Pantry Challenge: A quick dinner from just the ingredients on hand
I have a lot of random things in my fridge and pantry right now and I hate wasting food. I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I really do. Well, I failed to plan out any meals this week, so I decided to do a little pantry challenge. And the result was something I would actually like to make again, so here is my very precise recipe:
Here’s what I used:
-The rest of a box of whole wheat penne (a little less than a cup)
-2 Tsp garlic powder (I was going to use the real thing, but I was hasty and burnt my last four cloves)
-8oz can of white meat chicken (I’ve never used canned chicken for anything but chicken salad before, and always stick my nose up at Courtney when he tells me he puts it in his pasta creations, but we’re working with what’s on hand; rules are rules)
-1/2 cup goat cheese
-Rest of a can of chickpeas left over from last weeks couscous recipe (about 1/2 cup)
-1 Tbsp olive oil
-1.5 cups frozen broccoli
-Lemon juice
-Salt & Pepper
Here’s how I did it (I’ll leave out the burning of the garlic):
Heat the olive oil in a pan. Add canned chicken, chickpeas, garlic powder and broccoli, mostly thawed. Slowly cook over low heat while scrambling around the because you forgot to start the water for the noodles.
Add salt and pepper to chicken mixture, to taste (or in my case nine turns of the pepper because I really like pepper and really hate even numbers). Combine noodles and chicken mixture; add two good size squirts of lemon juice and goat cheese.
Serves two! (Or in my case, me for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow).
Also, if anyone is wonder what the heck I’m doing at home participating in solo pantry challenges instead of out drinking a green beer, that would be because I’m old. But I am going to make this Car Bomb cupcake recipe tonight for the Pink Palace’s St. Patty’s Day party tomorrow night!
