is translucent.

2. Add celery (and some salt and pepper) to oil and onion and saute for 5-10 minutes.

3. In the meantime, put feta cheese, olives and artichoke hearts in a bowl.

4. Add rice to onions and celery, and cook until heated through.

5. Dump rice mixture on top of feta cheese, olives and artichokes, add oregano, and mix together.

6. Salt and pepper to taste.

Easy, right? And it was really good, too.  So when you say that you have “nothing in the house” to cook, look again. You may be able to wrangle up a meal that’s easy, moderately healthy, and delicious.

I’m going to go run around the outside of the house now until I have to pick up Peter.

Have a great Thursday!

Tagged: cooking at home, rice