As I forge onward in my quest to eat more fruits and veggies, I can already feel myself slipping. I haven't had enough time at night to pack my Bento, and then in the morning, I'm scrambling, or not hungry, or the idea of food just doesn't occur to me until I'm sitting at my desk and surprised by a growling stomach. I've still managed to keep to my goal of 5 servings every day, but it has been no easy feat, involving double and triple helpings of a single veggie or fruit, just to sneak it in. And also, my 4th and 5th serving on Monday involved the slices of banana in my banana/pudding/vanilla wafer parfait, which I'm pretty sure shouldn't count. And on Tuesday, I resorted to pounding a Naked fruit smoothie, which again, was not ideal (but was very delicious and filling). Plus, Esteban is traveling for business this week and thus my eating patterns are deteriorating. Who wants to cook a nutritious meal if it's just me? Yes, I'm fully aware of how broken that is.

Last night, I had the best of intentions to go to the grocery store after work, but when I left after 11 hours at the office, I just couldn't deal with fighting the shopping cart wars and went home, knowing that I had some Trader Joe's frozen brown rice in the freezer and also, maybe the "Orange" in that bag of frozen Orange Chicken would count as a fruit? When I reached into the fridge to grab some soy sauce for my dinner, I realized that hey, I had a package of lovely fresh broccolini in there. I grabbed one of those Glad Simply Cooking Microwave Steamer bags, stuffed it to the gills with broccolini, whipped in the microwave and zapped it for 3 minutes. When I pulled it out, I threw a few sprinkles of Pecorino Romano and grey fleur de sel on and then dumped it onto the plate next to the rest of dinner. Wow, go me with an entire balanced meal in less than 20 minutes. The vegetation compensated my guilt for relying on a frozen prepackaged entree.

The result? The broccolini was AMAZING. The Pecorino kind of melted down onto the steaming stalks and blended perfectly with the clumpy salt to make a perfect little explosion of flavor. I think the only way it would have been better would have been if I had some fresh lemon juice to spritz on the pile too. I had nuked the entire pack, figuring that I could use the leftovers in my lunch the next day, but I ate every bit before I even turned to the rice or chicken. And when it was gone, I was bummed, because I would have happily traded the rest of my dinner for some more tender stalks.

What is this? Veggies more delicious than oven-fried, sweetly sauced guilty pleasure chicken? Who is this person?

What is more, normally I would have totally had seconds on the chicken and brown rice but I was so full of the green stuff that I had a full portion leftover for my lunch today, which is supplemented with some baby carrots thrown into another one of those steamer bags that can just be thrown into the microwave in the cafeteria. No prep necessary! Who doesn't love that?

Color me impressed with the Glad Steamer Bag. They are totally washable, so there's less guilt about choking the planet with plastic bags. No word on how long each one lasts with washing, but I have to consider that I'm getting more use out of them than out of the plastic bag that delivers my typical bean burrito (no onions, plus guacamole) from Taco Bell. I now feel badly for making fun of Jillian for shilling these bags on The Biggest Loser because seriously, they are the bomb. My 5 a Day vow has just gotten a lot easier, not to mention, more delicious.