Mexican Rice

Is it possible that I haven't ever posted this??  It's a family staple.  We have as often as every other week, probably, since I have all these ingredients on hand dependably.  It's ready to eat in less than 40 minutes, and something that everybody in the family devours (except Clara, but she will soon!)  Both versions are yummy, and there are pros and cons to both.  I have done all kinds of variations, including using chorizo or ground pork instead of hamburger, chili beans instead of black beans, fresh tomatoes or any version of canned (including additional sauce or crushed tomatoes).  This last time I even threw in handfuls of finely-chopped spinach at the very end for extra nutrition, and it actually made it prettier to eat!

The original recipe is here, and used to be on the back of the Rice-a-roni box.  Travis originally made this in college, and I think it was his adaptation to eat it with tortilla chips.  I'll give him credit - that's 90% of the genius of the dish!  I developed the homemade version because I think rice-a-roni is ridiculous because, duh, I have rice and seasonings in my pantry, and who needs all that salt??  But if I have the rice-a-roni on hand, Travis will use it and make dinner for the family on occasion, which is a total redeemer for the boxed stuff. My standard disclaimer, of course: I never actually measure as I'm cooking, so beware of the amounts.

Enjoy!

Mexican Rice Dinner (with the box)

1 package Mexican-Style Rice-a-Roni

½ lb. ground beef

½ of one large green pepper, diced

1 ¾ C. water

1 C. frozen corn

½ can of black beans

1 can diced tomatoes (with green chiles or jalapenos is good!)

Shredded cheese for topping

Tortilla chips for dipping

 

Brown the ground beef and green pepper, and drain.  Add the rice-a-roni, water, seasoning mix, corn, black beans, and tomatoes.  Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes until rice is tender.  Top with cheese and eat each bite with the tortilla chips.

Mexican Rice Dinner (without the box)

1 C. rice

1 lb. ground beef

1 large green pepper, diced

2 T. flour

2 tsp. chili powder

½ tsp. cumin

salt and pepper

1 ¾ C. water

1 C. frozen corn

1 can of black beans

1 can diced tomatoes (with green chiles or jalapenos is good!)

Shredded cheese for topping

Tortilla chips for dipping

Brown the ground beef and green pepper, and drain.  Sprinkle the flour over the meat (aim for the remaining fat) and add spices, salt, and pepper.  Add the rice, water, corn, black beans, and tomatoes.  Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes until rice is tender.  Top with cheese and eat each bite with the tortilla chips.

Chicken Pot Pie

Okay, there's not really anything new or novel about this recipe, but it's really simple, and sooooo tasty.  I've made this a couple of times using my precooked chicken that I like to do, with six giant chicken breasts, roasting them off all at once in the oven.  I've got an easy seasoning that i put on it - S&P, garlic powder, thyme - and then it's ready for anything.  I pick the meat off and put it in the freezer, but then it's so easy to throw the bones and skins into a pot with some water and let them simmer for a couple hours for some super-tasty stock.

So, with precooked chicken and stock available, this recipe is a snap! Of course, you can use frozen mixed veggies in place of fresh, but I had carrots and green beans on hand and used frozen peas and corn.  And you could use canned biscuit topping, but it's not nearly as good as this recipe.  I use a biscuit cutter to get rounds, and smash them out, if I need to, to fit overtop the ramekins. 

Chicken Pot Pie

½ C. each green beans, peas, corn, and carrots (chopped)

1 T. oil

1 T. butter

2 T. flour

1 C. chicken stock or broth

½ C. milk

1 C. cooked chicken, chopped

Saute the carrots and green beans in the oil and butter.  Add the flour, and let cook for a minute.  Add the liquid, and let simmer until thickened.  Add the chicken, and turn the heat down until ready to add to ramekins.

Prepare the biscuit topping (below).  Spoon the filling into ramekins, and top with topping, baking according to recipe directions.

Buttermilk Biscuits

1 ¾ C. flour

4 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. cream of tartar

¼ tsp. baking soda

1/3 C. butter / shortening

¾ C. buttermilk

Mix flour with baking powder, salt, cream of tartar, and baking soda.  Cut in butter.  Add buttermilk and stir with fork until soft dough is formed.  Place dough on lightly floured board and knead 20 times.  Pat or roll lightly until dough is ½” thick.  Cut with floured 2-inch cookie cutter.  Brush with melted butter.  Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 450° for about 12 min.  Makes 12 biscuits.

Raspberry Pecan Cake Balls

So, cake balls are all the rage these days, and I've gotta say, I have not been that impressed.  First off, if you put them on a lollipop stick, they are IMPOSSIBLE to eat.  They are generally made with canned frosting (sorry, but, bleh!) and by the time they're mashed and molded, the texture is awful.  And then dip them in almond bark?  It's so sweet at that point that it makes the back of my jaws hurt just to think about it.

But, what do I do with my leftover cake scraps and frosting from the Hello Kitty cake that I made for Audrey's birthday?  I came up with this:  substitute seedless raspberry jam for some of the frosting, and roll the balls in nuts instead of dipping in almond bark.  Serve in a bowl with ice cream and chocolate syrup, and it's like, gourmet cake balls.  Mmmmm!  As usual with my recipes, the amounts are approximate, but not important, because as long as you do it to your taste, you'll like it.  Right? :)

Raspberry Pecan Cake Balls

1 9x13 cake (baked)

1 C. frosting

1/2 C. seedless raspberry jam

½ C. chopped pecans

Ice cream

Chocolate syrup

If your cake is cold, heat up the frosting 10 – 15 seconds in the microwave until it’s slightly runny.  Add the raspberry jam, and stir well.  Roll the cake balls into 1” balls, and roll in the pecans.  Serve with ice cream and chocolate syrup.

Hamburger Zucchini Comfort Food

Travis took the kids to the park while I made supper tonight, so I had a bit more brainpower available to be creative.  I came up with this really yummy stew, I guess you'd call it.  I think you could thin it out for soup, but it was really good as almost a gravy over half a batch of this polenta.  The girls hated the polenta, though, so next time I would serve it over mashed potatoes.  With crispy sweet pickles, if you have them.  :)  Mmmmm!!!

And in case you haven't picked up on the trend, dinnertime at my house is an adventure in finding different ways to serve meat, beans, and potatoes, while hiding as many nutritious veggies as I can as tiny bits in a tasty sauce.  Bonus points for using up leftover ingredients from previous meals, but docked points for making it too creamy for dear hubby.

Hamburger Zucchini Stew

1 lb ground beef

1 large zucchini

½ green pepper, diced

½ tsp. onion flakes

½ tsp. garlic powder

Salt and pepper

½ tsp. dried basil

½ can of chicken broth

1 can of white (great northern) beans

½ can of mushroms

Brown the ground beef, and chop up the zucchini into bite-sized cubes.  Add the veggies and seasonings to browned beef, and use the broth to scrape up the browned bits off the bottom of the pan.  Add the beans and mushrooms, and simmer until ready to serve.

Cabbage Hamburger Dinner

It's too warm to really be fall yet, but my tummy was craving something hearty.  I adapted a soup recipe for a stovetop casserole, which is one of my family's favorite style of food.  Smells pretty good in here!

Cabbage Hamburger Dinner

1 lb. ground beef

3 - 4 C. cabbage, chopped

16-oz. can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained

 8-oz. can tomato sauce

1 C. carrots, diced

½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp dried minced onion

½ tsp. dried parsley

salt and pepper

In Dutch oven or large skillet, brown beef.  Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer for 1 hour or until cabbage and carrots are tender.

Pumpkin Muffins

It's 53° this morning, so I decided to heat up the kitchen for breakfast.  Time for some fall spice! 

Pumpkin Muffins

1 28-oz can of pumpkin

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. allspice

1 ½ C. white sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup melted margarine or butter

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 C. flour

1 C. whole wheat flour

1 C. raisins

Mix pumpkin, spices, sugar, eggs, and butter.  Mix dry ingredients, and combine with wet. Pour into 24+ muffin tins, and bake at 350°F for 25 - 30 min.

Chili Cornbread

I make this all the time, and I can't remember where I got the idea so I'm not sure it's really an original recipe.  But it's really tasty, and very simple.  I used to put onions in it, of course, but haven't really missed them since taking them out of our diets.  The flavor varies every time I make it, since I use all different variations of canned beans and tomatoes, and even used half hamburger and half chorizo which was super tasty also.  So, you can't go wrong, really!

Chili Cornbread

1 lb. ground beef

1 green pepper, diced

1 can chili beans or black beans

1 can diced tomatoes (w/chilies, opt.)

Chili powder and cumin, to taste

Salt and pepper

1 box Jiffy cornbread mix

1/3 C. milk

1 egg

Cheddar cheese, for serving

Brown the ground beef in the skillet.  Add the diced green pepper, beans, and tomatoes.  Season to taste (depending if you use chili beans or not, or unsalted tomatoes, etc.).  Prepare the cornbread mix with milk and egg.  Transfer the beef mixture to ramekins, for individual servings, or leave in an oven-safe skillet to serve family style.  Pour the cornbread mix overtop, and bake 15 – 20 min at 400°F.  Top with cheese for serving.