Hezekiah (while eating dinner): Mom, what is this?
Me: I don't know...I just made it up.
Hezekiah: Oh. Did you write the recipe down?
Me: No.
Hezekiah. Oh. Could you please write it down? I really like it.
Me: I have it written in my head.
Hezekiah: Yes! You're the Goodest Mom Ever!
Do you want to be the Goodest Mom Ever? Cause I'm willing to share the recipe :)
I have really failed in the meal planning department lately. It seems like every night I'm scrambling to figure out what I'm going to feed my family the next day. Or worse, in the morning I'm worried about what I'm going to feed them for lunch and dinner.
It doesn't help that our refrigerator recently needed to be repaired. I woke up one morning and noticed nothing in the fridge was cold. That's never a good sign. Thankfully, our groceries were running low anyway, so we didn't lose too much. But still.
So yesterday morning I realized I hadn't planned anything for dinner. I took a frozen roast out of the freezer and tossed it in the crockpot. I figured I had a fifty-fifty chance of it being done in time for dinner. About four o'clock I checked and low and behold, it was cooked!
Now I had the dilemma of how to make this tiny, shrunken four pound roast feed my hungry family. I cooked a small pot of rice (half the usual amount), and tossed some corn tortillas in the other crockpot to warm. I sprinkled a bit of taco seasoning in on the roast, dumped in some chopped green chilis and mixed in the cooked rice. We loaded the meat and rice mixture into the tortillas and called it good. You know Hezekiah's reaction to this meal. It got a thumbs up from everyone (okay, from everyone I asked and I didn't ask everyone- but still it was a real winner).
We didn't have any toppings to add (that whole refrigerator thing) but it would have been superb with the regular taco toppings such as: olives, salsa, shredded lettuce, cheese, avocado etc. I plan to try this next week with extras to go on top and some chips and refried beans as a side dish.
A note on recipes: I recently had a blog reader ask for my beef stew recipe. The thing is, I don't use a recipe for my beef stew, chicken soup, chili, etc. I just throw things together until it tastes good. With my beef stew, I toss the stewing beef in flour, garlic salt and pepper. I brown this in a bit of oil. Then I throw that into the crock pot, add garlic, onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, etc. I cook it all day on high (turning it down when the meat is cooked) and add barley the last half an hour or so.
