As I said in my pregnancy update, yesterday I was in a complete brain cloud. My day was spent reacting to all the responsibilities I forgot about. An assignment here. A phone call there. All of sudden I found myself at dinner time with nothing defrosted and barely a desire to cook. But my desire to eat out after this weekend was even less, so I rummaged through the freezer to see what I could find. I haven't gone grocery shopping making supplies low. Real low. I don't even have any fresh onion or garlic in the house!
I did turn to facebook for ideas and loved everyone's thoughts, although most would work for ME, Husband and Child are not quite as easy to please. So I decided to pull out my emergency bag of chicken.
I also found a bag of pearl onions that would solve my no onion problem!
For the garlic, I normally go fresh but I've also learned to keep one of these bad boys in the fridge for those days I have no desire to chop or if I run out of "the good stuff."
Those three things gave me a base to whip together a quick meal that won't go down in the history books but fed my family all the same. The 5 year old liked the chicken and fished out scoops of veggies and rice from around the pearl onions--totally expected. The Husband ate with little complain although he HATES one pot meals. Just another example of how our food tastes are totally opposite. The funny thing is he walked into the kitchen saying,
"MMmmm something smells good! What's for dinner?"
"I dunno, kind of like an Italian chicken skillet with rice and veggies."
To which he replied with a disappointed, "oh."
He's learned not to give me a hard time as I'm the sole cook and I believe in the you-eat-what-you-are-given-or-you-make-it-yourself philosophy. 😉
Here's what I did... 
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 16oz bag of frozen pearl onions
- About a pound of chicken breast or chicken breast tenderloins (mine were frozen)
- 3 tsp minced garlic (about 5-6 cloves)
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- ½ tsp dried rosemary
- 1 15oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 16oz bag of frozen mixed vegetables preferably Italian blend.
- About 2 cups cooked brown rice (I used the 90 second minute kind)
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- Kosher Salt
Heat a large skillet with the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook for a good 5 minutes until they defrost and start to get soft.
Meanwhile place the frozen chicken on a plate and pop in the microwave for about a minute just to soften enough to cut. Cut into chunks and add to the skillet with the garlic.
Cook until the chicken starts to brown. Then add the basil, oregano, thyme and rosemary.
Next is a pantry must for me. I'm rarely with out a few cans of diced tomatoes. They are so useful in a pinch!
Add the can of diced tomatoes and cook until the liquid boils a bit.
Another stock item I always keep on hand. Bags of frozen mixed veggies.
Add the frozen bag of mixed veggies to the skillet.
Stir them in to merge all the flavors and then cover and cook for 3-5 minutes until the veggies defrost.
Another pantry item I try to keep on hand. Cooked brown rice. I stock up when it goes on sale.
I was thinking pasta but honestly, wasn't in the mood to dirty another pot. Sad I know.
Add the rice to the skillet.
Stir all together letting the rice soak up a bit of the liquid.
At this point you need to taste and season accordingly. I added two pinches of kosher salt and 1 tsp each of onion and garlic powders.
In my opinion... a glorious one pot meal!
It really has everything you need. I'll be enjoying the leftovers for lunch today. 🙂
| Servings | Amt per Serving | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | ¼ of the recipe - about 2 cups | |||
| Calories | Fat | Fiber | WWPs | |
| 365 | 5g | 7g | old: 7 | new: 9 |
| Sugar | Sat Fat | Carbs | Protein | |
| 6g | 1g | 46g | 33g | |
Anything that starts with 'one-pot' is my kind of meal;)
I use the frozen bags of brown rice from Trader Joe's. I can make white rice with my eyes closed, but for some reason my brown rice comes out either crunchy or mushy. And since my kids don't like rice (GASP!) and I like it too much, the little pouches are perfect for me and my husband and I can't go overboard on the portion. They take 3 minutes and are perfect!
Oh, and yummy recipe, btw. I see it in my (and my husband's but probably not the kiddos) future. I can see how you can just change up the seasonings and veggies pretty easily and make it an Asian type or even Mexican type rice bowl. My kind of meal.
Sheri - I've been meaning to do this but I've been TOO lazy. Sad, I know. The 90 second stuff actually only has 15mg of sodium. It's just cooked brown rice.
If you get ambitious & want to save $$ (& probably lower the sodium), you can cook up a big batch of brown rice and freeze it into portions just like the bag you bought. It keeps really well in the freezer. I like to cook a double batch when I'm making some anyway and freeze half.
I love meals like this! so healthy and wallet friendly. looks delicious.