Know what sucks? Yesterday the babies decided they were done with two naps. *sigh*

I mean, I knew it was gonna happen at some point… but so SOON?? I was really starting to get the hang of the two-naps/day deal. Now I shall pout.

On the flip side, their one nap is super long and the are DECIDEDLY ready for bed come 7:45p. In fact, J was literally climbing up the sides of his crib last night, trying to get in.

Since their afternoon nap has gone the way of the DoDo, my meal prep time waved sayonara as well. This month’s standby has become sautéed mushrooms and spinach.

Tonight I added in leftover chicken (2 boneless, skinless breasts & a thigh/leg combo), then ladled on some glorious Garlic Confit – Good Lord that stuff makes me so happy.

OH! That reminds me! One of the blogs I think is funfunfun to read (HowSweetEats)  just yesterday wrote about the joy and beauty that is Garlic Confit. Can you picture me doing a little clapping-dance-for-joy! I think just about everyone on the PLANET needs to know about Garlic Confit.

This is REALLY good – but that shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s spinach, mushrooms, chicken and GARLIC CONFIT!

Spinach and Mushroom Rice with Chicken by Me

Printable Recipe HERE

Dairy-FREE, Gluten-FREE

Ingredients:

2 packages Button Mushrooms, cleaned and roughly chopped

1 package Spinach, defrosted – of fresh if you have it on hand. If you’re using fresh wash it and give it a rough chop.

Leftover Chicken – if you have leftover, great. Otherwise you can bake off a couple of breasts, use deli meat, rotisserie chicken, whatever.

3 Tablespoons Garlic Confit – include some cloves. They’ll make you happy.

1 cup Basmati Rice

1 1/2 cups Stock of your choice **Tonight I used 1 cup no-chicken chicken stock and 1/2 cup beef broth…basically, what I had open in the fridge.

How To:

1- Whack a large skillet (I like using my cast iron whenever I can) onto your stove. Turn the heat to medium-high and let it heat up. DON’T ADD IN ANYTHING YET. The pan is hot enough that a drop of water sizzles immediately. You’ll slide your chopped mushrooms off your cutting board and straight into the hothot pan. Leave them sit for 2-3 minutes, giving them time to start releasing their water. Stir the mushrooms so that all sides have a chance to sit on the hot pan.

2- If you’re using defrosted spinach take a minute to squeeze out all the water you can. Dump your handfuls of freshly-squeezed spinach into the skillet with the mushrooms. Stir.

3- In 2 or 3 minutes most of the moisture should be gone. Add in your chicken and let it warm up a bit. Turn your heat all the way down and ladle in your Garlic Confit. Stir to combine and leave all your flavors to meld while you go make your rice.

Closeup Time!

4- Now, I have a rice cooker to do all my dirty work. If you’re going a different way – enjoy. I suck at stovetop rice. Somehow I can flip a Crepe with the best of ’em, but normal stuff like Rice and Oatmeal totally elude me. *sigh*

I dumped a cup of Basmati rice into the rice cooker bowl, rinsed it twice and added in 1 1/2 cups of stock. I flipped the switch to cook and went to deal with screaming toddlers.

5- When the rice is done cooking, scrape it into the skillet with the mushrooms, spinach, chicken and garlic confit. Stir and season with a little salt and pepper. If it looks a little dry, please add another Tablespoon of Garlic Confit. You know something? Even if it doesn’t, you should add another one. It’s THAT good.

Nom nom nom

End Result: C and I both really liked this take on my standard mushroom-spinach side dish. J even ate a few bites, however R decided that she was only interested in eating bread for dinner. She declared it GOOD. *sigh*

Pan full of PRE-RICE chicken-mushroomy-spinachy-joy

Maybe tomorrow I’ll add in some scrambled eggs and make this into a frittata…