Jambalaya

Attempted to make a poor man’s jambalaya today.

Essentially, I did not feel like buying all these herbs and spices that the recipe I was looking at called for, and reduced it down to a $1 Kroger Italian seasoning blend. Aww yeah.. getting fancy up in here! But for real, it just isn’t economic for me to buy $3/$5/etc canisters of thyme/bay leaves/etc (respectively) when I know I’m rarely going to use them. So off to a ghetto fabulous start.

It turned out just ok due to a series of mishaps. First, was the above-mentioned “improper” seasoning, but that really wasn’t a big deal. The main problem was that I did not have a big enough pot/pan for everything! I couldn’t add the meat back in with the other ingredients because the pan was already brimming with water that I added for the rice. In the end, I had bland, but nicely cooked rice/vegetables, and really salty chicken/sausage. I would have liked to let them mingle together as they cooked to balance it all, but that’s life. I had to eat at least a bite of meat to counter the blandness of everything else, and a bite of everything else to counter the saltiness of the meat. aka it wasn’t cohesive.

In conclusion, next time I will:
-Still use the same seasoning, if others aren’t available. Ain’t no shame with cutting a few corners if it works.
-Find a bigger pot. I would say to reduce portions, but honestly, what am I going to do with half a can of diced tomatoes? Well, I guess there are tons of possibilities, so..
-Reduce portions, if applicable