Southwest Skillet

Super leftover use! Sometimes I masquerade as superwoman, making magical things come out of my kitchen while still having time to sew, clean, do laundry, scrapbook, spend time with hubby, and study.

Ready? This will require kitchen courage and multitasking. Begin on Monday so that you can do all these steps.

1. Shrimp jambalaya night! Use some diced tomatoes, but realize that the 32 oz can is way too much tomatoes.
2. Brown a pound of ground beef earlier in the week. Use something else for dinner instead (namely, cut up the Swedish meatballs from last week and use them in the pasta/creamy basil pesto/broccoli skillet), and refrigerate the cooked beef.
3. Make BBQ chicken drumsticks, mashed potatoes, and broccoli. Leave a drumstick for another night.
4. Have burritos, complete with chicken, diced tomatoes, black beans, and rice. That can of black beans was also huge.
5. Brainstorm. No, I did that for you. Here goes!

6. Make cornbread, using one box mix, one egg, 1/4 c. sour cream and 1/3 c. water. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes. This deviates from the Jiffy box mix recipe, which requires 1/3 c. milk and 1 egg, mixed, and baked at 450 for 20 minutes. Why? I used up the milk on my cereal this morning and had to improvise.

7. Make brownies at the same time (in a different bowl and pan, of course), stirring in 3/4 c. Nestle's peanut butter swirl chocolate morsels. Mmm. Bake for 40 mins at 350 with the cornbread. (This is slightly underbaked. Gooey; as I like it. Do not taste it before dinner. Do snack on the chocolate morsels and then put them out of reach.)


8. Raid the fridge. Dump half the ground beef into the skillet, followed by the black beans and diced tomatoes. Chop up half a green onion and add that to the pan. Unwrap the leftover chicken drumstick and cut the meat into bite-size pieces. Add to the skillet.


9. Secret weapon: taco seasoning. Sprinkle liberally onto the contents of the skillet. I used about half a packet without adding any water.

(Note: chopped onion, diced garlic, fresh cilantro, lime juice, and/or jalepeños would also be delicious additions)

10. Heat up the contents of the skillet until the green pepper is fork-tender. Taste it to make sure there's enough seasoning. Add more, if you want. I did.

11. Slice the cornbread and spoon the deliciousness on top!

Or, leave it on the side. As you prefer.

Enjoy! Serve with salsa and tortilla chips, if the mood strikes.

And finish off with brownies.
And another slice of cornbread.

Celebrate! You used up the leftovers.