A New Dish

I'm not really a fan of New Year's resolutions, but I do believe in making some worthwhile changes. One of things I wanted to do was be a more adventurous eater. This also means that I need to be a more adventurous cook! I tend to pick out recipes that a) have a maximum of 10 ingredients...2 of these are usually salt and pepper; b) involves chicken or ground beef; c) takes no longer than 1 hour to prepare; and d) needs a 9x13 baking dish which means I'm making a casserole. I definitely need to branch out.

I looked through lots of cookbooks and found several interesting recipes that the "old" Mary would not have chosen. One recipe I found was for a Southwestern Steak Salad. This may not be adventurous to most people, but this is not something I would have normally chosen for several reasons. I usually do not put meat on a salad, especially steak. While I like Mexican food, I tend to stick with quesadillas, enchiladas and tacos. I prefer traditional salad dressings and I generally would not want ranch dressing to be mixed with smoky chipotle salsa.

I put all those ideas aside and tried this new dish. However, it did involve fewer than 10 ingredients and it took about 20 minutes to make...baby steps here. It turned out really well! Chad and I both liked it and now that I have almost an entire jar of salsa left, I think I will be making it a few more times. There is one thing that I could not do - any guesses? - eat the tomatoes! Chad had a few extra on his plate. (Some things may never change)