The other day, I needed a Sunday lunch plan. I lost my cooking mojo that day, and I needed inspiration. So I got on Facebook and asked my friends to give me slow-cooker dinner ideas, but specified that I didn't want to make chili, and nobody in my family eats anything with a "cream of" soup, so anything in that realm was out. Several friends suggested taco soup, but I wanted to avoid hamburger, too (I had lost my mojo, but I was still kind of picky about what I wanted).
Chicken tortilla soup sounded good, but that wasn't going to fly with my family.
Cooking for a family is tough sometimes, right?
My hubs isn't crazy about soup, but the day was shaping up to be gray and drizzly, and that kind of day calls for soup. As a compromise, he asked me to make Cilantro Lime Rice that he could pour his soup over.
And that gave me an idea.
What I came up with was (I hope) a cross between a jambalaya-ish meal and a chicken tortilla soup.
And they gobbled it up and asked for seconds.
That's a rare thing in these parts.
Mexican Gumbo
1 15-oz. can diced tomato, pureed
15 oz. water
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 15-oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-oz. can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
8 oz. frozen corn
2 frozen chicken breasts
3 Polish sausage links
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. chili powder
splash of vinegar (this helps tenderize the meat)
I dumped all of this into the slow cooker and set it on high for 4 hours. Before dinner, I pulled the chicken breasts out and shredded them, and cut the sausage into bite-sized pieces.
Cilantro Lime Rice
1 cup rice
3 cups water
juice of 1/2 lime
I make my rice in a Pampered Chef covered baking dish in the microwave. 15 minutes usually does the trick. When it was finished, I added a handful of roughly-chopped fresh cilantro.
The Cilantro Lime Rice went into a bowl, and the Gumbo went over the top of that.
And it was tasty, if I do say so.
Linked up to Don't Waste Your Homemaking
and here at Love Bakes Good Cakes
Beauty and Bedlam, The Vintage Farmhouse
Thanks for linking this up to my Homemaking Party and for linking back to my site! Mucho appreciation!!! Umm… I get in the cooking funk all the time, are you spying on me? I would eat soup every.single.day when it's fall and winter but like yours my hubs isn't that fond of soup! lol I think he likes Meat and Potatoes! I've never made gumbo nor have I eaten it, I might give this a try ;).
ReplyDeleteWell, I have two confessions: 1)I called it "gumbo" because of the sausage and rice, and 2) I called it "gumbo" so my hubs wouldn't think it was soup. Haha!!! I hope you enjoy it if you get a chance to try it.
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