Saturday Dinner

Mexican Gumbo

I got the idea for this dish from something similar served by Qdoba Grill. Basically, it's a big scoop of rice and meat with tortilla soup poured over. They call it Mexican Gumbo, so I'm sticking with that.

I made a quickie tortilla soup: Saute 1 chopped onion in a little canola oil for about 5 minutes or until translucent. Add 1 tsp. minced garlic and saute another minute or two until golden. Add 1 can Rotel tomatoes with green chiles (I use the 'Mild' variety), 1 can corn, drained, 1 16 oz. can tomato sauce, and 1 32 oz. carton chicken broth. Add about 1/2 t. ground cumin and 1 T chili powder, plus salt & pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until slightly thickened. (If I were serving as soup I'd stop now and top with shredded cheese and crumbled tortilla chips.)

To serve as gumbo, I put a big scoop of hot white rice in each bowl, then topped this with about 1/3 cup of the leftover shredded pork. I poured the hot soup all around, then sprinkled with chopped cilantro and diced avocado.

On the side I served cheese quesadillas cut into wedges. (It turns out we didn't need them - the gumbo was more than filling enough on its own. Next time I'll just serve tortilla chips for dipping.)

It was a delicious and hearty dinner. The soup was a bit spicy for the rest of my family (not me), but it was nicely mellowed by the smooth, buttery chunks of avocado. If I hadn't had that, I would have topped with a dollop of sour cream.

Totals:

free - leftover roast pork
.20 - rice
.78 - avocado
.30 - tomato sauce
.21 - canned corn (raincheck + sale)
$1.29 - chicken broth
.59 - Rotel tomatoes (purchased w/ Buy 2, get 1 free coupon)

.50 - tortillas
.66 - shredded Mexican blend cheese (about 1/3 bag)

$4.53 for dinner for 4 (sister joined us), plus leftover soup for another 2 - 3 servings (and we still have leftover roast, too)

NOTE #1 : I didn't use the full 16 oz. tomato sauce - I used an 8 oz. can tomato sauce and the 1/2 can left over from the other night. Also, I used reduced sodium chicken broth.

NOTE #2: I discovered something very interesting about Harris Teeter rainchecks the other day. I had a raincheck for their house brand of canned vegetables (corn, peas or green beans) for 3/$1. The week I used the raincheck, they were already on sale for .77, down from .89 each. So when the cashier ran the raincheck through, she manually marked the price of each can I bought to .33 each - then the computer automatically took off another .12 per can to reflect that week's sale. So I got 12 cans of assorted vegetables (the limit I could buy with my raincheck) for only .21 each!