Tuesday Dinner

Tonight I made a recipe that my family really likes:

Creamy Rice, Chicken & Spinach Dinner

As usual, I never follow a recipe entirely - I always customize it to my own tastes. In this case, I've found that whole, boneless chicken thighs work better than breast strips. I cook them in the dressing until browned and the dressing has reduced to a thick, syrupy glaze on the chicken. Then I remove thighs from the pan and keep them warm. I add more dressing to the pan and prepare rice as directed, then serve each person their own whole thigh on top of rice. I've found that cooking the chicken in the rice mixture sort of "washes off" the flavor and leaves it rather bland.

Other notes: Kraft Sun-dried Tomato Vinaigrette works just as well as the Roasted Red Pepper Italian called for in recipe. Can also substitute 1 can of diced tomatoes (undrained) for fresh, if necessary.

Rounding out the meal we had a loaf of homemade honey wheat bread. I've been neglecting my bread machine lately, and this seemed like the perfect meal to break it out.

Totals:

$3.14 - boneless chicken thighs (meat markdown)
free - tomato
free - fresh spinach (from my sister)
$1 - remaining casserole ingredients
.75 - bread ingredients

$4.89 - dinner for 5 (sister & husband ate with us)