New Years Eve from the pantry...

We got a New Years Eve surprise this year! My husband was scheduled to work New Years Eve day. His work days usually starts at 6:45 AM and ends when he is done. It is very normal for him to get home at 9 or even later at night. I had basically just planned on making a nice dinner for myself and the girls. Of course, he would warm up the leftovers when he got home. The good/bad news is that his face swelled up really badly from the cold during the early morning, and they sent him home from work. That is bad news for his paycheck, but it was a good day to have him home all afternoon!

We started the early evening with appetizers. I made a dip where you layer cream cheese, salsa, black beans and cheddar cheese. You just microwave it for a minute or so, and you're good to go. It is DELICIOUS. I haven't made it in a really long time, but I love it so much! I was so thrilled when I realized I had all of the items I needed either in my pantry or freezer. (I did, however, have to stop and get chips and 2 (free) 2 liters of pop! I guess that is kind of breaking the rules, but considering it was a holiday, I don't think it's a big deal.)


Our entree for the evening was orange chicken over peas and brown rice. I used to use a recipe that my mom taught me, but I've adapted it a little since discovering Juicy Juice's Juicy Apple Chicken recipe. My recipe went kind of like this:

INGREDIENTS

4 (about 1 1/4 pounds total) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion
3 cups of orange juice
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon of soy sauce

DIRECTIONS

SEASON chicken liberally with salt and ground black pepper, if desired. Dust with flour.

MELT butter in large, nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add chicken; cook on one side until golden brown. Turn chicken over and stir in onion, orange juice, soy sauce and garlic. Cover pan and bring to a boil. (Orange juice should come all the way up the sides of the chicken but not cover entirely.) Reduce heat to medium and uncover pan. Sauce should remain bubbly. Once the sauce has turned a a dark golden color and reduced to a thick, sticky sauce, remove chicken from skillet and place on serving platter.


For dessert, we had a white chocolate and cherry cream cheese ball with cinnamon and sugar pita chips. My mom brought the cheese ball mix for me from a little trip they went on over the weekend. I was SO happy to see it since I knew I had cream cheese in the freezer. It was a great addition to our holiday meal, and it was GREAT with the pita chips! I never would have thought to serve it on pita chips if not for the challenge of eating from the pantry. Now, I'm not sure I'll ever serve it any other way! So yummy!



In the end, it was a really delicious meal. All of my family members loved it. It was a really good exercise for me. It did have to stretch my brain a little to think about what to make since I hadn't been to the store in nearly 2 weeks, but I'm not sure it would have turned out any better had I had $1,000 worth of groceries to choose from.

Now...to go eat some leftover white chocolate cherry dip! YUMMMMMMMMMM!