Admittedly, I'm falling behind on these challenges. Spring Break and a wonderful dumping of snow are to blame. Nonetheless, I will try to continue to post. Here is last weeks challenge this week...
9. Food, Glorious, Food! This is for the Food Network Junky who loves "Chopped" Wait until you have to go to the grocery store...and then challenge yourself to make a new and creative dish from the pantry/freezer. Incorporate the leftovers that need to be eaten and create a new meal. You are not allowed to go to the store for this challenge.
This is actually a weekly challenge here at my house, only for the main reason that I hate going to the grocery store. Don't ask me why, cause there isn't just one reason, but it is just not my favorite task.
I looked in my cupboard and fridge on Saturday afternoon, and was struck by how many veggies needed to be used before they were bad, so those were definitely going to be in my creation.
I also found some sausage that would be tasty in my dish so out that came as well.
My ingredients were the following:
1 orange pepper
some spinach
can of diced tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
quarter of a white onion
about 10 baby carrots
a package of reindeer sausage
some left over rice/quinoa
parsley
Cajun seasoning
garlic salt
red pepper flakes
bay leaf
water
I began by putting the pepper, spinach, onion, and carrots into the food processor and chopped them up really fine. I also chopped up the garlic. I put all the chopped veggies and the can of diced tomatoes into a large sautee pan...which should have been a large pot, but whatever...I added some water and let them cook down. After they had cooked down a bit I added the spices. I didn't measure the spices, but added them to taste. I also added a bit more water and let it cook down again.
While it was cooking I cut up the sausage and added it, along with the rice/quinoa--which was already cooked--and let those stew for a bit.
And I came up with a very healthy and hearty stew.
That turned out well! I often do this when I don't want to shop because I need to use up random food before it goes bad. Some dishes turn out better than others but the fun is in the experimenting!
ReplyDeleteSo guys it's been a LONG time!!
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