Making Your Meals Work Double Time

This was a quick weeknight dinner this week. I pulled out the trusty crock pot and put 2 pounds of frozen chicken tenders in it, then covered it with several cups of leftover organic soup I made earlier in the week.

I put it on low before I went to bed and it was ready to pop in the refrigerator in the morning. The chicken was super tender and shredded really easily. Later that night I came home and popped the chicken and sauce in the microwave, cooked some brown rice (the quick cooking variety leftover from my days of eating processed foods) and steamed some broccoli from our share. I squeezed some lemon juice on top of the broccoli while it was still in the steamer.

I put everything in bowls, then grated some fresh Texas Daily Harvest parmesan on top and added some hot chili sauce (I left the spicy off of the kids' plates). I also added some soy sauce and ladled some of the soup from the crockpot on top.

It took about 20 minutes to put together and was really very good.

The Best Laid Dinner Plans

Doesn't this look good?

Tonight I was excited about dinner. I got something in my Urban Acres share and had to ask my friends on facebook what it was. I posted a picture and learned that I had received bok choy. Stir fry was in my immediate future.

I chopped up some veggies from my share and sauteed them in some garlic and olive oil. (I actually sauteed the buffalo stew meat first. I had marinated it in lemon juice and soy sauce.)Then I threw the veggies, bok choy and shitake mushrooms in the same pan so it would soak up all the juices left over from the meat.

I took a picture of the finished product before I cooked the rice. It's a good thing, too, because I totally scorched the rice. I know better than to leave rice cooking on a gas stove, but I got distracted with making something else and before I knew it, I had this:

That's not wild rice, folks. No, that's charred, burned, crispy brown rice. I ate it, but no one else did. Whoops. Everything else was purty tasty, though.

No complaining here.

Chicken, Rice and Broccoli Bake

This was basically a free for all. In other words, I sort of followed a recipe for Easy Rice Pilaf, but adjusted to make use of more produce and added chicken to make it a one-dish meal. I used the following ingredients:

• Chicken Broth (2 cups)
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 stalk of broccoli, including stem, diced
• 1 cup of long grain brown rice
• 2 tablespoons organic butter
• 3/4 pound chicken breast tenders
• Seasoning of your choice (rub mix, poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, whatever)

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion and broccoli and cook them until the onions are translucent.

Add the brown rice to the pan and cook until it's light brown:

Add the chicken broth and cook until it comes to a low boil:

Add it all to a small baking dish, place the chicken tenders on top. I put some pepper, sea salt and garlic salt, and Memphis Rib Rub on top of the chicken.

After it is assembled, cover it with foil and bake it in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.

We added some shredded cheddar cheese after I took this picture. You can add it or not. But, this was really tasty and there were leftovers for Stephen's lunch.