Fast Food at Home
Last week was full of busy days filled to the brim. If we lived in town, come supper time we would have taken full advantage of drive thru and take out. Since we live quite far from town, we went with fast and filling comfort food from home. Granted not every meal was completely from scratch nor would they have made the top of the healthy eating list. They were, however, perfect for busy days and nights when the priority was simply settling down and having a meal to eat that didn't take long to prepare.
None of our "fast food" eats would have been possible without a few convenience foods from the pantry and a few cooking basics. As I was preparing one of our quick and easy meals, I realized how thankful I was for basic cooking know-how and those convenient items in the pantry. None of the "life-saving" ingredients or cooking are complicated or gourmet. Honestly, the pantry ingredients are rarely in our pantry because they usually seem unnecessary to me. It seems almost like a lazy extravagance for me, an able-bodied woman who knows how to cook and is home all day, to buy canned chicken or bottled sauce when I know how to make them myself, but last week these "extravagances" were a convenience worth their weight in gold.
Creamed chicken over biscuits is the bite of simple yumminess that awakened me, the first time, to how thankful I was for the cans of chicken in the pantry. One of the cooking basics that stirred up my gratitude was a simple white sauce. A few tablespoons of melted butter combined with an equal amount of flour bubbled in the pan for a couple of minutes before the liquid from the canned chicken was stirred in. I added a bit of water to the liquid to come up with the twice as much liquid as flour ratio I like to use for thickening sauces. It didn't take long for this mixture to begin thickening. Salt and pepper were added to taste before a bag of frozen peas were tossed in to make me feel better by having veggies included.
After the mixture had become a little thicker than it would be at the end, cream/milk was stirred in for added richness. Cream is unsung hero of this dish. This thinned the sauce to the desired consistency. With frequent stirring to prevent scorching our cream sauce was cooked to the desired temperature. The reserved chicken meat was gently stirred in right at the last and heated through. It seems to break down into shredded chicken if I add it too early in the cooking process. In dishes likes chicken tortilla soup that isn't a big deal, but I prefer chunks of meat in my creamed chicken. Our creamed chicken sauce took so little time to make that we ended up having to wait a few minutes for our biscuits to finish baking. They were a very basic baking powder biscuit and were put in the oven right before starting our creamed chicken. Following a full and busy day, creamed chicken over biscuits was like a warm blanket of love spreading its soothing warmth over our busy minds and weary bodies. The homemade biscuits didn't hurt either.
A few days later, canned chicken saved the day again. This time, several cans were put in a skillet, seasoned with garlic powder, and heated until extremely hot. When the chicken was just beginning to brown, a jar of Kung Pao sauce was added and cooked until heated through. It would have tasted better had it been made from scratch, but I was in a hurry and this bottle of sauce was on the pantry shelf. Sometimes the ingredient we most need is time, and that handy little bottle gave me just that. The Kung Pao chicken was then served over rice that had been cooked in the rice cooker.
Now here is where the meal gets a little off center. Before I saw the chicken and Kung Pao sauce in the pantry, I was trying to figure out what to fix for supper. While perusing the contents of the fridge, I saw two heads of cauliflower that needed using. These were rescued from the fridge, chopped up, oiled, seasoned, and put in the oven to roast while I surveyed the pantry trying to figure out what else to have, besides roasted cauliflower. Because it takes longer for veggies to roast than it does to stir up a quick sauce from convenient items in the pantry, I might have forgotten the cauliflower was in the oven until the sauce was almost done. By that time, it was too late to change course. A mish mash of dishes supper would be.
Now I haven't ever seen roasted cauliflower used as an ingredient at an Asian restaurant, but believe it or not, it was really good stirred into the Kung Pao chicken and rice, and I'm not the only one who thought so. It added a wonderful crunch and the flavors didn't clash at all. I served the roasted cauliflower separately from the Kung Pao chicken. The stirring together was done individually by various eaters. For some, it was an attempt to make the cauliflower go down easier. For others like myself it was the direct result of an "I wonder what it would taste like if..." thought. Even though I didn't think the two went together when I made them the other night, I would serve them together again, if I had cauliflower that needed rescuing.
Sometimes time truly is the most needed ingredient. I know how to cook chicken and can do so should the need arise, but on those busy nights, the convenience of having a hot, satisfying meal that came together quickly and easily after a busy day was far more valuable than one prepared completely from scratch. Not every night is a "fast food" night, but when it is, a few basics are definitely something to be thankful for. Whether it's cans of chicken, plain old biscuits, a bottle of Kung Pao sauce, or a simple cream sauce, fast food can be made at home, with love. Never forget the love; it's the most important ingredient of all.
On a side note: the creamed chicken could have been combined with rice as a casserole, with noodles or pasta for a creamy soup, or served over baked or mashed potatoes. It is extremely versatile. A bit more garlic or other seasonings would have created an entirely different flavor, and any combination of veggies could have been used as well. Some cheese and broccoli instead of the peas would have made a deliciously filling soup or a casserole if combined with rice. Mmmmm, there is broccoli in the freezer and a few more cans of chicken in the pantry. Why does lunch suddenly seem so far away?
None of our "fast food" eats would have been possible without a few convenience foods from the pantry and a few cooking basics. As I was preparing one of our quick and easy meals, I realized how thankful I was for basic cooking know-how and those convenient items in the pantry. None of the "life-saving" ingredients or cooking are complicated or gourmet. Honestly, the pantry ingredients are rarely in our pantry because they usually seem unnecessary to me. It seems almost like a lazy extravagance for me, an able-bodied woman who knows how to cook and is home all day, to buy canned chicken or bottled sauce when I know how to make them myself, but last week these "extravagances" were a convenience worth their weight in gold.
Creamed chicken over biscuits is the bite of simple yumminess that awakened me, the first time, to how thankful I was for the cans of chicken in the pantry. One of the cooking basics that stirred up my gratitude was a simple white sauce. A few tablespoons of melted butter combined with an equal amount of flour bubbled in the pan for a couple of minutes before the liquid from the canned chicken was stirred in. I added a bit of water to the liquid to come up with the twice as much liquid as flour ratio I like to use for thickening sauces. It didn't take long for this mixture to begin thickening. Salt and pepper were added to taste before a bag of frozen peas were tossed in to make me feel better by having veggies included.
After the mixture had become a little thicker than it would be at the end, cream/milk was stirred in for added richness. Cream is unsung hero of this dish. This thinned the sauce to the desired consistency. With frequent stirring to prevent scorching our cream sauce was cooked to the desired temperature. The reserved chicken meat was gently stirred in right at the last and heated through. It seems to break down into shredded chicken if I add it too early in the cooking process. In dishes likes chicken tortilla soup that isn't a big deal, but I prefer chunks of meat in my creamed chicken. Our creamed chicken sauce took so little time to make that we ended up having to wait a few minutes for our biscuits to finish baking. They were a very basic baking powder biscuit and were put in the oven right before starting our creamed chicken. Following a full and busy day, creamed chicken over biscuits was like a warm blanket of love spreading its soothing warmth over our busy minds and weary bodies. The homemade biscuits didn't hurt either.
A few days later, canned chicken saved the day again. This time, several cans were put in a skillet, seasoned with garlic powder, and heated until extremely hot. When the chicken was just beginning to brown, a jar of Kung Pao sauce was added and cooked until heated through. It would have tasted better had it been made from scratch, but I was in a hurry and this bottle of sauce was on the pantry shelf. Sometimes the ingredient we most need is time, and that handy little bottle gave me just that. The Kung Pao chicken was then served over rice that had been cooked in the rice cooker.
Now here is where the meal gets a little off center. Before I saw the chicken and Kung Pao sauce in the pantry, I was trying to figure out what to fix for supper. While perusing the contents of the fridge, I saw two heads of cauliflower that needed using. These were rescued from the fridge, chopped up, oiled, seasoned, and put in the oven to roast while I surveyed the pantry trying to figure out what else to have, besides roasted cauliflower. Because it takes longer for veggies to roast than it does to stir up a quick sauce from convenient items in the pantry, I might have forgotten the cauliflower was in the oven until the sauce was almost done. By that time, it was too late to change course. A mish mash of dishes supper would be.
Now I haven't ever seen roasted cauliflower used as an ingredient at an Asian restaurant, but believe it or not, it was really good stirred into the Kung Pao chicken and rice, and I'm not the only one who thought so. It added a wonderful crunch and the flavors didn't clash at all. I served the roasted cauliflower separately from the Kung Pao chicken. The stirring together was done individually by various eaters. For some, it was an attempt to make the cauliflower go down easier. For others like myself it was the direct result of an "I wonder what it would taste like if..." thought. Even though I didn't think the two went together when I made them the other night, I would serve them together again, if I had cauliflower that needed rescuing.
Sometimes time truly is the most needed ingredient. I know how to cook chicken and can do so should the need arise, but on those busy nights, the convenience of having a hot, satisfying meal that came together quickly and easily after a busy day was far more valuable than one prepared completely from scratch. Not every night is a "fast food" night, but when it is, a few basics are definitely something to be thankful for. Whether it's cans of chicken, plain old biscuits, a bottle of Kung Pao sauce, or a simple cream sauce, fast food can be made at home, with love. Never forget the love; it's the most important ingredient of all.
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On a side note: the creamed chicken could have been combined with rice as a casserole, with noodles or pasta for a creamy soup, or served over baked or mashed potatoes. It is extremely versatile. A bit more garlic or other seasonings would have created an entirely different flavor, and any combination of veggies could have been used as well. Some cheese and broccoli instead of the peas would have made a deliciously filling soup or a casserole if combined with rice. Mmmmm, there is broccoli in the freezer and a few more cans of chicken in the pantry. Why does lunch suddenly seem so far away?