Occasionally, I find myself in times when the busy pace of life means that I've eaten more meals prepared by strangers than those cooking on my own stove and the carefully chosen produce in my crisper drawers wilts and turns black long before I have a chance to get to it.

Last week was one of those times when, between the stomach flu, a busy week at work and a couple of evenings out with friends, I hardly cooked at all. By the time Friday night rolled around, Scott and I found ourselves sprawled out in the living room, staring blankly at each other, hungry and exhausted. We didn't want to go out and I didn't feel like cooking anything particularly ambitious. I wandered into the kitchen and took stock of my resources.
One pound of chicken breast. A cup and a half of leftover brown rice. Half a dozen flaccid asparagus spears. A third a red onion and some broccoli. Heating up my biggest cast iron skillet, I roughly chopped the onion and started to brown it in a little grapeseed oil over medium high heat. Next in was some smashed garlic and about an inch of peeled and minced ginger.

In a separate skillet, I cooked the chicken so that I'd be able to prevent it from getting overcooked. The rice went into the big pan, along with the broccoli and a couple of handfuls of frozen peas, dug out from the depths of the freezer. I added a little water as things were starting to stick and some soy sauce. At the last minute I decided to go full-on homemade Chinese food and scrambled up a couple of eggs to add as well.

What started as a chore became an act of cooking that ended up being totally satisfying, delicious and cleaned out the fridge effectively as well. And, we didn't have to leave home or fork over $25 in order to eat dinner.