Cooking healthy, the final frontier, eh probably not!

I am always posting my latest food creations on Facebook, complete with pictures and mouth-watering descriptions, designed mostly to mislead people into believing I'm this amazing talented chef only pretending to be normal. The truth is, I don't cook that often. And since I've started this whole "Ohmygosh I'm running a marathon and I can't eat THAT!" thing, or more realistically "I can't make that because I am too lazy to actually calculate how many calories are in it" I've been completely blocked when it comes to creativity in the kitchen. Growing up, my dad had this amazing ability to walk into the kitchen, open up the fridge, survey quickly the contents, and then like pure magic, here's dinner, healthy, unique and OUT OF THIS WORLD! And mind you this isn't mashed potatoes and mac and cheese amazing, this is like falafel with tzatziki sauce, quinoa salad, chicken curry, or any other multitude of dishes my spell check is underlining like crazy. I have dreamed all my life of being as talented as him in the kitchen, with a bit more of a traditional flare, meaning stuff you can pronounce and readily find boring recipes for, only mine are Extreme Recipe, Colleen Edition. Fundamentally, I desire the ability to create things that are healthy, that incorporate vegetables and not too much grease and fat, but that of course are just brimming with amazing flavor!

This long introduction is leading somewhere, I promise, and that somewhere is what my creativity FINALLY produced today! And I have to say, after not seeing my creativity in at least a month, I was positive it had a severe case of atrophy and was withered and dying somewhere I couldn't find it anymore. So, here's how dinner went. Hmm, need protein, oh I have frozen chicken tenders, let's grill those up, with a little Montreal chicken seasoning and a small pad of butter, PLEASE don't tell my thighs! Great, now I have some tasty chicken...should I make a wrap? Eh, no, to much of a mouthful of green leafy stuff, and way too much work. Chicken sits untouched on the counter for approximately 30 minutes while creativity weakly sits up and looks around. Hmm, maybe just an egg muffin sandwich. How boring, and I'll just put the chicken in the fridge. So I fry the egg, in the same pan as I grilled the tasty chicken in, yum, and toast the english muffin. WAIT! OH HOLD THE BORING! Here comes creativity! He's awake! There's that colossal bag of spinach from Costco that I have yet to finish before it goes bad, and...that's healthy! Let's see...there's a little bit of melted butter and seasoning left in the pan. Heat the pan up, throw in a few tablespoons of white wine in the pan, stir it around to loosen up the chicken bits. Let's put a tiny bit more butter in it, nice, and now that it's bubbling, sprinkle a spoonful of flour...make a nice paste, ah yes! Add a few tablespoons of cream, cause it's in the fridge and heaven knows I shouldn't be drinking it, although I do love to, and I've made a nice creamy roux. Now, grab the whisk, and the milk, and add just enough to make it a dark, rich cream. Ooh, and now for the healthy part! I wash and spin about three cups of spinach, and throw it in the pan on medium heat. This is where the adventure starts, because I've never wilted spinach before, much less even heard of it done in a roux before. I've heard of creamed spinach, but I don't want it that well done. So I grab the kitchen tongs and just pick and turn and pick and turn and watch as it gets bright green, coating with the creamy sauce, and slowly reducing in mass. And voila! Within a few short minutes, I have wilted spinach in a cream sauce! Whoa! So I grab my English muffin, slide the egg on, and pile the spinach on top of that, slip a piece of the grilled chicken and top with the other half of the muffin. At this point I'm staring at it, wondering if my creation is any good. My husband is studying in the other room, after turning his nose at my grilled chicken when he came home from work. So I figure, what do I have to lose, and I don't want to eat this if it's gross. I walk it to him, and say "tell me if it's edible." He takes a bite, and contemplates, takes another bite...and I'm like okay, how is it??? Hmm, I don't know...takes a third bite, including most of the delicious yoke of my egg before I realize what's going on. HEY! Back off my dinner! That's mine! To which he acts all surprised, this isn't for me? No, it's my dinner! You didn't want me to fix you dinner, remember? And I commandeer my dinner and march back to the kitchen. Guess that means I pass! My favorite part of the meal? It was healthy, 565 calories, and 44 grams of protein! Not too shabby for an entire dinner if you ask me, I was quite satisfied! And about 3 servings of vegetable! So, I'm recording this event in hopes that it will nourish and encourage my creativity to stick around and help me make it through the next 4 months without getting so desperate for good food that I'm eating out and and eating way too much, oh and spending too much, and eating the wrong things, etc.