take a hike, salmonella.

I'd been off the road for a few weeks.  I was looking forward to giving hotel cooking another shot.  I continue to be interested in the variety of responses I get when I tell people that I carry a mobile kitchen with me on the road.  People seem to be at one extreme or the other.  "Are you crazy?  Your job pays for you to eat out whenever you want and you chose to cook on a hot plate?" or "That is so awesome.  Way to be creative."

Long story short, I'm not overly concerned with where any lands on that spectrum.  It is a challenge and something to do in what can otherwise be a pretty boring hotel room.

A few lessons I learned from last time:

• Cutting the chicken was the hardest part.  Salmonella is a bitch no matter where you.  On an airplane?  That's about as low as it gets.  If I could avoid having to cut raw meat, that would be awesome.
• Leftovers are important.  As much as it kills me as a cheapskate and person who tries not to waste things: if I have to buy $2.50 worth of leftover containers and that allows me to spread $10 worth of food over 3 nights ... I'm still coming out on top, even if I toss the leftover containers at the end of the week.

So, this week I decided to try whole wheat pasta with beef chunks.  My grocery bill, including the leftover containers, was about $13.  Here is the stuff that dinners are made of:

The meat was "stew meat," meaning it was already cut up for me.

The pot may have been a little small for the volume of food I cooked.  Not wanting to get splatters all my desk (because the desk seemed a lot more sanitary than the bathroom), I made a make-shift lid.

It works.  Hotel cooking is all about utility.

It was delicious.  I bought some cheese to sprinkle on it, but forgot, so I guess that's extra healthiness?

Yum

I feel pretty good about the outcome here.  I'll keep it up.  I did put extras in containers and will be able to eat that for several more meals this week.  More meals coming up.