What's in the Pantry?

This is a frequent game at home when I don't want to fix the meals I have (sometimes) painstakingly chosen for the week. The object of the game is to create something tasty for dinner in 20 to 30 minutes using whatever is on hand.

Tonight this shaped up into a chili/bean/potato conglomeration that satisfied the whole family. I started with some peeled and sliced sweet potatoes from the fridge (leftovers from last week's tacos). After drizzling some olive oil into the zipper bag, I tossed in half a packet of fajita seasoning left in the pantry. Next, I played shake, rattle, and roll with the contents before spreading the spuds on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Into the oven they went at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, I browned a package of ground beef (which could have easily been chicken or turkey) and added a can of Bush's Grillin' Beans, a can of petite diced tomatoes, a can of pitted black olives, and some green onions left from the weekend. Sometimes when my hands hurt (arthritis), it is easier to wield kitchen shears than a large knife, so I used the shears to snip the onions into the browning beef and then again to chunk up the black olives directly over the skillet. (Of course, if you have chopped olives those are fine, too, but I like my olives in larger pieces than the fine confetti-like texture of the canned, pre-chopped ones.) After everything went into the pan I added salt and pepper to taste, along with a couple of tablespoons of spicy brown mustard and about four tablespoons of barbecue sauce. Then I turned the heat to low and let the mixture simmer until the potatoes finished cooking.

To serve this concoction, put some sweet potatoes into a bowl and top with the beef-bean mixture, finishing off with a dollop of sour cream for good measure. We ate this with tortilla chips for crunch, but it would be fine alone or with some Texas toast. A cool green salad or cole slaw would round this out nicely, as well.

While dinner roulette is a gamble since I just never know if the guys will like what goes in the pot, it usually pays pretty high dividends getting me in and out of the kitchen quickly and making me feel as if I'm not "stuck" with prearranged dinner menus.