For one reason or another, I hadn't made a real dinner in a while, so I thought I'd surprise Mike and have dinner ready when he got home on Tuesday. Well, dinner was ready for us, but were we ready for dinner? Not quite.
Since I didn't have anything in mind (we were out of staples like cheese, chicken, and hamburger), I decided to just choose a few things we did have and throw them together. I used the ingredient search on allrecipes.com to get some ideas of what I could do with rice and frozen spinach (inherited when my sister moved). I got a few ideas and then went out on my own (partly for lack of necessary ingredients, partly because neither of the recipes looked like it would make enough for my man). Add some cream of chicken, milk, onions, parmesan, saltines, and pepper to that rice (lots of rice) and spinach and you'll have the gluiest, blandest casserole on the planet. My plan to disguise Popeye's favorite ingredient by putting it in a casserole failed miserably. The only thing you could taste was the spinach. I tried to convince myself of the nutritional value and just choke it down, but couldn't manage more than a few bites. Mike, on the other hand, is a trooper (sadly, a trooper with a big appetite). He packed away two helpings (plus what I shoveled from my plate onto his when he was distracted by the baby). So now we're left with 2/3 of a pan of Spinach Rice Mush. We're not ones to waste food (Mike would eat it all cold before letting me throw it away), so any ideas on how we can transform this into something palatable? I figure we can always just add cheese. Lots of cheese.
The kitchen curse continued today. I like to make treats from scratch, but since I was wearing Eliza while she napped in the Moby Wrap, I figured I had better take a shortcut if I wanted to see the fruits (cookies) of my labor. I found a cookie mix that I got on sale for $.50 a while ago and thought I'd give it a shot. After all, how can you go wrong with anything that says "double chocolate." As I was digging through the cupboard I found some fruity mini marshmallows and though they would look cute in the cookies. On the contrary! These are probably the most un-cute cookies I have ever made (they don't taste nearly as bad as they look, fortunately). I'm not sure what I was thinking? Anyone knows those poor little guys, while they maybe colorful and cute, can't endure the heat of 4 seconds in the microwave, let alone a 350 degree oven! They melted and made quite a mess. They look... well, you can see for yourself.
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9 comments:
I think it is something with the hormones. Both during pregnancy and after all my girls are born I turn into a wreck in the kitchen. I can usually hold my own with cooking, especially baking. I have had far too many burned cookies, forgotten dinners burning on the stovetop, and recipes just not turning out after having kiddos. Hormones is all I can think . . . . . it’s better than thinking I just cannot function anymore! Don’t worry though, if you are like me it will all clear up and suddenly your dinners will be yummy again! It was so bad around here with Maddie’s pregnancy Tyler even noticed enough to comment!
You could be like Becky’s mom and throw the casserole leftovers into the next batch of whole wheat bread.
Those cookies do look like they taste good though. Now you’ve woken up my sweet tooth. Hmmm.
Thanks for the hope that this won’t last forever, Jen (I don’t know if that’s what you go by now… that’s what Mike, or should I say “Michael,” calls you).
Are you serious Dalene? That is very…. resourceful. It sounds like a recipe for another disasterous “Steph-speriment.” I would be happy to send the casserole Becky’s mom’s way though! (Is this Becky from work?)
you are so hilarious. i can just see you planning the whole thing out and then seeing the final project falling apart when you take it out. as for the casserole i would dump it. reheating it or ruining something else with it will only waste more food and money. the cookies are funny too. don’t mess with a good thing by adding funny colored smarshmellows to it.
Thanks for this post! I loved it! You totally cracked me up and made me think of my own kitchen disasters. Thanks for having the courage to share in such a public setting!! My disasters, though, always seem to happen when we are having company over. . .
Oh Steph! Marshmallows worked in the s’mores cake of yesteryear. :)
It is good to be resourceful in the kitchen, but it is also good to cut your losses sometimes and just throw it out.
If you really don’t want to waste it, you could take it to a pig/goat farm…they eat anything.
Or compost it in your garden?
It wasn’t a waste anyhow… we all got a good laugh (with you, of course).
hey i heard you were the new primary president. way to go!
Just so you all know…. I dumped the spinach rice disaster before we put the trash out on Monday. Mike didn’t even object. I think Tanya’s comment made us realize it was a lost cause. Good idea about the goats. Unfortunately (but really fortunately) none of our neighbors have goats or pigs.
Wow Tanya… who is your informant? Word gets out fast! With that kind of quick info you’re probably more in the loop being hundred of miles away than I am right here (though that’s probably not saying much)!
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