The Artichoke experiment

I love to cook, and I am pretty good at it. I always took pride in the fact that my family ate food that was made from scratch completely and home made versus processed. I cooked great food for the soul but not so great for the body. I am now facing a new challenge to learn a new way of cooking. From scratch is great but healthy and lean from scratch is even better. In my attempt for healthy meals I made some immediate adjustments, I bought a new cookbook, switched from vegetable oil to olive oil, I bought only white meats such as fish and chicken as well as turkey and I began a search for meals that include more veggies. In my new veggie search I decided to tackle the Artichoke.
I never ever made anything with an artichoke, fresh or otherwise. So I did some research called on the wisdom of some of my friends and tackled  the vegetable. After cutting some of the leaf tips off I steamed it and then I cut it open. Yikes the thing had hair, I was forewarned by my friend so I was king of prepared. I cut up the cleaned artichoke
I cut up some fresh chicken breasts and cooked the in 1 tbs of olive oil just until slightly browned.
After my chicken was cooked I added brown rice broth and the cut up artichoke. I let the whole thing simmer covered for about 40 minutes, to make sure my rice was cooked and that the artichokes were soft.

After sprinkling the meal with low fat Parmesan cheese we dug it. It was ok, I was not thrilled with the flavor or the texture. It was just ok. I guess I am excited that I managed the artichoke ok. I am still on a lookout for new recipes that are healthy and yummy. It might be tougher than I though.