Cooking for One and whatever useless random ramblings come out of my brain tonight

You have to eat.   I've been so very bad about my food consumption this last month.  I've been skipping breakfast or if I have it, it's a shake which is good for me but then I skip lunch and come home and nothing sounds good because I gotta tell you, cooking for one is a pain in the rear so I have some stupid dinner - cheerios seems to have been the stupid dinner of choice lately. I finally found some recipes for single or 2 servings and am experimenting with them..and even though dinner tonight was originally for 8 servings, I made an amazing single serving cherry chipolte bbq chicken tonight on the grill, it was delish! I halved the recipe and froze the left overs so i can pull one out and have it again without having to go through all the trouble of cooking it again or messing with amounts of ingredients.  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh or frozen (thawed) dark sweet cherries, pitted and chopped - I used fresh
• 1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1/3 cup cherry preserves
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, (or more to taste if you're me)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

Preparation

1. Stir cherries, broth, preserves, ketchup, vinegar, chipotle peppers, thyme and allspice in a small deep bowl. Transfer to a shallow nonreactive dish (glass) large enough to hold chicken. Add chicken and turn to coat well. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
2. Preheat grill to high. Oil the grill rack (yep, no burnt fingers or singed eyebrows!) Remove the chicken from the marinade. Transfer the marinade to a medium skillet.
3. Bring the marinade to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the sauce is reduced by about half, 12 to 15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, reduce the grill heat to medium and grill the chicken until cooked through and no longer pink in the middle, 7 to 9 minutes per side. Let the chicken cool slightly; serve with the sauce.

Nutrition

Per serving: 180 calories; 3 g fat ( 1 g sat , 1 g mono ); 63 mg cholesterol; 15 g carbohydrates; 24 g protein; 1 g fiber; 179 mg sodium; 272 mg potassium.
I didn't take a picture of mine cause I was too busy eating it but here's the pic that came with the recipe - and I must say I prepared a pretty darn close rendition! minus the extra cherries and lemon - but had you come for dinner I'd have served it just like this for the presentation factor...my taste buds and tummy didn't care what it looked like because it smelled fabulous and every bite was different ...varied between sweet and spicy and tart at times.  I had it with steamed asparagus and a dinner salad.

Tomorrow night I'm going to make me a quasi good old fashioned 4th of July meal - Raspberry bbq ribs, corn on the cob, and I'm thinking about grilling some zuchini and squash and peppers and onions.  I'm really hungry for veggies lately!  the only thing I won't have that's tradition is potato salad (too much work to make it for one and i don't like store bought so I'm just going to skip it), and I won't have any homemade i-scream but no worries, i'll still have desert...like this one that I had just a few minutes ago that totally satisfied my sweet tooth, my chcolate craving and all the while being healthy.  A bit of melted Xocai chocolate with Strawberries.

Edging is done!!!

Before

After

This is a "patch" of roly polies that I found when I removed a chunk of grass/dirt.

Seeing the crazy amount of roly poly bugs i found today, I did some research on them...did you know (ok, here comes the random thoughts I warned you about):

The Roly Poly bug are in the isopod  family (same pod or foot) and have seven pairs of legs that are all similar in size and shape.

They have simple eyes, three body parts, uropods, and a pair of prominent antennae, gills and lung like adaptations.

They need moisture to survive but cannot live submerged in water.

Female roly-poly bugs may have one to three broods of young per year.

When the eggs are formed, the female places them into a brood pouch-she may carry up to 50 eggs and gestation is about 2 months.

Roly Polies (poli? Hmmm) molt up to a dozen times in their lifetime and the average lifespan of a roly-poly is between two and five years.

Roly-poly bugs cannot bite or sting and have an exoskeleton with plates.

They like dark, moist areas and if left out in the sun they will perish.

They are able to roll up into a ball for protection, but they can also use odor as a defense.

They eat scat and decaying matter, including flesh (of other creatures - like the stink bug - not humans).

They fight over food and communicate by tapping with their antennae.

They absorb water with food, through mouth parts or by capillary action through their uropods.

They digest material from dead plants and animals and waste products and return essential nutrients back into the soil.

They eat the eggs of stink bugs. Since stink bugs can do considerable damage to crops, roly-poly bugs may be beneficial as a natural insect control method.

Yea, that's what I do...I've been educating myself on all sorts of random things.  Why? So that when I'm faced with having to have a conversation outside Facebook, I'm able to come up with something to talk about.  No worries, I don't foresee myself sitting in a social setting and blurting out "Roly Poli eat flesh and put off an odor when necessary for protection" but you never know, it could come in handy someday and well....now you can use it too. 

I'm ready for the holiday to be over.  The neighborhood sounds like a war zone...joys of living down the street from not just 1 firework stand but 4 firework stands and the city that still allows aerial fireworks. Complete and utter hate for them.  This holiday is one that I've tied to Don's family for the last 15 years.  His sister is my best friend but I've only talked to her once since he left and it was short and brief and had a definite point/reason behind it.  I miss her and the family a lot but when you split up with your spouse he/she get to keep their family, and i know I'm going to be missing the annual 4th of July party and all the festivities and traditions but I'm just going to make the best of it and besides, I have to work Tuesday morning so it'll be an early night for me...but still, I'll be glad when it's over so I can quit thinking about it.  I'm going to spend some time with Ashley & the boys tomorrow - we might go to the pancake feed at Memoria Park and watch the parade, maybe we'll go swimming afterwards or come back here and eat popsicles and play in the sprinkler, the only thing I know for sure is that Gabe is going to want to play hockey and Kaden will be full of kisses and loves.  These are really the only things that matter.

Happy 4th of July everyone!  I hope you all have a safe and fun holiday!