Fervent Foodie

Every time I think of New Orleans, I hear the Zatarain’s rice commercial in my head.  You know… Zatarain’s!  (Said with much sass and flavor while jazz music wails in the background).  Even before my trip to the Big Easy, I had this funny mental quirk.

This thought popped into my head tonight when I began to think about what to make for dinner.  I was presented with the following challenge:  what do you make when you’ve got leftover meats out the wazoo?

JAMBALAYA of course!  It seems like ages since I last made Jambalaya!  Well at least four months anyway.  I had some chicken leftover from last week’s lunch and the turkey sausage was leftover from my Zuppa Tuscana…

Lucky for me, I keep frozen shrimp in the freezer at all times in case of emergency.  So whipping together a 3-meat entre was easy peasy tonight!

3 meats, one dish:

The meats were ready to roll, so I heated the oven up to 400 degrees and got to choppin 2 roma tomatoes, 1/2 a white onion, and 1 green pepper:

I tossed the veggies into a bowl with:

• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 2 tsp minced garlic

I gave everything a good toss, then added:

• 1 cup brown rice
• 1 cup low sodium chicken broth

I intended on using 1.5 cups of brown rice, but I ran out!  Ooops!  That’s what happens when I grocery shop without taking inventory first!  Dangit!

I divided the mix up evenly among three foil packets that I had sprayed down with some nonstick cooking spray:  

One for my dinner, one for my lunch, and one for the BF’s lunch because I’m clearly dabomb.com.

I popped the packets into the oven for 30 minutes, and VOOOOILLLAAA!

Oh so spicy, and ohhhhh so delicious! 

Yes, the jambalaya we had in New Orleans (and again) was a teensy bit tastier than my healthified version, but I’d like to see NOLA try and stack up to these stats:

Stats on 1 serving:  314 calories, 33g carbs, 9g fat, 27g protein, 3g fiber   

Jambalaya Ingredients List (serves 3):

• 6 large shrimp, tails removed
• 2 links Jennie-O Hot Turkey Sausage
• 3 ounces grilled chicken
• 1 green bell pepper
• 2 plum tomatoes
• 1/2 a white onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1 cup reduced sodium low fat chicken broth