Herb Dijon Chick'n with Wild Rice

Hello on the 12th day of the Vegan Month of Food! Today I have a fun recipe as well as a story about losing power yesterday. (Vegan candles save the day!)

Herb Dijon Chick'n with Wild Rice

Ingredients:

(rice)

--1/2 cup wild rice* (I used Lundberg Wild Blend rice)

--(slightly less than) 1 cup water

(chick'n)

--1 Gardein herb Dijon chick'n "breast" and sauce

(broccoli)

Bring water and rice to boil, cover, and turn heat to low, allowing to simmer for 45 minutes to an hour (until majority of water is absorbed). Remove from heat, add several pieces of broccoli atop the rice, and cover to steam for 10 minutes. While broccoli and rice are steaming, sauté the Gardein chick'n "breast" over medium heat, flipping until golden-brown on both sides. Turn heat to low, pour the herb Dijon sauce over the chick'n, and allow to simmer briefly before turning off the burner. Stir rice and broccoli; serve**. Add the chick'n and sauce atop the rice; enjoy!

*this makes 2 servings of rice

**so I set aside half the rice as leftovers

My fun yesterday involved the power shutting off around five different times while I was trying to cook dinner. Each time, the power came back on quickly, but it did get frustrating, as I was trying to multi-task by typing out the cooking instructions for this meal as well as planning for my Parks and Rec week of Vegan MoFo, so thank goodness for document recovery! 

I decided to add a ring of baby carrots :)

I did eventually get around to having my dinner, though, and it was pretty good. I'm generally not that interested in meat analogs (other than Boca chik'n patties, which I love!), but I wanted to try something new, and this was a pretty nice meal, so it might be something I make every now and then.

After dinner, I checked out some more Vegan MoFo blogs, and then while I was watching TV, the power went off. (By this point, it's dark outside and I've closed the shades, so it is literally pitch black in the apartment.) I decided to close my eyes and just stay on the couch, figuring that the power would come back on quickly like it had earlier. Well, I was wrong. After a couple minutes, I knew it was going to be out for some time, and I got up to find my cell phone, which I used as a flashlight to navigate my way to the shades and open them. The entire apartment complex was dark, completely out of power, so I just left the shades open to get a tiny bit of light (at least the sky was brighter than the inside of the apartment, so it was better than nothing). Then I made my way to the bedroom, where I gathered up all my decorative battery-powered tea light candles, switching them on and arranging them in the living room. It looked so cool with all the candles going (they have a pretty realistic candle "flicker"), and I wanted to take a picture, but I knew it wouldn't turn out right, so I just took a picture of them all together today.

here's all my decorative little candles (unlit)

I called Zach to give him a heads-up (he was already on his way back from work), and when he got back, we searched for my vegan candles (when we found them, we decided to light the rosemary mint one that I'd ordered from Vegan Essentials).

rosemary mint candle, after being lit last night

By this point, Mystery had woken up from sleeping on the bed; she came out to see what was going on. (She was likely confused as to why we weren't in bed if all the lights were off.) So the three of us had a cuddle pile on the couch, and about an hour after the power had gone out, it was back on. I had fun with all the candles in the dark, but I'm glad the power came back on because it had started to get warm without the air conditioner and it was muggy outside (a senior cat, Mystery does not do well in the heat). So, once the power came back on, we were able to cool off and carry on with our night.

Mystery decided to put on her grumpy face for the camera today.

cute little feet

Peace. :)