Having your own premade sauces in the fridge or the freezer makes for quick meals that you know what is in them. Pesto and roasted red pepper sauce are both great alone or as flavor bombs to soups and other base sauces.
I usually put the pesto in the freezer in single serving bags, but forgot, so I used it for several meals so it didn’t go to waste. It does last surprisingly long if you make sure to cover the top with olive oil after each use, it also freezes beautifully.
Gather the ingredients. Frozen rice, frozen cauliflower, frozen chicken breast cutlet. Pesto and mozzarella.
Heat some chicken fat, or other oil in the cast iron.
Micro the chicken cutlet for 10 second, Just 10! to soften slightly. It will still be slightly frozen but that will actually make it easier to cube. Chop a tablespoon or so of onion, and cut the cauliflower florets into bite size pieces, about the same size as the chicken.
Put the chicken and the onions into the heated pan. When the chicken begins to get some color add the rice and cauliflower. Add two cubes of your frozen chicken stock. And a tablespoon or two of pesto. Mix thoroughly. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella. The melty cheese plays well off the sharpness of the pesto. There is a salad over there somewhere, but … yeah!
I have always cooked, I was that person who could make a meal from an empty fridge. I have lived alone and with large and small families, I have cooked for camps on wood stoves, and in professional kitchens. I have lived and worked all over the west from Montana, to Seattle to Arizona to San Diego. I have traveled, maybe not 'all over the world', yet, and have collected tastes recipes and techniques everywhere, and every one I meet.
