It has been a long two weeks between days off, and I owed my four-legged buddy some cuddle time, so I was looking for some quick food fixes today. Enter, this new-to-me recipe from a recent issue of Food & Wine. Protein, mushrooms (obviously!), citrus (always welcome), and a starch of my choosing.

Planning!

Of course the draw to this recipe for me this week was the short time commitment, but also the high protein content, and the high volume of mushrooms (always always always). After reading it through and thinking about the parsley vinaigrette that gets tossed in at the end, I decided to add israeli couscous to the mix. It takes no time at all to make and it holds its own in a dish that stars a clean protein like this one.

I could only find packages of chicken thighs in 1.25lb packages at the store today, but that was fine. I also decided to drop the olive oil content by 2 tbsp, keeping it at a cool 8 tbsp of oil, total, because that's plenty.

Here's the nutritional breakdown from Fitbit...

Groceries I had on hand...

• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• israeli couscous

Groceries I had to buy...

• chicken (1.24lb @ $4.49/lb = $5.57)
• mushrooms (10oz cremini @ $2.49, 4oz shiitake @ $3.99, 3.5oz oyster @ $2.99 = $9.47)
• parsley ($1.99)

Total monies spent for the entire recipe: $17.03

Total monies spent for each of these 4 meals....

$4.26 per lunch

Cooking!

I made this first today, knowing how little attention it needed and how quickly the oven would become available again. It was a breeze! I prepped the mushrooms and lemon while the oven and pan preheated. When the oven was ready, I seasoned the chicken, and dropped the oil onto the pan followed by the chicken. Then I pickled onions to go with the black bean soup I am pulling from the freezer this week. Seriously!

Four minutes later, I tossed the mushrooms and lemon with the olive oil so they were ready to add to the pan when the timer went off. Then I sliced a cucumber into spears and added it to a dill and garlic brine I've been fridge-pickling with for a few months, and topped off the vinegar on that concoction. Then I got started on my next casserole dish. Oh and I made the couscous and portioned it out.

When the chicken and veg were done, I took it out and let it all cool a bit, then portioned the mushrooms and lemons, chopped the chicken into bite size (but not too small, and I'll still have to be careful about microwave time so they don't turn into rubber balls this week), and portioned it out, too. Added the parsley, olive oil and vinegar, then tossed the individual tupperwares. Done!

Best "I am too tired to prep" prep ever!