What's for Dinner?

"What's for dinner?" If I can answer that question before breakfast, my entire day seems less cluttered. Sometimes it is the nagging question that wiggles its way to my conscience, I think about it for a moment and then it goes away (unanswered). Then it will pop up again, and again and again until I give it some serious thought and attention. If I want to spend a lot of money on dinner, if I want to blow my budget on dinner, or if I don't care what those I love and myself eat then I don't have to answer the question. But for those of you who know me; I don't like wasting money on food, esp. mediocre food, I can't stand what fast food does to my wallet or my waistline, and I do care about the ingredients I use knowing they are going into the bodies of those I love.

I spoke to a friend who told me she defrosted a chicken and wants to know, "now what?" Since I told you that we had plenty of chicken on hand and a lot more meals than money before the end of the month I will tell you what I am doing with chicken. My goal is that at the end of this week they won't be staring at their plates and saying, "chicken again!!! Ugh"

Last night I cooked up some chicken just enough to take the meat off the bones. I think it is best to cook meat in some type of broth; makes for better overall flavor. This meat I cooked in a little soy sauce (I personally think Trader Joe's has some great tasting soy sauce), chicken broth and pepper. After the meat was tender, I removed all the bones and added a can of white kidney beans, black olives (I told you it was the end of the month) and a jar of peppers. To this I added some fresh cilantro and basil, a little more water and let it simmer. Then I happened to have some cream left over from waffles on Saturday morning, so I added this to the mix, then set the pot on warm. The cream will thicken the sauce a little, but be careful too much heat will cause it to separate; it won't hurt the tasted but it may look a little disgusting. This I served over rice, because at this time of the month I have plenty of rice.

A quick word about rice; this is one of those foods that we often forget about because it takes so long to cook when you want dinner on the table in 15 minutes. But rice, bless its heart, can be cooked in the morning while you are taking your shower, feeding the kids, or cleaning up after breakfast and it will wait for you all day long.

Tonight I am thinking chicken enchiladas. I don't have enchilada sauce, but I know how to make tomatoes, or tomato sauce do in a pinch, and no one at my table will be the wiser.