Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Necessity...The Mother of Invention

Isn't that the way the saying goes? Necessity is the mother of all invention.

Case in point: tonight's dinner.

I thought I had planned...Tonight's menu was a Salmon and Scalloped Potato Bake. I failed to pull the chopped spinach from the freezer this morning. Substitution: fresh spinach, sauteed in a bit of olive oil. I thought I bought a box of Betty Crocker Sour Cream & Chive Potatoes (please, don't judge). Turns out they were mashed. Substitution: shredded potatoes. Since I didn't have the boxed potatoes, I also didn't have the sauce. Substitution: a homemade Bechamel sauce.

What choice does a working mother have besides get creative? Sure I could have ordered take-out but I try hard to avoid that. Don't get me wrong, we do take out, but we try to plan for it.

The end result is in the oven baking right now. I'll let you know the results. My guess is that it will be better than the original recipe.

Have you had a similar situation in your kitchen? Did it force you to get creative? Was the end result better or worse?

5 comments:

Michelle @ Give a Girl a Fig said...

You had me at Bechamel sauce...I have a feeling it's going to be WAY better than the convenience recipe.

Anonymous said...

i am embarrassed to admit that I don't know what Bechamel sauce is...

Hawaii Planner said...

Bechamel sauce makes everything better! Yum. :-)

If I'm making a sweet recipe that calls for peanut butter, I occasionally use my dark chocolate peanut butter - it takes a great recipe & makes it a.m.a.z.i.n.g!

Sharon said...

Sounds delicious! I'm sure it came out great! Some of my best meals have been the "creative" ones...

Jennifer said...

i picked up boxed potatoes last week, no judgement here.

yes, we've done the let's see what we can make from what's in the cupboards nights, sometimes they do well, sometimes not so much.

hope it was a good one!