HH6 September Challenge, Part 2

As I mentioned a few posts ago, this month's challenge was to prepare a meal using only what you had on hand in your pantry, fridge, and freezer. I posted pictures of  my pantry and freezers, and now it's time to impress you all with what I managed to throw together. (Not really, just giving myself a pep talk...)

After raiding the fridge and pantry, these are the ingredients I came up with: chicken tenderloins, boil-in-a-bag brown rice, frozen broccoli, sugar snap peas, red and green bell peppers, and Philly Cooking Cream. I decided to cook everything but the rice together kind of like a stir fry and serve it with the rice. I really wanted to cook it with pasta and toss it all together, but I only had about a third of a box of spaghetti, and that wasn't nearly enough to feed all of us. 

I cooked it all up and even had enough fruit in the fridge to make a fruit salad. Not the best one ever, but not bad at all for using what I had left from the last grocery run!

I thought it all came together really well, and was really tasty. My mother-in-law said it was missing some spice or something, but I liked it pretty well the way it was. I do wish I could've had pasta, I think that would've been better, but oh well! Maybe I'll buy some of the cooking cream again sometime and do it right.

9/14- Ginger Lime Swordfish.. er.... Tilapia

Yeah, I'm not springing for Swordfish when I've got Tilapia in the freezer! I'm sure it makes a difference, but it seemed this recipe was more about the sauce than the fish so I decided to risk the substitution. I think it was well worth it. The fish was very light, and the sauce was very flavorful. It was delicious served with brown rice, especially when the sauce mixed in with the rice too. My son said it was a bit spicy at first, but then he got used to it and ate it, especially after I squirted some honey on his plate for him to dip the fish in. (He is his father's son.... Joe puts honey on some of the strangest things!) The spiciness was probably my fault since I didn't exactly measure the ginger, I just guesstimated. I thought it was fine, and Joe said it was very good, so clearly guesstimating isn't that bad!

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/ginger-lime-swordfish-10000000479088/

9/13- Baked Sesame Chicken Noodles

Here I go again with the Asian foods! After the Szechuan Steak turned out so good, I figured I actually CAN cook Asian food, so I figured I'd add another one to my repertoire. This one is another fairly easy one, although it does require some prep in the form of chopping veggies and cooking pasta. Once you start the stir-fry, though, it all goes very quickly. Since it bakes, you can cook it a little before dinnertime and then play with the kids while it bakes. :)

Speaking of baking it- let me just say that it was tasty, but I think I would like it better if I skipped that part. Maybe I did something wrong, but baking it seemed to really dry it out for me. When it was fresh off the stove, it was piping hot and deliciously moist. Out of the oven it was of course hot, but it was a bit more dry and sticky looking. I had some leftovers for lunch the next day, and putting soy sauce on it helped considerably, but I still think I'd like it better if I skipped baking it and just served it fresh out of the pot.