It's Dinner:::Jenn

"What is it Mama?" "It's dinner."

Sometimes that is all that can be said. Since my reasons for dining in are most motivated by frugality, I simply can not condone letting food go bad in the refrigerator from lack of consumption. Consequently, tonight when my daughter asked what we should call it, my only answer was dinner. I crumbled up the stale bread sticks and two remaining corn tortillas and added the soon to expire package of lunch meat. I think it was turkey, but honestly I just didn't look that close at the package. In went some grated cheese, frozen peas and corn, and half a bottle of Goddess dressing. I mixed it up and baked it in my dutch oven at 400 for about 25 minutes. Upon tasting, it was lacking. Therefore I added a can of diced and drained tomatoes and some butter, mixed it up and cooked for another 15 minutes. At that point we sat down to "dinner" and found it quite tasty actually. Some wrapped it up in a tortilla and some just used a spoon but all seemed quite happy. Add some fresh fruit and (while not my best creation ever) it was very filling and somewhat balanced. I had to admit to my daughter that no, we would probably not be able to make it again, but that we could try something similar another day. 

I basically follow the basic casserole formula for a lot of these sort of meals and they almost always meet with success. It says something like this:
2 C of starch, 2C of protein, 1C of veggies and 1C of moisture. Something for a topping is a nice addition as well.

I can't say that I always follow this formula, but the results are much more consistent when I do. I also find that as long as I oil/grease my dutch oven a bit, the flavor from using it over another pan is noticeable. All the past 1,000 or so meals cooked in it have added a nice taste to the pan that is noticeable in many dishes.