By Home. We have been home for four days and I have not slept more than two hours consecutively in any of them. This is clinically normal and I understood it intellectually before and I understand it with my entire being now in a different way.
Liam eats every two to three hours around the clock. He has made his position on hunger very clear, at high volume, from the first hour of his life, and I respect the directness while desperately wishing he had more flexibility about the schedule. Sean does the middle-of-the-night change—three AM, he gets up before I ask, handles the diaper situation, brings the baby back to me. I don't know when Sean started doing this without being asked. He just does it. I file it away in the place I keep things I'm grateful for and never adequately express.
Both grandmothers have been by. My mother brought food—brown bread, a container of soup, a pan of lasagna she froze in labeled sections. She held Liam for an hour and when I finally had to take him back to feed him she said "I forgot how small they are" and looked like she was holding her breath. Maureen came the next day and brought lamb stew, from the recipe she'd dictated to me on the phone last week, and also a hat she'd knitted that fits him perfectly and which she presented with studied casualness, like she just happened to have it.
Someone brought us a rotisserie chicken and I ate the whole thing standing at the kitchen counter in approximately four minutes and it was the best thing I've eaten in a year.
Liam is here. He's in the apartment. He makes small sounds and his face does a thousand things a minute and I could look at him for the rest of my life.
Here’s the thing about that rotisserie chicken I inhaled at the counter: it reminded me that eating actual food matters, even when your world has narrowed to a two-to-three-hour cycle of feeding someone else. This skillet is what I started making the next week, once I realized I could shred what was left of a store-bought rotisserie chicken into a pan with some beans and spices and have something real in fifteen minutes. One hand on the spatula, one ear on the bassinet. It’s not fancy. It’s dinner, and right now dinner is everything.
15 Minute Southwestern Chicken and Black Bean Skillet
Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 15 minutes | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 3 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can (14.5 oz) fire-roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 cup frozen corn kernels
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese
- Fresh cilantro, for topping
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
Instructions
- Heat the skillet. Add olive oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the diced onion and cook for 2–3 minutes until softened. Stir in the garlic and cook 30 seconds more.
- Add the beans, tomatoes, and corn. Pour in the black beans, fire-roasted tomatoes, and frozen corn. Stir in the chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, and cayenne if using. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add the chicken. Fold in the shredded rotisserie chicken and stir everything together. Let it simmer for 5–6 minutes until heated through and the liquid has reduced slightly.
- Top and serve. Sprinkle the cheese over the top, cover for 1 minute to melt, then finish with fresh cilantro and a squeeze of lime. Serve straight from the skillet with rice, tortillas, or just a fork and no judgment.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 385 | Protein: 35g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 34g | Fiber: 9g | Sodium: 620mg