INVENTIONS

At 4:30 today I had no idea what I was going to fix for dinner. This is a good and bad thing. I have never been much of a meal planner. I know it saves time and money for sure but the thing that always happens to me is that I am not hungry for whatever I have planned for that evening or a spontaneous invite from friends to go out or come over happens or I just want Papa Murphy's Mediterranean Delite pizza for goodness sakes! So when 4:30 rolls around and I still have no idea what's for dinner it can be a little stressful. However, I usually perform well under pressure and it causes me to get creative. I have no time to run to the store or catch Miles before he leaves the office to grab something for me so I use what is in the house. Sometimes I invent great things in these moments and sometimes not so much but somehow no one goes hungry around here. Here is what we ended up eating tonight.

We ate kale and heirloom tomato salad, leftover fresh fruits all mixed together and ????? The trouble with these inventions is that I never have a name for them.

It was a chicken and brown rice dish with a Mexican flare. First I sauteed the sliced up chicken breast in olive oil with some sea salt and pepper. Then I added half a cut up red pepper, 4 diced green onions, and 1 very large clove of finely grated garlic.

Saute until chicken is cooked through and then add the zest of one small lime and the 1-2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice. I juiced the whole lime because we really like that flavor!

Here is the secret ingredient that made this dish one I will make again. Organic mild mango peach salsa. I added about 3/4 of the jar and let it all simmer on low while I finished everything else up.

I really debated about whether or not I wanted to serve this over quinoa or brown rice. You all know I have a love affair with quinoa but brown rice won tonight because I thought I should make something different for a change. So I cooked 1 cup brown rice for those of you who need accurate measurements! I opted to mix the rice all in the pan though instead of serving it over the top. Good decision!

Aren't these pretty? Heirloom tomatoes, I heart you! I am thinking the leftover might go on some kind of sandwich tomorrow.



I decided to serve these tomatoes just like this instead of cutting them up for my kale salad. They were just so pretty. So kale is something new for us. I have really been wanting to add it to our diet. I like to try new things like this. I really want to try making some kale chips I have seen recipes for sometime too. So let me know if you have any secrets to making that work well.

Tonight I went simple with the kale, mainly because I had the tomatoes to go with it, but also because simple usually is better. I washed it up, chopped it up, and sauteed it up with some olive oil, garlic, and a little lemon juice. You only saute it for just a couple minutes. It turns a beautiful green color!

It was delicious and Miles liked it too. I sneaked in onto the kids' plate mixed in with spinach and other greens and they never noticed. It is known to be a little bitter so make sure you cut off the stems before you use it.

See isn't that just a wonderful shade of green? We followed the rules and had something green on our plate tonight! I am looking forward to experimenting more with kale especially since I have some red kale in my downstairs fridge. If you have a great recipe please email it to me and pamrohde@q.com I would so appreciate it.

On another note several of you have had trouble with posting a comment on the blog. I know. I wish blogger would just simplify it because I have trouble posting on other people's blogs as well. But you can always choose to comment as anonymous and then just type your name at the end of your comment

 so I know who you are.

Now I must go get my oatmeal in the crock pot for my breakfast tomorrow morning. I will post about this other breakfast favorite of mine tomorrow.