What to cook when there's nothing to cook

Today is the start of my family's weekend, because my husband has Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off work.  Last night, there was nothing to eat because it was the end of the week and I desperately need to go grocery shopping.  I generally wait to grocery shop until we can go as a family, or I can leave C with my husband and go on my own because trying to haul groceries and a baby upstairs after a shopping trip is a pain in the butt.

I was scouring my pantry, fridge, and freezer, trying to find something that would make a decent meal.  I grabbed brown rice (found a great tutorial on how to make good rice on the stove here- though I add a bit more water than the recipe says), frozen, cooked chicken breast strips (make sure you read the label, many of them have seasonings/coatings that contain allergens), and a head of broccoli.

I put the rice on, and thawed the chicken in the microwave.  When the chicken was thawed and it was almost time for the rice to be done, I heated some olive oil in a pan along with onion flakes and garlic powder (I didn't want to chop onions and garlic for a quick, single-serving meal).  Once the oil was hot I added the chicken and my chopped up broccoli and tossed it around until the broccoli softened a bit (but not mushy) and the chicken had a nice golden brown color.

Throw the chicken and broccoli on top of the rice and BAM! Stir fry.  Of course, you can use whatever vegetables you like; broccoli is the only thing I had on hand (like I said, empty fridge).  It turned out surprisingly good, and outside of the time it took to cook the rice (only 30 mins total), it took all of 10 minutes to put together.  You can just use the microwave to heat the chicken, but the saute does so much for the flavor, it's totally worth the extra dirty pan.