I didn’t MEAN to take two and a half weeks of vacation….it just sort of happened. We lost power for several days starting with Christmas, so that wiped out the next Tuesday. Then I spent a week in Washington DC with my kids, doing the Smithsonian dance. I totally forgot about Tasty Tuesday; that day I actually paid $7 for a 3 oz. personal sized pizza at the Air and Space museum. We were horrified and disgusted!
School started Monday and we’ve hit the ground running. That means that Tuesday when I went to make dinner, I STILL had not gone grocery shopping so it was Time to Get Creative.
With the cold weather, we were all hankering for comfort food. So I went looking for the ingredients of my grandma’s very traditional Chicken and Rice casserole. Instead of tradition, I ended up with innovation once I started mining my fridge and freezer for ingredients.
I started with the following basic ingredients:
- 4 chicken breasts
- 1 pound brown rice
- 2 onions, diced and browned
- 1 t. salt
- 1 t. coarsely ground pepper
- 1 large green pepper, cut into strips
- 3 c. leftover Black Bean Salad
- 2 c. chicken broth
- 2 1/4 c. water
I stirred together everything except the chicken breasts in a large pot. Into a covered casserole dish, I poured all those ingredients. I placed the chicken breasts on top of the rice/bean mixture and put the cover on the dish. I baked everything at 375 degrees for about 2 hours.
The resulting dinner was wonderfully delicious, reminiscent of Grandma’s version but given a whole new flavor by that leftover bean salad! I served the rice and chicken with some homemade applesauce on the side; it was wonderful!
So, now it’s actually Thursday…Tasty TUESDAY is two days past. I think I’ll catch my stride this weekend and be back on Tuesday. In the meantime, go check out what leftovers YOU can use in a whole new way.
You are so creative Barb! And welcome back!