The Return Of BYOL

The unfortunate thing about this world is that good habits are so much easier to give up than bad ones.
-Somerset Maugham

Bad habits: we all have them, privately hate them, ritualistically try to break them, almost always fail, and then doggedly try, try again. It's what makes us human. That, and opposable thumbs.

Since I'm in the habit (whether good or bad, only time will tell) of sharing things with you, here are some of my nasty practices:

-I do not make my bed
-I do not hang up wet towels after using them
-I pick my nails
-I leave doors/cabinets/drawers open
-I do not drink enough water
-I consume too much caffeine
-I floss irregularly
-I sometimes conform to the technical definition of a binge drinker ("consuming four or more drinks on a single occasion")
-I eat less than 2 hours before bedtime
-I do not bring my own lunch to work.

This last one is of particular concern. I like to think of myself as the kind of person who packs an economical, healthy lunch each day, but a Saturday morning audit of my most recent credit card statement revealed that things have really been slipping. Most days, I spend $10.02 at Le Pain Quotidien for some extremely mediocre vegan soup and a mint lemonade. That's over $50 per week, which is appalling. Something must be done.

Habit-breaking seems to happen in waves (see: New Years, Lent, Intervention), so this was all-around a weekend of resolutions and good intentions. I made the bed each morning, hung up my towels post-shower, flossed every night, and plunged head-first into the routine of making my own lunch again.

I got back in the swing of things with a simple, satisfying dish that was one of my old standbys: roast chicken + brown rice + vegetable of choice, tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper, and herbs. This time, the guest stars were sauteed Swiss chard, basil, and parsley. The ingredients for 5 lunches cost around $20, and it took two hours to make (including cleanup).

It's important to start with a good chicken, not one of the deformed, big-breasted monsters sold by Butterball or Purdue. I don't want to go into all the details here, but suffice it to say that these are the chicken equivalent of Heidi Montag. An all-natural, free-range chicken (like the ones I get from Epicurian Farms) should be only 3-4 lbs in size and all of its body parts should be proportional.



For all of you in the 'set it and forget it' camp, I have some bad news regarding the roasting of a chicken: doing it well requires a fair bit of fussing and tending (I use Julia Child's method; I'm by no means saying it's definitive, but it's the best I've found so far).

First you must truss the bird (getting the chicken in a tight football shape helps it cook evenly and keeps the juices in; leaving the legs and wings to jangle around on their own in a hot oven really has a bad effect on the meat) and slather the whole thing with butter, salt, and pepper. Once it's in the oven, there's a lot of chicken calisthenics to tend to during the cooking process -- basting, turning, adjusting, etc. etc.

Here's a breakdown of how Miss J suggests doing things:

0:00 - 0:05 - Oven at 425, birdie breast side down.
0:05 - 0:10 - Move the bird onto its right side; baste.
0:10 - 0:15 - Move the bird onto its left side; baste.
0:15 - 0:35 - Turn oven down to 350; baste bird every 8 minutes.
0:35 - 0:55 - Move bird back onto right side; baste every 8 minutes.
0:55 - 1:10 - Turn the bird breast side up and cook until juices run clear, basting frequently.

I don't know that the timing of the turning and basting has to be all that precise, but the important thing is to only put the carcass breast side up for the last 15 minutes. This is because the breast meat tends to be the driest, and cooking breast side down lets the juices pool in and around that area of the bird.

While you're babysitting your roasting chicken you can prepare the rest of the dish. Start the brown rice according to the instructions on the bag (liquid, rice, simmer, you get the picture). Use a knob of butter, a pinch of salt, and stock instead of water if you have it on hand. Make about 6 servings.



Then it's time for the vegetables. Chop up a few cloves of garlic (I used spring garlic), and a couple of small shallots or red spring onions, and then saute them in a large skillet over medium heat in olive oil. Separate the stems from the leaves of the Swiss chard, chopping each separately. Add the chopped stems, salt, pepper, and a splash of water to the skillet; cook covered for 2-3 minutes. Add the leaves and a splash of water and cook covered until wilted, around 10 minutes. Set aside.

You should let the chicken rest until it cools and then take as much meat off the carcass as possible, cutting it into bite-sized pieces. Mix this in with the chard and brown rice, and add a tablespoon of olive oil and a a couple of tablespoons each of chopped basil and parsley to finish it off.

There you have it: two hours and $20 later, you've got five days worth of lunch tucked neatly in your fridge. Now that's a habit worth keeping.