What you have on hand

How many times do you sit down to decide what is dinner...and...you sit there? Nothing coming to mind. You pencil in a few ideas, get excited and then go to the pantry and fridge and realize you don't have ANY of the ingredients needed.

This happens to (almost) everyone at one point or another. It happens in my house at least once every couple of weeks. So if a major (2 hour, multiple cart) grocery store trip is not in the plans within the days to come, what is a person to do? Well let what you have on hand be the driver of what is for supper.

I intentionally approached a couple of meals in the past week this way and using what I had already at home, along with a couple of Tastefully Simple products which impart great flavor (sometimes allowing you to sub out multiple ingredients) it all worked.

Pork, Veggies and Rice
Ah, the infamous one-pan wonder of a meal! I found some ground pork in the freezer (but can be any ground meat) and browned that using Tastefully Simple's Seasoned Salt. While the meat was browning, I cooked up the rice. When both were done, I combined them into the same pan and poured in Sweet Mesquite Slow Cooker Sauce. While the all of this was simmering on low to allow flavors to come together, I prepared broccoli (again, any veggie would work). Upon the broccoli being ready, I added this to the dish, allowed for 15 minutes more to come together and it was ready to serve.

This dish takes very little time, as you can see involved 5 items I had in the house and took very few steps. When it was done, the ultimate compliment is of course those eating it wanting another serving and it was unanimous there, too.

Chicken Enchilada Soup
Soup is the classic go-to if you have a handful of ingredients that might not seem to go together at first, but can be pulled together to make work. And this is what happened the other night.

I found the following in the fridge: leftover green onions, leftover cilantro, leftover enchilada sauce

I found the following in the pantry: stewed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, canned chicken

I had the following Tastefully Simple products on hand: Wahoo Chili Seasoning Blend, Corn and Black Bean Salsa

I took the following steps to turn this into a meal: combined it all in a crock pot, let it roll on low for 2 to 3 hours.

If desired, this can be served with tortilla chips, topped with shredded cheese and/or sour cream.

Seriously, this was a soup I started building in my head after scanning my resources. And this dish especially is what I love about cooking.