This Eating Down the Fridge week has been very different than the last one. It doesn’t bode well that I’m just getting around to my first post and the week is half over.
This ended up being particularly bad timing for us. The Spouse had a last-minute business trip out of town. (Should make things easier right? Subtract one mouth to feed. And yet … ) I had also forgotten that I was supposed to provide snacks for Kiddo’s preschool class this week.
I started strong out of the gate, doing a big grocery run on Saturday and stocking up on staples. But blew it with two more trips to Publix on Sunday and Monday. (Sunday was the ‘Oh, gosh forgot I have to provide snacks for S’s class all next week’ run and Monday was the ‘No, seriously, snacks *all* of next week’ run.) Then, with friends expected over Monday night and Susana coming down with a cold, I folded completely and ordered Chinese takeout for dinner.
Recovered somewhat last night and put together a basic chili with baked sweet potatoes, using up some canned pinto beans, tomatoes from a friend’s garden, ground chuck from the freezer, and a guajillo pepper from a bag I mistakenly grabbed a few weeks ago when reaching for a similarly packaged one of ancho chiles.
My chili is perfectly serviceable, but nothing to really write home about, so I’m not wasting space on the recipe. Two things to note: The guajillo added a nice bit of smoky flavor in the slow cooker with the chili. I never had one before. I only added a half of the pepper chipped up and none of the seeds because I wasn’t sure of the heat. Next time, I will probably use a whole one.
Also, I browned the ground beef with the onions in a skillet, but did most of the cooking in my rice cooker/slow cooker combo. The sweet potatoes I popped into my trusty old Rival crockpot. All meal prep and most of the cleanup was finished while the toddler took her afternoon nap. This is ideal for me when I am solo parenting. Our kitchen isn’t set up well for letting her “help” safely. So most of our meals during the week make use of at least one, if not both, appliances.
