My new menu item I - Chicken sandwitch

Dining out is really not an option for me, cause I'm by myself; and I don't want to miss my TV shows. I can have take out, but I really don't feel like standing there waiting. So I cook every night. Yeah, I cook, every night.

Having lived by myself for almost 15 years (at least 6 months out of every year), I am sick to the stomach of chicken spaghetti, which I made almost every night. I tried rotating pasta sauce (five cheese five herbs roasted onion roasted tomato garlic mushroom meat meat balls minced sausages alfredo fernado roberto and all sorts of other Italian stuff), didn't help (and there're only that many things you can marinate chicken with). I even tried oriental styles - black bean, garlic, soy sauce, teriyaki, better but only lasted a while.

So the captain's decree is: abandon the pasta ship.

In search of a new entree in my very short menu, salad came to mind. I discovered how to make a good chicken salad by accident - one time I forgot to plastic wrap my cooked chicken breasts and left them in the fridge overnight. So you have dehydrated chicken breast pieces, add eggs, pre-washed mixed greens and either thousand island or balsamic onion or honey mustard, then tear up a piece of toast. It works as lunch but I want something hot.

The other day I was lining up at the cafeteria, watching Juan served up the most popular item at the grill - chicken sandwich - it hit me, I can do that, that's easy! I can make some very elaborate stuff, but ease is my top priority nowadays during weekdays.

I buy these dinner rolls in bulk, normally $1 for 3, cut them in half. Spread some salad dressing on one side (something acidic), no butter's needed cause the chicken got grease. Toast it lightly (on a fry pan or a toaster oven) while I fry the chicken. Its chicken breasts sliced thin marinated with pepper and soy sauce or perhaps soaked in brine if I remembered to do that the night before. Sprinkle a little lemon pepper and lay a piece of garden variety Kraft singles on the top after turning off the heat and skillfully center it on the bread. Add a sheet of lettuce (head or green leaf doesn't matter) and optionally a few slices of tomato (tomato is tricky because you can't stock too much of them up, they go bad quickly) and that's it. With chicken spaghetti I have to clean a pot a pan a plate and a fork. With chicken sandwich, it's just a pan and a plate which doesn't even get sauced up/greased up nearly as much.