Just Call Me Old Mother Hubbard

My cupboards are pretty bare right now. And I mean, preeeeety bare. Thanks to some bad work/pay/life timing, I have not been able to get to the grocery store in ages. So, last night, when I rushed home following work and a meeting to begin my 8th night of solo nighttime parenting, I was seriously chuffed to find that my pantry had not been miraculously stocked since I last looked in it.

We were down to pretty much the basics. I looked in the fridge,and didn’t find much inspiration there, either. Same goes for the freezer – though I did have some Mayan Chocolate Gelato from Ed’s still left. But there was not enough to make a meal for all three of us, so I put it away to eat all by myself when the kids were finally in bed  for dessert another day. 

Normally, this is the point at which I would cry uncle and order Thai food. However, takeout hasn’t been in family budget for months, so I felt totally sorry for myself pressed on.

As I contemplated the sorry state of my kitchen, the children started whining and I knew that if I didn’t come up with a plan soon, they would go off and look for sustenance elsewhere. And I just don’t dig the idea of my kids eating carpet lint and cat kibble, so I put on my big girl apron and looked harder.

I had pasta. I always have pasta. Who doesn’t always have pasta? So, we’d eat pasta. I looked a little harder. No tomato sauce, but waaaaaay up on the top shelf (the one I rarely check since it is so far out of my line of sight), I spied a can of diced tomatoes. Score! After teetering precariously on the edge of the counter while my baby squealed in delight at the sight of her daredevil mama to retrieve the tomatoes, I went back to the freezer. I knew frozen meatballs or a package of veggie ground round was way out of the scope of what I might find, but maybe there’d be something. Spinach! Nice. I unwrapped it, and threw the frozen green slab into the microwave to quickly soften up a bit. I found a couple of onions in the cold cellar. I had garlic. (I always have garlic.)

As the water for the pasta boiled, I poured myself a drink carmelized the onions by cooking them in a large sauté pan over med-low heat for about 20 minutes. Then I threw in the garlic, spinach and some dried herbs (thyme, oregano, etc.). When the pasta was cooked, I added the can of tomatoes to the spinach/onions, and then tossed in the pasta. Voila! Dinner was served, and it looked pretty dang good, too. Tasted awesome as well, especially after we sprinkled some fresh asiago cheese on top. Bee ate most of hers (as usual), Dove ate all of hers plus the rest of Bee’s (as usual), and I even put away enough for Chris to eat when he finally got home from work.

Not bad, considering that ½ an hour earlier I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to give the poor dog a bone.

Comments

[No Mother Earth]

I'm impressed! Sadly my kids would look at the tomatoes and spinach, and then refuse to eat the pasta (their favourite food) because it had been "polluted" with "vegetables". Sigh. It's very disheartening.

(Oh, and how/where do you keep the garlic? We had it in the fridge and it made the whole fridge reek and I had to get rid of it. I love garlic.)

[kgirl]

I keep the garlic on the little ledge/shelf behind my counter, next to my spices. It gets used to fast to go rancid.

[petitegourmand]

Same thing happened to me the other night.
so I made pasta with a homemade spinach pesto sauce (recipe on Martha's website- everyday food) and I was pleasantly surprised.
It was so delicious and nutritious.
Lulu had no idea it was a spinach pesto.
Will be a regular meal from now on.