Lately, the end of the month has meant slim pickings food wise around here. These boys just eat far too much. I hear “I’m still hungry” after every meal and snack. It’s maddening and rough on the grocery budget. (And for the record, I will be discussing a grocery budget raise with Nick because this is getting just silly.)
Considering June just ended I had to get creative with dinners the last couple of nights. Normally pasta is my “go-to” end of the month meal, but I was (gasp) out! Wednesday night I got a little creative with some left overs and the grill. I didn’t take any pictures because I didn’t think it was anything special, and honestly I was a little concerned with whether or not it would even be edible.
Know what I heard 2 minutes into dinner?
“Mommy, this is really good!”
What?! The boys very, very rarely utter that statement. Not that my cooking is bad, it just never occurs to them to compliment me on a meal.
Beef Casserole On The Grill Thingys
How’s that for a description?
Here’s what I did:
Placed 5 sections of tin foil on my counter and pre-heated the grill.
In the middle of each section of foil I placed the following:
A scoop of left over rice
Some left over chopped onions
Some chopped, frozen broccoli
Some uncooked ground beef
Some left over shredded cheese (a mix of cheddar and “pizza”, whatever that is)
That’s it. I folded the packets up and put them on the grill over medium heat. Cooked them for about 15 minutes (did not flip them) and then let my family eat right out of the foil packet!
End of the Month Crock Pot Surprise
This is what we had last night, and again – no pictures. I lifted the lid a few times throughout the day to stir or add more ingredients and each time Tyler would ask “What’s that smell? It smells very, very good.”
Maybe I should always cook on the fly and make things up…
At about 11 yesterday morning I put a package of completely frozen, boneless skinless chicken breasts in the crock pot, along with a can of chicken broth, a can of diced tomatoes (undrained), about a cup of uncooked black beans and a healthy scoop of chopped garlic.
I cooked all of that on high for only one hour, when I then turned it down to cook on low.
About 2 hours after I switched it to low, I peeked in and saw the beans were soaking up all of the liquid so I added a cup of water.
When I had about an hour to go before dinner I added in half a block of cream cheese. 30 minutes later I used a couple of forks to “tear” the chicken up a bit and stir the cream cheese.
The end result smelled good, tasted good but didn’t look very good. The black beans turned everything an odd purple color. Everything was eaten though!
Just because it looks like there’s not much to use for dinner in your house doesn’t mean you can’t come up with something creative and tasty!
They sound fun and easy. Thanks for sharing. 🙂