Mid-Week Minute

My dad has told me he wishes I would do more than one post a week, which has been laughable up to now because I've barely had time to do that one post. But I've gotten in a pretty good routine now so I think I'll have time to do a short one mid-week. It's not going to be what he wants, which is Wilder updates, because I want to keep those all nicely packaged into my Friday "Life of Wilder" posts. They'll be just different tidbits, other stuff going on in the week, what's for dinner, etc. and I'm going to try to keep them short, hence the title "Mid-Week Minute." Also, I can't promise that I'll be able to do them every week so don't hold me to it! :)

This week I've been exploring some new recipes. I've always been the casserole/meat and potatoes/occasional fajitas type of cook but if I have to even think about making another Cheesy Broccoli Chicken casserole I might throw up. I don't know what prompted this new direction in my culinary repertoire but I do know that Paul could not be more thrilled -- he hates eating the same thing over and over. Anyway, so I knew I was going to be buying a lot of new ingredients so I wanted to clean out the pantry a little and make room. We all have canned stuff and other ingredients that we've randomly bought that just hang around until they go bad so I decided to go out on a limb and try making a stew with some of them. What I ended up with was absolutely delicious if I do say so myself...

Hodge Podge Stew

One can chicken broth

One can pinto beans

One can stewed tomatoes

One leftover yellow heirloom tomato from the farmer's mkt.

Two chicken breasts cut up and sauteed

One Italian sausage cut up and sauteed

Chopped onion sauteed with meat

Sliced carrots

Frozen corn

Leftover cooked rice

Basil, thyme, salt and pepper

Add some cornbread muffins and you've got yourself a meal or two.

I was so proud of myself for coming up with something different and for using up some old ingredients instead of throwing them out! Alright, see you back here on Friday for Wilder's 17-week update including his 4-month checkup where he may or may not have peed on the doctor ;)