Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | A long story of my cooking gone wrong...

Earlier I'd written a post regarding our significant others liking the IBS diet recipes in reply to a post about a BF finally liking one. In that reply, I'd mentioned that I, personally, may be able to follow a recipe fairly well, but I can't necessarily cook. This story is a prime example and perhaps my prior post which was made not too long after I began tonight's dinner was a harbinger. So here I am completely freaking out wondering how I'm supposed to stuff these shells, I mean there's like these tiny little openings and the mixture is just too big to get in there without literally breaking the shells. So here I am literally trying to break these shells (omg they're sturdy!) just to get the mixture into them. Thank god my BF can cook! I've NEVER stuffed a shell, manicotti or otherwise in my entire life. He walks in from work while I'm attempting to get these shells stuffed and he's like, "Aren't you supposed to at least soak those first or something?f" "No, the recipe doesn't indicate to soak them at all, and wouldn't they get soggy cooking for 45mins?" I knew the 45mins was necessary to cook the chicken, since it's raw, but I swore that it would ruin the shells. BF says, "Actually, you'd probably burn the shells b/c there's not enough moisture; you have to cook them first, then stuff them." So, I respond, "Uh, then what, they'll be steaming hot, how am I supposed to handle them?" He says, "Cool them off first." I answer back, "But what about this layer of sauce with cooking spray underneath it, what's gonna happen to it, will it get ruined while I have to fix this? If I had been looking at him, I would have seen the exasperation in his face. "Of course not," he says. I sarcastically reply, "Riiight, of course not, cuz I know exactly what I'm doing!" I said a couple other things loudly, sarcastically and each time he's trying to go to the bathroom and he keeps opening the door and yelling, "What?! I'm trying to go to the bathroom here." I wasn't being sarcastic towards him, but myself. *SIGH* I stare downward at the plate before me with haphazardly filled broken, sad, and uncooked jumbo shells, shaking my head and thus prepare to empty the filling from them back into the pan... oh darnit, I realize, I need that pan for cooking the shells in. Aargh, my feet hurt so badly and I can't believe this is happening. It's been a long time since I've been this retarded in the kitchen. It was interesting enough trying to mince garlic and cut chicken with a dull knife (need to get a knife sharpener asap). For whatever odd reason, BF's knife block doesn't include a knife sharpener. I need a brain sharpener....

Anyway, so I scrape the filling mixture from the pan into a bowl, was out the pan and DUH! OMG! Look at those cooking directions on the American Beauty Jumbo Shells box! I can't follow this simple recipe, but thank god I can follow a recipe on how to cook jumbo shells. Hrm, so now here I am stuffing shells, hoping that I didn't lose out on the mixture somehow when I had to scrape it out of the pan, but at the same time wondering if the mixture got a nice little marinade while it awaited the pasta shells. I had had to throw away probably seven uncooked shells and salvaged all the mixture, except for the seasonings and egg beaters and oil sticking to those shells when I tossed them. I probably could have rinsed them off, but seven broken shells aren't a huge sacrifice. Besides, the box is still a "1/2 box of jumbo shells" as the recipe calls for, plus some. As many times as I've double- and triple-checked this recipe to make sure I was following it correctly, I didn't see the word "chopped" after the chicken, I thought it was ... no now that I think about it, I did see "chopped" but my insanity interpreted it as "1/4 inch cubes" or something. So now that all's well and in the oven, I'm freaking out again b/c I'm wondering if the chicken's going to get done b/c it wasn't exactly chopped. 45mins pass as I randomly converse w/BF and write this novella for all of you to read (and laugh at) and I'm nervous about how this is going to turn out.

The result? IT WORKED OUT JUST FINE!

Except that I wore some spaghetti sauce while dishing this up... and BF says it's "really tasty". And yes, the chicken was done.

I'm saving the leftover cooked shells b/c the package of chicken breasts was too much for the recipe, so I have a leftover chicken breast. Guess what I'm doing for lunch tomorrow? I'm gonna turn that leftover chicken breast into really yummy garlic chicken and eat it with the pasta and some sauce, maybe garlic spaghetti sauce. Although, it might be possible that there will be leftovers of tonight's chicken-stuffed shells to snack on tomorrow, who knows.

So now that things turned out so well, I'd like to heave a huge sigh of relief and laugh at myself and with myself for nearly making an expensive screw-up of dinner. I'd also like to share how I worked this recipe out. Out of sheer laziness, I eye-balled the amount of of olive oil. I used the exact amount of basil and parsley flakes called for, and the garlic also. When I was sauteeing the mushrooms and herbs, I used the edge of the spatula to chop the mushrooms as I stirred everything. (They were bought presliced). I also tried an organic pasta sauce, mushroom flavor by a brand called Naturally Preferred. I didn't think this 1lb 9oz size jar was enough sauce for this dish when I was ready to put it into the oven, but now that I'm eating it, it's sloppy and there seems to be plenty of sauce. The pasta sauce itself is delicious (I had pondered over Garlic flavor or Italion flavor at the grocery store). I think the mushroom flavor worked out well. At $4, it was pricier than what I usually buy, which is Prego, or if I have to, I will buy Kroger spaghetti sauce (very decent but just not the same and I hate Ragu).

Heather suggests that research isn't sure yet how non-organic foods affect the GI tract. I don't mind organic foods, I just can't afford to buy them hardly at all and underlying that, organic foods may not endure the needs of the world's growing population. But if I'm able to, I will certainly not flat out say "no" to trying organic. That's an entirely different story for the other board though that I'd like to share with everyone.

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XOXO from lil' ol' me.

(IBS-C, mood disorders, etc., etc.)

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