Carol’s Hurricane Dinner

If you’ve survived the hurricane AND you still have power, chances are you are wondering what’s for dinner?

Many folks would be likely to have the ingredients below on hand, and for those you don’t have – substitute something else. Survival is adaptability, after all!

INGREDIENTS:

Get a pot of boiling water going on the stove. If you’ve been ordered to boil water, let the water go for a while before you add these ingredients:

• One package yellow rice (you can sub. white or brown rice)
• Two sm-med white potatoes diced into small cubes
• One can of pink beans (you can sub. black beans, butter beans or red beans)
• Salt and fresh ground Pepper to taste
• Pinch of chili powder (optional)

Boil the three items together (I’d wait until the rice and beans are half-way done to add the potato) until cooked.

Heat a skillet with olive oil (or the oil of your choice or butter):

• One large onion, chopped (can sub. leeks if needed, or chopped scallions could be added on top after cooking if that’s all you have)
• Meat or chicken of choice (I had some beef sausages and cut them into small bite sized pieces)
• Two medium green squash, sliced (you can sub. yellow squash, eggplant, zucchini, or other veggie of choice)
• Five medium mushrooms, sliced (you can sub. canned mushrooms, if you had to)
• One small can of sliced water chestnuts (that’s what I had on hand, check your cabinet for something interesting)
• Salt and fresh ground Pepper to taste

Heat the oil in the pan and add the onion until just releasing water, then add meat and continue cooking. Add squash and cook down. Add sliced mushrooms towards the very end they don’t take long to cook. Throw in the water chestnuts just to get warmed and absorb some of the cooking liquids and flavors.

Once everything is cooked and ready…

Spoon some of the rice, beans and potato mixture into the bottom of a bowl. Add the meat, onion and veggie mixture on top.

If you like cheese, you could add some grated parmesan to top. If not, dig in and enjoy!