A Winning Kitchen Strategy

Okay, by and large, I'm a pretty patient person. I don't need things to go at lightening speed (ha! clearly ...), I don't usually mind waiting in line, etc. However, where I do need some speed in my world is when I'm the one in charge of dinner because, frankly, unless I have absolutely nothing else I need or want to do (umm ... when would that be ...), making meals needs to not take much time. I'm not a huge fan of the cooking process, so I like to get in and get out of the kitchen as soon as possible.

But, as we all know, fast choices in the kitchen tend to be bad choices. However, Hungry Girl, yet again, recently provided me (through her show ... she doesn't periodically show up at the door) a great idea that both matches my need for relative speed and has a tasty outcome!

Okay, you know those single-serving microwave meals that are, indeed, a single serving but are hardly a meal? (just sayin') My pretend-friend Hungry Girl suggests taking one of those meals to use as a base, then bulk it up to make an actual meal for the whole family! Last night was the second night we did this, and both results were fabulous! Check it out!

A few weeks ago, Aaron and I stumbled upon these microwave meals on sale for a dollar, so we bought a few with this dinner idea in mind. You probably can't see it, but right there on the package it says "taste beyond words." That made me laugh. You also can't see inside that package where about 3 pieces of chicken, each smaller than any of my fingers, are hanging out. I'm totally not making that up, either, so it's a good thing my plan last night was to bulk up the chicken situation!

There's plenty of seasoning and sauce in those meals, so a lot
of that part is taken care of for you. On the right is the chicken
I marinaded in reduced sodium soy sauce, a splash of rice
vinegar and a whole mess of garlic powder. The chicken was
actually already cooked, so I will just have to warm this up.

PC#3 in particular is a huge fan of Asian noodles, so I made those, too. For the sauce, I used:

• about a half cup of reduced sodium soy sauce
• too much rice vinegar, so I'll tell you I should have used about 2 tablespoons
• at least a tablespoon of garlic powder
• a little more than a teaspoon of ginger
• a teaspoon of oil
• about a tablespoon of corn starch although I could have used more to thicken

You can see I don't do much by way of measuring when I don't have to. Spicing is to taste anyway, so I tend to eyeball it.

While I made the dressing, the noodles did their thing in the pot.

So happy Aldi brought in whole grain
pasta and rice! That's awesome and totally
factors in to making it worth shopping
there even when all of my stuff gets
hurled with reckless abandon into my
cart by the cashier.

Since the sauce takes about a minute to make, it was done well before the noodles which left plenty of time to microwave the box meals and heat up the marinading chicken. And, once everything was hot, into a bowl went the single-serve meals and the additional chicken ...

I kind of wish I'd taken a pic prior to adding my chicken so you
could see what came out of the package. The phrase "needle in
a haystack" comes to mind!

I originally put the other noodes to the side on my plate, but I ultimately mixed mine, and it was dee-lish! Served with an order of Hungry Girl's Crab Rangoonies (love those!! If you like crab rangoon, TRY THESE!!!) and some orange slices, and the plates around the table were cleaned before I knew it with everyone asking for more (which wasn't there, but it was nice to be asked)!

The last time we did the bulk-up-the-single-serve-dinner thing, I added 2 small chicken breasts and also chopped (otherwise known as pulverized) a whole mess of broccoli and stirred it in. That, too, was very yummy!

Using the bulk-up-the-meal strategy is a great one because not only is it tasty (someone else already did most of the tasty part for you!), but it's also easy because you can take the bulk-up cues from the packaged meal if you're not sure what to add. Clearly, including a lot of meat is not the priority of the meal packaging place, so that might be the first consideration! This is also a great way to sneak in more veggies especially in someone (or youself) isn't the biggest fan!

I hope this finds as much success at your house as it has ours! I do love a success in the kitchen! Have a great Friday, and there will be more from Rest Week tomorrow!!