Just making a quickie post tonight. School was good today, just a long day. I got my stats exam back (99%) and found out my grade for the electricity one (92%). And although the teacher for the Cad class isn’t much of a teacher, I picked his brain about solidworks for a while as others worked through the tutorial (that I’d already done). So I think at the moment I’ve sorted out most of my problems with it. And that puts me ahead of the class, so I’m happy with that.

Unfortunately the day didn’t end well. My mother’s sister has been hospitalized for the last week or so, and although this morning she was doing well, did not survive this latest illness (a stroke). For me, it’s not such a big thing as primarily she’s an occasional voice on the phone (although I have met her, but I probably haven’t seen her in a decade). She’s actually the youngest of the 4 siblings, but was diagnosed with diabetes almost 50 years ago. She’s struggled healthwise pretty much since then, with a slow degradation in the past decade. In fact, although my mother is the oldest of the siblings she has far fewer ongoing health issues than the rest. So, it was a bad afternoon for my mother. I’d tried to talk her into changing her flight dates (she’s going to Scotland in a month) but my aunt’s husband talked her out of it. He didn’t want his wife to think that they had ’sent for her’, but I’m now sorry I didn’t talk her into it. Although perhaps it’s better that she didn’t go now.

I’m exhausted tonight, so off to bed I go.

Food for the day:

Total: 1904 (22% fat, 43% carbs, 35% protein)

Breakfast: egg/egg white scramble, salsa, 1/2 sandwich thin, orange (353)
AM Snack: none (0) <— no time on Mondays
Lunch: multi-grain tortilla, sirloin steak, lettuce, celery, salad dressing, apple (493)
PM Snack: zucchini spice cake, soy nuts (362)
Dinner: apricot ginger chicken, broccoli/cauliflower/carrots, butter, salad w/dressing (467)
Late Snack: chocolate zucchini cake, fruit salad (230)

I should have taken a picture, but we had started eating before I thought about it. This was supposed to to use apricot nectar (I’m assuming juice), but I used our homemade apricot jam instead. It was super easy and took just over 15 mins from start to end. It was a nice slightly sweet sauce with a gingery bite.

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (~8oz used)
3 Tb apricot jam (140 cals)
1 Tb chopped gingerroot (4 cals)
4 oz chicken stock (11 cals)
4 secs canola oil spray
salt, pepper

Spray small, non-stick pan. Season chicken with salt and pepper while pan is pre-heating on high heat. Brown lightly on both sides (about a min on each side). Mix all other ingredients together and pour into the pan. Cover with a lid and simmer for 12-15 mins. Lift chicken breasts out (keep covered) and boil sauce vigorously until thickened. Serve.

Notes: I used a small pan, and half a cup of liquid was enough. In a larger pan you probably would want more chicken stock. Since I never pan cook chicken I cut it in half to check if it was ready, so I ended up slicing it and spooning the sauce over top. My homemade jam is a less sweet than most commercial jams, however, you could add a little lemon juice if you needed to. The original recipe called for apricot nectar (12oz), but this would have been way too much liquid for my pan. You could also use oil as I tend to use the canola spray as it’s handy.

Sauce: (serves 2) 195 cals (42 from fat, 5 from protein, the rest - carbs)