When Your Oven Goes On Strike [Fierce Foodie]

My newest excuse for not turning on the oven this summer: it exploded.  We were baking a pizza the other day when we heard a loud popping noise, and looked over to see sparks shooting around our pie.  Big, scary sparks hopped to and fro over the cheesy crust.  Turns out the heating element is shot in this 70s model, and its repair has been added to the list of things to do for my fiancé.  In the meantime, I will return to my first love, my skillet.

When I don’t know what to cook, I like to play around with whatver I have on hand. I start by sautéing coarsely chopped onion in a dot of vegetable oil.  If I have been to the farmer’s market recently, I add fresh garlic, diced green peppers, and then chopped fresh tomatoes, in that order.  This is the basis for something yummy.  From there, add cumin, oregano and chile powder to go Mexican, turmeric, cumin, and coriander to go Indian, or basil and oregano to go Italian.  Lately I have been enjoying lots of fresh ground black pepper, cumin, basil and little lemon juice.  This combination works nicely with meat or cannellini beans over pasta or rice.  And if you have squash or zucchini, chop it up and throw it in with the green pepper.

Easy Summer Skillet Dinner (good even if your oven did not explode)

1 onion, coarsely chopped

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 green pepper, diced

1-2 ripe red tomatoes, chopped

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp dried basil

lemon juice and black pepper to taste

cooked shredded chicken, cooked ground chicken and/or 1 can cannellini beans

serve over rice or pasta

Sauté chopped onion until translucent, add garlic, stir.  Add peppers, cook 1 minute.  Add tomatoes, cook until juice is released.  Add spices and beans if using.  Add cooked meat and lemon juice and black pepper to taste.  Simmer 1 minute and serve over cooked rice or pasta.  Grate parmesan cheese over the top and yum!

featured image credit: Chiot’s Run

If you liked this post, please do us the further boon of Liking the Fierce and Nerdy page on FaceBook. Also, we’re giving great stream on Twitter, so do give us follow.