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Cleaning House

I've been playing iron chef at the house this week.  I'm trying to clean out our cabinets/freezer/fridge of everything, so we can start shopping again.

Saturday was chicken sausage on the grill with butternut squash 'fries', not adventurous, and not taking a lot of thought to whip up.

Sunday was salmon, rubbed with a blackened seasoning that I whipped up (sure I whipped up a spice mixture, no big deal, super easy/super fast).  The salmon was then glazed with a maple/soy sauce/Thai chili sauce mixture.  These were supposed to go on the grill, but we ran out of propane, fortunately, the broiler worked just fine.  To go with the salmon I whipped up some roasted broccoli and the best part, cheesy egg noodles and quinoa.  I will re-create THAT recipe soon and post it on here.  Just know I started it with a pseudo Alfredo sauce (roux mixed with coconut/almond milk... with a touch of buttermilk powder mixed in for a slight tang.  Then added a bunch of Parmesan and some goat cheese).  Then I cooked up some egg noodles and quinoa (1/3 egg noodles 2/3 quinoa).  Tell you what, I couldn't get enough of this stuff, and it went really well with the rest of the meal.

Monday night, I went simple.  We had some left over skinnytaste slow cooker picadillo (check it out, cook it, it's amazing).  I ended up re-spicing it with some chili powder, cumin, garlic and onion powder, a tiny bit of ground cinnamon and some cilantro.  I sauteed up some onions and peppers and put everything on a flour tortilla along with some cheese to make quesadillas.  Served with some salsa and some hot sauce, it was a hit.

Last night was by far my most creative use of cabinet/freezer/fridge food this week.  I had limited energy after having run in 2000% humidity so I was looking for easy.  I ended up with a can of chicken gumbo soup, quinoa (we're a little quinoa obsessed at the house), chicken thighs and turkey breakfast sausage.  I drained off the soup liquid and added some chicken broth to cook the quinoa.  While that was cooking, I seasoned up the chicken thigh (garlic and onion powder, old bay, some random pepper spice mixture that I bought on a whim and salt and pepper), cooked it up along side onions and peppers.  Dropped in the pre-cooked turkey sausage, and then poured the drained soup and cooked quinoa into the pan.  Let all that simmer together for a bit and voila ... Gumbalaya! I thought I was super creative and made up that word, turns out, not so much.  This might actually be a recipe I recreate and actually write down so I can post it (eventually).

I still have a couple more days that I should use up what's in the freezer, but I'm feeling a little homesick, so may make one of my comfort foods for dinner, tater tot casserole.  Not the healthiest thing in the world, but I'll lighten it up the best I can, and then we'll enjoy every last bite!


Gumbalaya




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