Thursday, July 11, 2013

Gourmet from Scraps

Last night I planned to eat watermelon for dinner.  Cut one up before church, ate until I was full, went to church.  When church let out I had to pee, then I was hungry.  Dango watermelon!  It didn't last long. Decided pretty late that I was hungry, but remembered I have extremely limited groceries in the house. Searched the cabinets and the fridge and the freezer, this is what I came up with:

Please ignore the ring on the counter...
Greek-style Green pasta with spinach

From the pantry:  Green spaghetti (made with spinach) and lots of garlic

From the fridge:  kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes, last of the pesto, pine nuts

From the freezer:  salmon fillet

Boom!  Gourmet dinner in less than 20 minutes made from either staple ingredients or things leftover from other recipes.  Be creative in the kitchen.  That is one of my most favorite places to be creative.  I like crafty stuff but I'd rather be cooking any day.

What are your favorite kitchen creations lately?

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Fiesta Rice and Beans

Last night I finally broke down and cooked something.  I don't always eat dinner when I'm home by myself, but last night I got hungry.  I've been home by myself a lot this summer.  Princess is living it up this summer and spending nights with anyone but her momma and hubs is still out of town.  I haven't been buying groceries much either.  Luckily, I'm pretty good at working with what I've got on hand.  I read a recipe on some website (don't remember which one now) and used it as inspiration.  Here's what I came up with:


April's Fiesta Rice and Beans

1 cup brown rice
2 bell peppers (I had a red and a green)
1 jalapeno
1 onion (I had a vidalia, use what you have)
2 cans kidney beans (I had a dark red and a light red)
2 cloves of garlic
1 can petite diced tomatoes
1 8oz can tomato sauce
fat pinch of chili powder
fat pinch of cumin
fat pinch of salt-n-pep
Saute diced peppers, garlic and onion in a little olive oil.  Add rice and 2 cups water.  Simmer for 45 minutes or until the rice is tender, stir it once in a while so it doesn't stick to the pan.  When water is absorbed, add kidney beans, spices, tomatoes and tomato sauce.  Eat.

Boom.  One pot meal, easy clean up, super healthy.  Squeeze on a little lime juice, top with cilantro from the garden (I would have had to drive to mom's garden across town to get the cilantro so I skipped it this time).  I have an avocado in the kitchen that is going to go bad if I don't eat it soon, but forgot it was there until I had already got to work this morning.  Had enough left over to take for lunch today and eat for dinner tonight.  This is how I cook.  If only my family saw this as a whole meal, too!  Hubs would want to know what kind of meat I was serving with this side dish and Princess would pick all the onions out.  Not sure when she got so picky, but I don't like it.

What are you having for lunch today?