Homemade Rice-A-Roni

I set out to find a recipe for a homemade version of Rice-A-Roni for my sister. Her boys love the stuff and she wanted a healthier version she could prepare for them. Stephanie Cooks had a recipe on her blog from Recipezaar that seemed pretty simple so I thought I'd give it a try. I haven't had Rice-A-Roni in years, so I can't say how close it comes, but it is a tasty side dish and my ten month old son polished his plate. I followed the recipe pretty closely, using angel hair pasta instead of spaghetti, adding in some parsley, and adding instructions to cover the dish during cooking.

Rice-A-Roni

• 1/2 cup raw angel hair pasta broken into 1/2 inch long pieces
• 3/4 cup uncooked long-grain white rice
• 14 1/2 ounces broth
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• dried parsley

In medium skillet saute broken pasta pieces in butter, stirring constantly, until the pasta begins to brown. Add rice, stirring until the rice is well coated with the butter and the pasta browns a little more. Carefully pour in broth. Cover and simmer until liquid is absorbed. Stir in some parsley to give it a more authentic look.

Spinach Risotto

I recently bought some medium grain rice by mistake. While it tasted alright and my son loved it, I figured I would try something different with it. I found out that a lot of people use medium grain rice to make risotto. I'd never eaten risotto before, let alone cooked it, but I thought I'd give it a try. I used a recipe I found on Joelen's Culinary Adventures because it was simple and I had all the necessary ingredients already. The only variations I made from the original recipe was using the medium grain rice instead of the arborio rice, and I used more broth (probably because of the different rice). The recipe that follows is the recipe as I prepared it.

Spinach Risotto

• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups medium grain rice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup chopped frozen spinach
• salt and pepper to taste

Coat the bottom of a large saucepan with olive oil over medium heat. Add rice to pan and allow to toast up for a few minutes. When rice has turned slightly golden, add 1/2 - 1 cup of broth. Allow rice to absorb the broth and stir. Continue to add small amounts of broth slowly to the rice when its been absorbed. When all the liquid has been used, fold in spinach. Check for doneness and serve.

Chicken Fried Rice

I have made this recipe a few times now. I originally got it from Joelen's Culinary Adventures. If you haven't checked out her blog yet, you should, she is quite the busy foodie. I never thought that I could make a decent fried rice until I followed her instructions. The other night we were stuck on what to prepare for dinner, and we realized we had leftover chicken, rice from the Pork Chops in Tomatoes we'd just made, and veggies in the freezer. So we made up a quick Chicken Fried Rice that hubby says is better than at the restaraunts. I skipped a few ingredients from the original (because of an upset stomach from too much movie popcorn and laziness), which is listed above, and have the recipe we used below. Even with the limited seasonings in my version it is an incredibly flavorful dish. You could easily make this with any variety of meats and veggies.

Chicken Fried Rice

• 1 cup cooked chicken, chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 cups day old rice

Heat oil in a wok or large fry pan. Stir fry chicken until crispy, push to side of pan. Crack the eggs into the pan and scramble until cooked through. Add rice to the pan, crumbling it up as you do so to seperate the grains. Add soy sauce. Add frozen vegetables and heat through.

Pork Chops in Tomatoes

This is a simple and tasty meal that's also extremely healthy. It tastes even better when made with home-canned tomatoes, but would work well with store-bought as well. This is a dish that my parents made all the time while I was growing up that I would never eat, but I love it now.

Pork Chops in Tomatoes

• 6 pork chops from loin
• 1 quart canned tomatoes (mine included celery, garlic, peppers and onion)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut pork chops into small chunks, approximately 2 inches by 2 inches. In a Dutch oven, brown the pork in some olive oil. Remove from heat and pour tomatoes over top. Cover, and bake for approximately 45 minutes to an hour. Pork pieces should be fork tender at this point. Serve over rice.

Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya

My husband is allowing me to blog one of his meals tonight. This is a recipe that my husband got from a co-worker years ago. The original recipe was different and over the years it has morphed into what we make today. It's not your traditional jambalaya, but it is a very tasty one-pot meal. Here at home we usually serve it with tortilla chips, when my husband makes it at work he usually serves cornbread.

Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya

• 2 1/2 to 3 pounds chicken (can be a whole chicken or boneless, skinless breasts)
• 2 cups water
• 1 pound ground sausage
• 1 cup uncooked rice
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 2 16 ounce cans stewed tomatoes, undrained
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 hot pepper, chopped
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can corn, drained
• salt and pepper to taste

Boil the chicken in the water along with salt and pepper. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove chicken, strain broth. If using a whole chicken, remove meat from bones and skin. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. If using chicken breasts you may want to add some bouillon to the water to make a more flavorful broth.

In the same pot, brown the sausage. Drain fat. Add in the chicken, broth and all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes.

For the best flavor, use the same pot for all steps of the recipe.

Cabbage Roll Casserole

First off, I'm going to apologize again for the picture. I promise it looks more appetizing than this in person, but when it gets dark in Michigan at 5:30 at night, it's tough to get a decent shot.

On to your regularly scheduled blog post . . .

I had cabbbage rolls for the first time a few years ago and decided I needed to try to make them at home. Then I got to thinking about all the work involved and changed my mind. So I hit up Recipezaar and found this. With just a few tiny adjustments I got to my current recipe.

I usually use my favorite Bob Evan's Spicy Hot Sausage, but this time we had some sausage we bought from a fundraiser so we used that instead. I also usually use regular green cabbage, but switched in Nappa cabbage instead. I think that if I were to use Nappa again I would eliminate the water and reduce the oven time, as it was a bit soupier than normal.

Cabbage Roll Casserole

• 1 pound ground sausage or beef
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 quart stewed tomatoes
• 1/2 cup uncooked long grain rice
• 6 cups cabbage, shredded
• 1 cup water
• salt and pepper to taste

Brown meat in a sauce pan. Add onion and garlic, saute until tender. Add tomatoes and water. Bring to a boil, add rice. Cover and simmer 20 minutes. Place half of cabbage in a greased casserole dish, cover with half of rice mixture. Repeat layers. Cover and bake in a 350 degree oven for one hour.

Costa Rican Rice

On our honeymoon in Costa Rica my husband and I ate a ton of great food. Many people will tell you that Costa Rica is not a good vacation destination for a foodie, but I think that if you enjoy good food you'll enjoy Costa Rica. The food we had there was all very simple, but so flavorful.

One of the activities we did on our trip was to go Canyoning with Pure Trek. This was an amazing experience doing waterfall rappels in gorgeous rain forest surroundings (that's me dangling from a rope up above). After our morning trip we were taken back to their headquarters for lunch. We were served a delicious and simple meal of a rice dish, some red beans, some fruit, and a fruit drink (I think I'm remembering this all correctly three years later).

Recently we were talking and both thought it would be great if we could try to recreate that rice dish we were served, so I contacted Pure Trek through their web page and asked for the recipe. I soon heard back from them, and the following recipe is what they sent back with just a few minor adjustments of my own. I'm not a really big fish fan, but this is a good way to eat it without it seeming like I am.

Costa Rican Rice

• 2 tilapia fillets
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 2-3 cups day old cold white rice
• 2 medium carrots, shredded
• 1 cup peas
• 1 cup corn
• 3 teaspoons powdered chicken stock
• salt and pepper to taste

In a deep sided pan, fry tilapia fillets in a little bit of olive oil until done (this took me just a few minutes on each side). Remove to a plate and flake. In the same pan saute garlic and onion. Add rice and stir together. Add carrots, peas and corn and heat through. Add back the tilapia flakes. Stir in chicken stock. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Stuffed Pepper Casserole

Stuffed peppers were always a big hit in our house, but the leftovers were a lot of work since whole peppers take forever to reheat in the microwave. After chopping up my pepper to reheat one day I got to thinking that I could just make it that way to start with. And Stuffed Pepper Casserole was born. This is a very simple and very forgiving recipe. This time around we went heavy on the veggies and light on the meat. You can just as easily double the meat for a heartier meal. You'll notice that there are no seasonings in this dish. That's because we use home-canned tomatoes, which are so delicious they're all the flavor you need. If you use commercially canned tomatoes you may want to play around with some herbs and spices.

Stuffed Pepper Casserole

• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1 quart stewed tomatoes, divided
• 3-4 medium green peppers, chopped into large bite-size pieces
• 1 1/2 cups instant white rice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix beef, half of the tomatoes, green peppers and rice in a large bowl with hands. Put into a casserole dish. Dump the remaining tomatoes on top. Bake for approximately 1 hour, or until you get a thermometer reading of 160 degrees.