Colorful Mondays

I was hoping Mommy was cooking supper last night. And I think she was hoping that I would. It may have been a bit of a contest to see who would give in first. It was me. I had just run a few errands and walked back into the house right at supper time. Mommy was feeding Baby Sister and Big Sister was hungry.

Remember the show, Doorknock Dinners, that was on Food TV in the late 1990s? A chef would show up at someone's house and make dinner from only what was already in their refrigerator. That's close to where we were last night.

The first thought was to cook squash and onions. There was fresh squash that Mommy had bought to make baby food. And she bought too much. But we couldn't find an onion. So I went into serious "Mimi mode" and told them dinner would be on the table in just a few minutes. I found grape tomatoes that I had bought for a salad today. And a container of cut green onions left from tacos Mommy had made over the weekend. That was a good start. I did have one package of chicken tenderloins. And my can of House Seasoning is always on the shelf.  (House seasoning:  Mix 1/4 cup salt, 1 tbsp. black pepper & 1 tbsp. garlic powder. Store in an air-tight container, such as an empty spice bottle.)

I started heating the pans with a little oil in them. While the pans were heating, I quickly sliced the squash, threw it into one pan and sprinkled liberally with house seasoning. While it cooked, I put the chicken tenderloins in the other pan--again with another good dose of house seasoning. Then I cut the tomatoes in half and when the squash was nearly tender, I added the tomatoes to that pan and cooked for just a couple of minutes more and then stirred a good handful of green onions into the vegetables. By now the chicken was nice and brown, too.

And somewhere in the middle of all this, I slid a pan of frozen rolls into the oven and steamed some fresh broccoli. Thankfully it was a bag of pre-cut so that was quick. Dinner was on the table in under 20 minutes--a very good dinner.

Then to get Big Sister to eat this hodge podge, I announced that for the month of May, we would be having "Colorful Mondays" to see how many colors we could get onto one plate! She loved this crazy mix of vegetables. She asked if we were having blueberries for dessert.

The only trouble with making proclamations like this is that now I have to think of three more "colorful dinners."