In Which I Attempt to be a Food Blogger For a Day

Ha! If you know me at all, or if you’ve read this post, you’re ready to tell me to get off my food soapbox and stick to something I do know, like avoiding real work or watching re-runs of Seinfeld.

But wait!  Don’t go!  My pictures will be horrible, but the recipe is good, good, good!

There is a thing or two I know about food.  I know how to make food in a hurry.  I know how to make an entire meal in one pot or casserole dish. 

Dinner time is the worst time of our household’s daily life.  I teach piano until almost 7:00 pm some nights.  My husband is supposed to be home before 6:00, but that doesn’t always happen. 

When he does come home, Lydia, tired of sharing her mommy with pre-teens at the piano, is ecstatic to see her daddy finally walk through the door and get some real one-on-one time with a parent.  Imagine the protests when he tells her he can’t play because he has to cook dinner.  He tries to involve her, but that is hit & miss.  While sometimes giving her a cooking task works like a charm, other times she erupts in meltdown after meltdown.

So Ryan scurries around the kitchen, trying to keep a cranky, lonely toddler quiet (ha) so my piano students can hear themselves play, and prepare a healthy, beautiful meal in twenty minutes (double ha).  This is why we love one dish meals.  Side dishes do not occur in our home, (with the exception of a hastily washed and cut piece of fruit) so we need to throw our veggies into our meals if we want to eat semi-healthy.

Enter picadillo, a recipe given to me by a funny girl who knows how to cook.  This is the step-by-step “Takes As Little Time As Possible While Your Toddler Stays Busy” version.

1. Give your toddler a potato scrubber and let her scrub a potato you don’t need to use tonight.

2. While she is happy doing something, wash 2 or so red potatoes, 2 or so carrots, and a bushel of cilantro you DO plan to use tonight.  Let them dry.

3. Get some olive oil warming in a pan on the stove.  Chop up a clove or two (or three, if you like) of garlic and half (or more, if you feel so inclined) of an onion.  Throw the chopped up goodness into the pan.  Stir.  Turn around.

4. Chop up your potatoes, carrots, and cilantro.

5. Fill the sink with water and let your toddler “clean” some plastic dishes.  She’s starting to tire of the potato scrubbing and the whining is getting a little loud.

6. Throw the cut up potatoes and carrots (not the cilantro)  into your super delicious smelling pan of garlic and onions.

7. Turn the burner to medium/high heat if it isn’t already there.  Stir every now and then.

8. While the veggies are cooking, defrost a pound of ground turkey in the microwave.  Hurry!  Your toddler is spilling all over the floor!

9. While the veggies cook and the meat defrosts, you have a few minutes.  Get a towel and clean the water from the floor with your toddler.  She’ll think it’s fun.  Let her keep doing it on her own while you tell her how amazing she is and get back to the veggies.

10. Now the veggies are tender, the meat is defrosted.  Put the meat in the pan!

11.  When the meat is almost brown, add the cilantro and a can of green chiles.  Add some garlic salt and salt as well, if you would like.

12. Serve with tostadas.  (Break them up and scoop up your picadillo with them)

I’m not going to tell you how many pictures we took of these stupid tostadas.  Ok, it was over 50.  I told you- the pictures are no good, but the meal is delicious!

Tagged as: fast dishes