Food Musings

When you're a frazzled teacher, sometimes the last thing you want to do after coming home from school is cook.  But eating at restaurants, fast food or otherwise is not only expensive but not that great for your diet.  I am trying my best to develop healthy eating habits and save money.  I also really like to cook, so it's also a nice stress reliever for me to cook.

I've found that I like to have a couple of "go-to" dishes to fix.  These are dishes that are not only tasty to me but also simple to make.  I try to keep the ingredients for these dishes on hand (I stock up when the grocery stores do their 10 for $10 sales) so that I don't have to stop by the store on the way home.

Here are the ingredients I always try to keep...

• Frozen vegetables, corn, green beans, broccoli, carrots, chopped onions.  You can add these to almost anything to not only up the nutrition but also it just adds more substance to the meal.  My local grocery stores generally do theirs on a 10 for $10 special at least once a month.
• Salsa.  You can add it to anything to add a serving of veggies.
• Chicken broth or bouillon cubes.  I prefer the broth but if I run out I use a bouillon cube.  Adds flavor to pasta if you cook the pasta with it.
• Flour tortillas 
• Tortilla chips
• Prepackaged pasta-and-sauce or rice-and-sauce.  You can add chicken and vegetables to them and have a fairly healthy meal.
• Frozen chicken breast tenderloins
• Canned chicken

So here are 2 of my favorite go-to dishes.  I'm not giving any measurements or amounts, just a general idea for cooking.

The first is a pasta dish.  I cook whatever pasta I have on hand with chicken broth.  I personally like the tri-colored rotini.  While the pasta is cooking, I sauté some mushrooms in olive oil or butter, cook up some frozen broccoli, and maybe some other vegetables.  Sometimes I will grill a couple of chicken tenderloins on my George Foreman grill.  Drain the pasta, add the vegetables and chicken.  Add parmesan cheese to taste and enjoy.

The second is an "all-purpose" nacho/taco/burrito/whatever filling.  I got the idea from this from a cooking show...the celebrity cook was making baked taquitos.  First, sauté some onions in oil with chili powder.  Add frozen corn after the onions start to get soft.  Then, add precooked chicken.  I have used leftover rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, canned chicken, and even pre-grilled some chicken tenderloins.  I honestly like using the canned chicken because it shreds up better, but you want to make sure you drain off the liquid if you use canned.  You want the chicken to have a shredded consistency.  Add salsa and cook until the liquid reduces.  I have also added rice to this.  Usually I either top it with shredded cheese and eat with tortilla chips or fill tortillas with it and cheese.  Add any other garnishes you like, sour cream, guacamole, fresh vegetables, etc.

I have become addicted to Pinterest and have seen a lot of great cooking ideas on there.  My "Foodliness" board is right here.