Chicken broccoli pasta surpise!

Surprise surprise! I managed to fix something that everyone liked. It's a Christmas miracle.  Just a simple past dish and yet everyone ate dinner and there was no complaining.  Now, don't think this means everyone ate all the ingredients. Oh no, of course not. That would be the Christmas miracle to end all Christmas miracles.  Maybe even more miraculous than the birth of Jesus himself. The kids only at the pasta and picked out the chicken and broccoli, but I'm willing to take a victory when I can get one.

So where did I come up with this miraculous dish? I read some blog over on the Huff Post and stole the idea.  All I could remember was that it had chicken, broccoli, penne past and some sort of flavor pack found at Trader Joe's. Since the nearest TJ's to me is probably in another state, I made do with Publix and Aldi, cause I'm cheap like that. And clearly don't love my children enough since I didn't use organic foods and flavor it with love. But, the ate it so I don't care.

So here's what I did: Put the pasta water on to boil. Add penne when it comes to a boil and cook until al dente.  Meanwhile, sprinkle 2 or 3 chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Saute in a skillet with olive oil until browned on both sides.  Add broccoli florets and about 1/4 cup of water so the broccoli will steam a little. When the chicken is done and the broccoli tender add some diced garlic and this nifty little concentrated chicken broth cup thing. It's made by Knorr. It was the magic ingredient. It gave everything lots of flavor and I didn't have to spend time chopping herbs and stuff.  Also, I squeezed a lemon over it all and sliced the chicken into strips when it is fully cooked.

When the pasta was done, I tossed it with the chicken and stuff and topped it all with some Parmesan cheese. Wah-la! Dinner. And it only took about 15 or 20 minutes. And it got eaten and no one whined at me. Amazing.

Pork fried leftovers

I just know you're so glad to see me back after a long hiatus. If anyone thought that I'd stopped blogging because my family had suddenly starting liking food, then you were sadly mistaken. They are still as picky and ungrateful as ever.

Tonight's dinner was an exercise in using up leftover, which my family hates. Bill is the president of the leftovers-belong-to-the-devil club as evidenced by the fact that anytime I say we're having leftovers he decides we need to go out to eat. Since throwing away perfectly good food offends my Depression Era sensibilities and there is a limit to how many leftovers I can personally eat, I'm constantly trying to both prevent leftovers in the first place and to figure out ways to disguise them in the second place. Tonight's attempt was pork fried rice.

Here's what I did:
Cook some rice. While it's cooking take an onion and saute it. When soft, toss in some sliced carrots and some leftover teriyaki pork loin and some diced garlic. Once the pork is heated through, add the cooked rice to the pan. Toss in half a cup or so of frozen peas and add a few glugs of soy sauce and some sesame oil if you've got it. I also added some diced fresh pineapple. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, if desired and serve with more pineapple. Yummy.

And much to my shock and amazement Bill actually like it. Yay! However, Sam completely refused to even try it and fixed himself a bowl of cereal. Ellie and Emma at least picked the pork and pineapple out and picked at the rice. But woe to me for suggesting they let the tiniest bite of vegetable pass their lips, even though they both like carrots. Or at least I thought they did. Ellie informed me that she no longer likes carrots, leaving her with even fewer vegetables that she will consent to eat. Honestly I have no idea how she has managed to stave off scurvy so far.

Of course the end result of dinner was that I have used up one leftover in the creation of a different leftover. Fortunately there isn't much of it left, so I suppose it will be my lunch tomorrow.