Day 2 - 6:15 and what's for dinner?

Today is my Weight Watchers meeting after work and I get home at about 6:15.  It's Day 2 of "the Challenge" and I'm ready to tackle the task of the hour ~ dinner in less than 1/2 hour with what's in the pantry/freezer/fridge.

There were 2 chicken breasts left in the freezer.  I had brown rice in the pantry.  I had some celery, onion and yellow pepper left in the fridge.  A drawer in the pantry cupboard revealed a package of Taco Seasoning...hmmmm.  Oh look...there's opened Salsa in the fridge needing to be emptied.

Brown rice always takes about 40 minutes so I put that on and then had some time to mull over the various options given the ingredients I have on hand.

In less than 1/2 hour I had my 19 year old son begging to know what smelled so good.  Saute the onions, the pepper and celery.  Add the chopped up chicken breasts.  Add the taco seasoning.  Add the salsa and a bit of water to make it more saucy and let it simmer until the brown rice was done.  This is not what I envisioned when I was thinking of brown rice + chicken + ? = dinner.  I had something entirely different in my mind.  Isn't cooking creative?  One ingredient leads to another and voila!  Dinner is ready.

Pull out the shallow bowls; start with the brown rice and top with my chicken fiesta (?)  Does that sound feasible?  It sure was tasty.  The salsa was a bit hot for my taste but hey...it's gone!  Also, I had some limes cut up in the fridge and they were just the ticket to finish off tonight's dinner.  A little squeeze of lime juice just added a nice tang.  The only thing I wished I had was some cilantro.  Nobody but me missed it.

Out of pocket costs for dinner:  zilch!
Benefits:  Lofat dinner; healthy brown rice; satisfying; happy family; inventory reduction!!  Woo hoo!

For day 3 - fresh veggies are getting depleted so it may be a challenge to make dinner from the freezer tomorrow, but I'm up for the challenge.

Bon Appetit!
Mavis