What. A. Day.
First of all, happy first week of school to everyone! For us, yesterday was a very exciting day. Our little first grader, while at first was very apprehensive, became energized for his first day. I know I was ready for his first day, too. There’s something about structure and a solid routine that really revs my engine.
So after I got the little dude off to school, gave him a big hug and kiss, then another and another, it was time for me to set my sails towards home. I had a few errands that needed doing in San Marcos, so after stopping back at the house for a quick bite to eat, I headed back out on the road to do what needed doing.
After errand #1 was scratched off the list, I pulled out onto the frontage road of I-35, and felt something weird. My car was thumping. Yes, thumping. I immediately pulled off into the parking lot for some random restaurant, hopped out of my car and inspected my tires. Nothing seemed amiss, so back in the car, and back on the frontage road I went. Thump, thump, thump. Crap.
But that’s when something dislodged itself from my front left tire and flew up in the air. I crossed my fingers whatever that piece of shrapnel was didn’t hit anyone else, and the sound of thumping ceased. Hallelujah.
Then, bangbangthumpthumpthhthhthhthhuuuummmpppbangbang. WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?!? Pulling off into the closest place I could, a Chevron gas station, I parked and got BACK out of the car for another inspection. A fully flat tire greeted me. How did it get so flat so fast?!? WHAT WAS THAT THING THAT WAS LODGED IN THERE?! WHAT DO I DO?!
Happy, Happy. Joy, Joy. AAA is so worth the yearly fee, because I was able to have someone come out to meet me within 40 minutes. Wee. I thought that once he would arrive, my day’s drama would subside and everything would be peaceful.
But, no. Somehow, it took this guy 30 minutes to get the lug nuts from the rim off so he could remove the tire, then once the spare was properly secured, he discovered that the jack mysteriously broke under my car, and would NOT come out… You’ve really got to be kidding me by now, right? Poor man was sweating oceans in the afternoon heat trying to use his hands to pry this thing that wasn’t moving out from under the car, so that’s when I got the brilliant idea to solicit random strangers for the use of their jack. One VERY nice and sweet man allowed me the use of his jack to lift my vehicle up higher to remove the first jack.
Once all of that was said and done, it was time to rush back to pick the kiddo up from school. No grocery shopping, nothing done. Awesome. When we got home, I sat down, nearly nodded off from all of the excitement of the day, but what would we be eating for dinner? Nothing at this point, since I had zero inspiration, and zero food.
Pinterest, save me! SAVE ME! I typed in a variety of words into the search feature, like “super easy weeknight meals,” and “dinner ideas with no ingredients.” Stuff like that. And one recipe that kept popping up time and time again was this super generic, 5-ingredient meal that actually looked really good. Chicken + Green Beans + Potatoes + Butter + Italian dressing seasoning mix. There were SO many variations on this dish, ranging from using canned beans to fresh, using baking potatoes or red potatoes or fingerlings… Thighs to breasts too. So I picked my favorite things from each and went with it.
It piqued my fancy, so I picked myself up, got BACK in the car, and prayed for an adventure-free trip to the local market. I picked up the stuff I didn’t have at the house (chicken, beans, potatoes and Italian dressing mix), and headed home. 25 minutes well used, I’d say.
I got home, washed/trimmed/cut the beans, cut the chicken, washed/cut the potatoes, arranged them all in pretty rows in a glass baking pan, put a stick of butter over it all, and sprinkled the packet of dressing seasoning over the top. Once covered with foil, it was ready to bake at 350F for an hour. Then boom, done. NO WORK. ONE DISH. See? THIS is why it appealed to me. After a rough day of non-stopness, a simple, delicious home-cooked meal that takes virtually no time in the kitchen is just plain perfect.
An hour later, the house was smelling amazing, the memories of car troubles were melting away, and when the timer went off, dinner was ready. Simple as that. Sweet. And the whole time I was “cooking,” I was secretly Facebooking and reading BuzzFeed (I have an addiction.) Shh…
As for the taste? Awesome. The chicken was SUPER moist, tender and flavorful. The potatoes were PERFECTLY cooked, and the beans were toothsome, punchy and wonderful. I think next time I may cut it down to ½ or even 2/3 of a stick of butter rather than the whole shebang, but we’ll see. I also will up the chicken poundage, since we barely had enough for the three of us. I highly recommend you keep this little gem of a recipe in your arsenal, because you never know when you’ll need a super simple, easy dinner that’ll be more than satisfying, and low-impact on you AND your budget. Yes, it’s super cheap too.
- 2 lb. chicken breasts, cut in half width ways
- 2 cups of fresh green beans, washed, trimmed and cut in half
- 5-7 red potatoes, washed and cut into quarters
- 1/2-2/3 stick of butter
- Italian Dressing Seasoning Packet
- Line the cleaned/cut beans, cut chicken and cleaned/cut potatoes up in a 9x13 baking dish
- Place pats of butter all over, evenly distributing, but paying a bit more special attention to the chicken and potatoes
- Sprinkle contents of seasoning packet all over the dish
- Cover with foil
- Bake for 1 hour at 350F