Another rice cassarole

One thing that has really helped me to survive these rough years (kitchenwise) is to not let yourself be limited to cultural or ethnic norms in cooking. I love a lot of conventional dishes, don't get me wrong. When you are poor though, even though you love American Cheeseburgers, you cant make them that way because the food bank was not handing out ground beef. Even though you love spagetti and meatballs, sometimes you don't have the meatballs so you have to re-calculate what to eat with the spagetti. Just because you can afford rice does not mean you can afford the stir fry ingredients or the sushi or the tex-mex materials. So be creative. Concentrate on what flavors you love, what materials you have right now in your pantry and fridge, and what flavors might go nicely together, regardless of what might have been tried before.

One thing I am never without is rice. Rice is cheap and versatile.
Two items I get whenever I can are onions and greek yogurt.
One item I recieved unexpectedly was some sausage (a great surprise and special treat!)

I have eaten all of these a number of ways. Today, I combined them. It was very good indeed.

First break sausage into small chunks and fry on stovetop. Then leaving the fat and grease in the pan, scoop out cooked sausage and set aside. Quickly add leftover cooked rice and chopped onion in the pan of fat. Fry the rice and onions then add it to the bowl of sausage and stir in non- fat Greek yogurt for a warm and creamy sauce that won't add any more fat to an already fatty delight!

My cheating Chicken in Cream of Chicken sauce

This is a quick and easy trick to try that your friends won't know the difference between that and the real stuff. All you need is boneless, skinless chicken breasts and a can of cream of chicken soup, milk and plenty of fresh parsley. You cut the chicken into large chunks and sautee it. When it is nearly done, which will be very quickly, throw in the cream of chicken soup with a can of milk and heat it up. Add parsley for flavor and garnish. It took me less than ten minutes to prepare and my friend asked me for my recipe and asked how I had possibly made something so tasty in such a short amount of time. Hehehehe!