The Queen of Improv - And I Don't Mean Tina Fey from SNL

Okay, I know Tina Fey isn't on SNL anymore, so don't harass me about that.

What I mean is Jason and I have been trying to live frugally this month. Apparently frugally is a word because my computer didn't underline it in red. Amazing.

When I say frugally, what I mean is that we have very little "expendable" income. Waste not, want not ... something like that.

So far this January I've made chicken stock from scratch (a wonderful idea from Debra), improvised a chicken casserole, and improvised a Rachael Rae dish.

We had company over on Tuesday. I fully intended to make Jason's favorite chicken casserole, green beans, mashed potatoes, the works. I trotted to the grocery store in the POURING rain, fully convinced that I had stuffing in the cabinet. Ever had one of those "uh-oh" moments right as you start to prepare a meal. That was me Tuesday night. I mixed the filling together (ran right past the moment-of-no-return in dinner preparation) and went to the cabinet for the stuffing only to realize that there was none there, so I quickly boiled some rice and we had chicken and RICE casserole. Nice, huh. Oh, and in case you're wondering, there were no mashed potatoes.

The real point of this post was to tell you about the dish I prepared last night. I saw it on Rachael Rae's talk show. It was that end of the show deal where she prepares tonight's dinner. I thought it looked tasty, so put my own spin on it. She called it something fancy, but I'll just call it macaroni and meatball soup?.

Here's how it goes:

Dice 3 carrots, 1 white onion, and 1/2 bell pepper (she calls for celery, but we only had a bell pepper - and a half one at that)

While you're dicing, brown one piece of bacon in olive oil in the bottom of a large pot. Cut the bacon up into small pieces before you brown it.

Next, place vegetables in the pot with the bacon. Let them become tender.

Grate or dice 2 cloves of garlic into the pot.

I then put a can of tomato sauce in. She calls for some tomato paste, but again, we had none, so sauce went in.

Then put in about 3 cans of chicken stock after the tomato sauce has worked through the vegetables.

Bring that mixture to a boil; meanwhile, mix up the meatballs.

I used hot sausage, mixed in some cheddar cheese, breadcrumbs and an egg. Form into small meatballs. She used a melon baller.

Once the mixture in the pot is at a rolling boil, put in 2 cups of macaroni pasta and drop the meatballs into the pot. Let it cook for about 10 minutes covered.

Then serve.

It was fantastic and extremely easy - a one pot wonder.

Well, I'm off to bed.