The Lifesaver You Need in Your Kitchen (Besides a Crockpot)!

Tonight's meal was done in 17 minutes.

(Yeah, this is real time!)

So this bug/not flu but sort of flu/ plague continues and dinner time was upon me.

I'm not going to lie; there was a temptation to get some pizza delivered or call my husband see if he would pick up something on the way home.

But we had some great produced delivered last week, I wanted to put it to good use.

So I went to one of my base recipes* and got dinner up in 17 minutes. Here it is:

Sorry for the unfancy pic, I'm not a food blogger.

The secret item that helped me save dinner? Our cast iron skillet.

Behold the Cast Iron Pan's Skills

Besides our slow cooker, the skillet has bailed us out of many meals and allowed us to cook quickly. As an added bonus, clean up is usually easier as we only need the skillet to make dinner.

A good cast iron skillet (like we have here)  is a smart investment for the busy and frugal foodie that will last you a lifetime (some tips to take care of it).

So if you don't have one in your kitchen, please grab one. It's such a lifesaver!

My Italian(ish) Cast Iron Stir-fry

With a skillet, you can quickly whip up a stir-fry based on what you have on hand. That's what I did.

Tonight's meal is Italian inspired, chopping and combining:

• Italian hot sausage
• baby bella mushrooms
• sweet peppers
• onions
• broccoli
• a couple of pieces of pineapple
• two teaspoons of pesto

Rice on the side and beans rounded out everything.

Not fancy, but delicious, easy to make, and cheap. A triple win in my book!

*These are easy meals  (about 2o minutes or less) I go to when I'm pressed or time or just plain tired.