Leftover Blessings
Don't you just love being able to turn one meal into two?
Don't you just love something that's mostly easy when you come home after a long day?
Don't you love figuring out how to improvise to get the desired product when your plan A flies out the window?
We trudged in near 5pm having been out since 9:30 that morning. It had been a long but good day. In the rush to get out that morning with two little ones I hadn't thought to take meat out to thaw or decided on a meal for dinner. When leaving we thought we are going to run a couple of errands and be back by nap time.
Have you ever tried to do a few simple things in a third world country? Hah!
No matter how much we plan, connive or organize we just cannot rush out and whip through some simple errands and arrive home anywhere near the planned time.
So as I found myself in the stock room of the post office with two babies, my husband & three employees I realized my day was not going as planned. I found myself pouncing like a gazelle over heaps of unorganized packages heaped from floor to ceiling with return labels from every imaginable country. After waiting in the lobby for over a half hour I decided maybe this would go faster with some assistance. So we dug and shuffled, piled and shoved packages to find the one labeled 7069. With spatterings of advice being thrown from the workers. "Not there sister!", "Look well sister, I'm too old for this!". My husband with his trusty flashlight app by my side, my 3 year old climbing boxes like a conquering conquistador, and the postal worker entertaining my baby boy and the interesting postal worker in his strange blue lab coat was the dream team today. After an hour of scouring the back room finally incomprehensibly so we found our package at the very bottom of a stack in the back of three 5ft stacks of boxes. But hey there was birthday presents and imported snacks in this box! We were going to find it! We had waited two weeks to find gasoline for our vehicle so we could make it to the post office we would NOT leave empty handed!
Sooooo after our adventure we drove home to a cold stove and no meal plan. We pounced on our new packages and played and snacked. Then came the challenge. What on earth would we eat? And, can I stay awake to do it? One or both of the children had been awake since 5am due to very loud thunderstorms and the electricity had just switched off. Our battery system isn't set up yet so we only have the one really dull lightbulb in each room the apartment generator runs. When it switches off at night you immediately feel nigh on to a coma.
After a brief inventory of the contents of our fridge. I found about 3/4 cup of leftover philly steak meat, cheese, frozen pizza dough and a bag of frozen sliced mushrooms. Hmmmm....I think this can work.
1. Retrieve the frozen pizza dough from the freezer. Fill a bowl with hottest water possible. Place a smaller bowl in the water with the frozen dough inside.
2. As the dough has defrosted refill the small bowl with hot water and place it in the oven(not on). Place the larger bowl on top of the steaming water with the dough inside. Close and allow a few minutes to re-rise.
3. Look for pizza sauce. Find none...... Search Pinterest. New plan. Make a white garlic pizza sauce.
Melt 1 T butter
Press 3 cloves of garlic in the butter
Add 1/4 t red pepper, 1/2 t basil, dash of black pepper.
Add flour slowly until you have a thick roux.
Add milk slowly until a nice pizza sauce consistency.
Add 1/3c cream- oh yah I had some cream and milk in the fridge too:)
Add more milk if necessary.
4. Turn on oven for pizza........nope electricity off! Turn on stovetop......nope out of cooking gas due to gas shortages from political fights. Next plan, turn on our one burner cook stove. Place griddle pan on the burner with rolled dough.
5. Cook one side till firm. Flip. Add sauce. Philly steak meat, mushrooms, tomatoes and a mixture of Gouda and yak cheese. Put a lid on top to melt cheese.
6. Eat!!
Plan A rarely works in crazy third world life but plan B can include wonderful days filled with family fun and memories and the yummiest pizza you have had in a while!
Don't you just love being able to turn one meal into two?
Don't you just love something that's mostly easy when you come home after a long day?
Don't you love figuring out how to improvise to get the desired product when your plan A flies out the window?
We trudged in near 5pm having been out since 9:30 that morning. It had been a long but good day. In the rush to get out that morning with two little ones I hadn't thought to take meat out to thaw or decided on a meal for dinner. When leaving we thought we are going to run a couple of errands and be back by nap time.
Have you ever tried to do a few simple things in a third world country? Hah!
No matter how much we plan, connive or organize we just cannot rush out and whip through some simple errands and arrive home anywhere near the planned time.
So as I found myself in the stock room of the post office with two babies, my husband & three employees I realized my day was not going as planned. I found myself pouncing like a gazelle over heaps of unorganized packages heaped from floor to ceiling with return labels from every imaginable country. After waiting in the lobby for over a half hour I decided maybe this would go faster with some assistance. So we dug and shuffled, piled and shoved packages to find the one labeled 7069. With spatterings of advice being thrown from the workers. "Not there sister!", "Look well sister, I'm too old for this!". My husband with his trusty flashlight app by my side, my 3 year old climbing boxes like a conquering conquistador, and the postal worker entertaining my baby boy and the interesting postal worker in his strange blue lab coat was the dream team today. After an hour of scouring the back room finally incomprehensibly so we found our package at the very bottom of a stack in the back of three 5ft stacks of boxes. But hey there was birthday presents and imported snacks in this box! We were going to find it! We had waited two weeks to find gasoline for our vehicle so we could make it to the post office we would NOT leave empty handed!
Sooooo after our adventure we drove home to a cold stove and no meal plan. We pounced on our new packages and played and snacked. Then came the challenge. What on earth would we eat? And, can I stay awake to do it? One or both of the children had been awake since 5am due to very loud thunderstorms and the electricity had just switched off. Our battery system isn't set up yet so we only have the one really dull lightbulb in each room the apartment generator runs. When it switches off at night you immediately feel nigh on to a coma.
After a brief inventory of the contents of our fridge. I found about 3/4 cup of leftover philly steak meat, cheese, frozen pizza dough and a bag of frozen sliced mushrooms. Hmmmm....I think this can work.
1. Retrieve the frozen pizza dough from the freezer. Fill a bowl with hottest water possible. Place a smaller bowl in the water with the frozen dough inside.
2. As the dough has defrosted refill the small bowl with hot water and place it in the oven(not on). Place the larger bowl on top of the steaming water with the dough inside. Close and allow a few minutes to re-rise.
3. Look for pizza sauce. Find none...... Search Pinterest. New plan. Make a white garlic pizza sauce.
Melt 1 T butter
Press 3 cloves of garlic in the butter
Add 1/4 t red pepper, 1/2 t basil, dash of black pepper.
Add flour slowly until you have a thick roux.
Add milk slowly until a nice pizza sauce consistency.
Add 1/3c cream- oh yah I had some cream and milk in the fridge too:)
Add more milk if necessary.
4. Turn on oven for pizza........nope electricity off! Turn on stovetop......nope out of cooking gas due to gas shortages from political fights. Next plan, turn on our one burner cook stove. Place griddle pan on the burner with rolled dough.
5. Cook one side till firm. Flip. Add sauce. Philly steak meat, mushrooms, tomatoes and a mixture of Gouda and yak cheese. Put a lid on top to melt cheese.
Posted with Blogsy
Perseverance really paid off when I would throw my hands in the air and say "I don't have a clue what we're eating".
ReplyDeleteGirl I thought I was tired!! You are such an encouragement. God is so wonderful to give us the grace tailor made for our lives and circumstances. Keep on!
ReplyDelete