Pantry Meal

Well, blogging isn't the only thing I've gotten behind on over this Christmas weekend. There's also laundry and *gasp* grocery shopping! Add in three kids who haven't been feeling well for various reasons and it's completely understandable that the weekly trek to Kroger hasn't happened. The result was that last night I was facing a hungry family and had no idea what to fix for them out of our limited supply. My mind kept going back to chicken chili, which I had planned to make the week before, but I knew I was missing a couple of key ingredients. As I shuffled through my freezer, I was delighted to spy a single chicken breast frozen in a marinade of salsa, lime juice and cilantro. I quickly adjusted my plan to use this instead of the plain shredded chicken. I also grabbed a zip-top bag of frozen green pepper (so glad I saved that!). I ended up sauteeing together onion, green pepper, garlic and the chicken (with the marinade) in a little olive oil. Then I removed that to a bowl and kept it warm. In the same saucepan, I made a simple white sauce with chicken broth from the freezer. I added in some cumin and chili powder, salt and pepper, the chicken and veggies, plus a can of navy beans. Once heated through it was ready to serve! To go alongside, I fried up some corn tortillas that were hanging out in my fridge. I'm always surprised at how good those unplanned meals straight from the pantry can be!