Resourceful and Delicious

There's nothing worse than coming home, opening the cabinets, and realizing they are completely EMPTY..or so it feels...

Last night, this is what I was faced with. Since my boyfriend and I are young adults in our early 20's living in San Francisco (one of the most expensive cities), it is not ALWAYS enjoyable to break the bank for a nice meal, no matter how good it is.

So last night I spent minutes, seemingly hours, browsing through cookbooks and online recipes trying to figure out what to make with our Trader Joe's Jalepeno Chicken Sausage. Now I know he could have easily ate "sausage on a plate", but I refused to allow it. Thus I presented myself with a typical challenge of a young broke woman: Unleash my inner chef goddess and use my resources to somehow come up with a healthy, delicious, and presentable dinner. Basically, turn the mundane into... hell yeah!

After a glass of wine and rummaging through the depths of our hollow cabinets, I came up with the following:

TJ Jalepeno Sausage (MT*)
Polenta ground
Shredded Mozzarella
Chicken Broth 
garlic <3
romain lettuce
tomato
feta
onion


So I made my own version of the polenta tossing in whenever and whatever I pleased. Some basil, some butter, cheese here, cheese there.  Throw in some pepper flakes and garlic...everything is better with garlic right?
Chopped up a salad with the leftovers that we had from the night before. And of course my homemade dressing with staples I ALWAYS have on hand (balsamic vinegar, evoo, red wine vinegar, dash of maple syrup, the real kind. (More on my dressings later..)
and Wah LA!

And I have to say, it turned out quite delicious! Now I know you might roll your eyes and say wow, my 3rd grade daughter could have done this. But could she..? I was quite impressed with our effort, no recipes, no stores. Maybe it wasn't my most professional work, but it left me with a smile on my face and no receipt to have to show for it.

*MT=MUST TRY