Chopped: Bennett Family Edition

Whenever I am having a lazy day, I enjoy spending hours watching the Food Network.  One of my favorite shows to watch is Chopped.  If you have never watched the show, there are four chefs competing.  They are given a basket of surprise ingredients and they have to cook a dish in 30 minutes. I love watching the chefs think of creative dishes in a high pressure environment.

Today, while I was on the phone with Michael we both asked each other at the same time, "What do you want for dinner tonight".  After I responded with "Jinx, you owe me a Dr. Pepper!", I told Michael I had an interesting idea.  I told him to go to the store and buy any ingredients he wanted without going over $30.00 and I would create a meal as soon as I got home.  He loved the idea and went straight to the grocery store.

I came home to find these groceries waiting for me.


(Cubed Steak, Spanish Rice Mix, Mangoes, Banana Peppers and a Marinade)

The only ingredients I added besides seasonings were, frozen vegetables, salsa and cream of chicken soup.



I knew right way that I wanted to add one of the mangoes to rice and I also wanted to spice up the rice by adding 1/2 cup of salsa.





For some reason I have never cooked cubed steak before. But knowing it is what is used in Salisbury steak I knew it would need some type of gravy, but I wanted to stick with a Spanish theme.

I first seasoned the steaks with garlic powder, salt, pepper and cumin. I then added the banana peppers.



I combined salsa with the cream of chicken soup and poured it over the steaks and baked at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes.




Honestly, I didn't know what to do with the marinade. I tasted it and immediately hated it, but I had to use it, so I cheated. I sauteed the vegetables in it.



Here is the complete meal.



We both loved the steaks and rice and we both agreed that marinade was nasty.

I still had an extra mango, so I chopped it and cooked it on the stove top with 1/4 cup of water, sugar and brown sugar and brought to a boil. I then added to individual baking dishes and topped with a brown sugar/butter mixture.



I baked for 30 minutes at 350.  The only thing missing was vanilla ice cream.



This evening was a lot fun.  I look forwarded to playing this game again. Maybe next time I will let you choose the ingredients.

Show me some love and let me know what you think in the comments below.