Sunday night...

I just have to mention how glad I am that my boyfriend cooked dinner for me. I worked Sunday night, and didn't get out until 9:30PM, an hour later than usual. I arrived home after getting some gas, a soda and a Slurpee from 7-11, with the thought that I really didn't want to cook. Thank God, he thought of that and went ahead with making our dinner, as well as enough food for the next few days.

We had tacos Sunday night. :)

He browned the meat. Then put the meat on a tray with some diced tomatoes, chopped onions, and cubed avocado. He even remember to pic up some fresh salsa from the grocery store. All I really had to do when I arrived home was heat up the taco shells and add water with taco seasoning to the meat. 10 minutes and dinner was served. I actually got to sit down as he brought it to me. Hmm, third night in a row he's brought me dinner, I wonder what he wants? Lol ;-)

Monday for dinner will consist of Spaghetti with meat sauce, that turned out really well. He did cheat a little with some Tomato sauce that I bought, Barilla Green and Black Olive, but then added sautéed mushroom chunks and onions, green peppers, and the nicely browned meat. (For lunch we will have the spaghetti with a clam sauce variant, yes from canned clams, but it's still so good.) ;-P

:-*  Thank you so much my Darling Dearest. *HUGS*

Gumbo, possibly.

Here's a really simple creation for someone who has lots of mouths to feed but not too much time to stand around the kitchen cooking.

It all starts with knowing how to make rice. (I use brown rice as it isn't bleached, but white rice is good too.) Use 1 part rice to 2.25 parts water, the little extra water means more cooking time but softer rice too.

Chop one portuguese sausage, and drop it in with the rice along with some seasonings. I use cajun seasoning as well as a dash of crushed peppers (leave out for less spiciness,) an Italian blend, cumin, and oregano. Then I put about a tsp of whole peppercorn and 2 tsp sea salt. Blend it all together in an Hatachi (slow cooker) or pot, and put the heat to high. Cover the pot and check on it occasionally to stir. After about 13min, add chopped veggies. You can use the frozen soup mix that has corn, chopped green and red peppers, and ocra. Stir and then cover once more while lowering the heat to low-med.

In a saucepan add a few tsp of real butter... then stir-fry: some onions, mushrooms and some more sausage. Once browned and cooked to taste, stir this into pot of rice mixture. When rice is nearly done (about 15 minutes,) bottom will start to stick. Just stir it and reduce temperature to low or turn off.

Depending on how much rice you make, will depend on the amount of people it will feed and for how long. When I make it I use about 2^ cups of rice and we usually have leftovers for around 4 days. (Eat before day 5.)

For a breakfast change, add a serving spoonful of this to a plate of fried eggs and sautéed veggies. Just don't eat very often as it's high in cholesterol.

*Seafood may also be added in. Shrimp around the last 5 minutes, but I always cut a few up to put it in the very beginning to liven up the flavor. Clams should be put in the very beginning. Remember that once you add seafood, the fridge-life will decrease a couple days as seafood goes bad quickly.