stories and recipes from a young mom who is still just trying to figure it all out!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

You Dirty Dirty Rice! ;)

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." so said the famous Mr. Charles D as we all may remember from High School. It is probably a very over-used quote, but I found it to be relevant to this week. It really is the best of times; Ally is getting cuter every day and continues to entertain me with huge smiles and sweet baby giggles. Beau and I are contentedly building our lives together and the dog has settled into his routine here. But it is also hard times... money, screaming babies, sleepless nights in the anticipation of some very mean teeth... So indeed, I am among some of the best times of my life, and some of the hardest. I suppose that is what happens when you have a baby young, but at the risk of sounding cliche, I wouldn't have it any other way.

This week has been particularly hard on the wallet and I am waiting for the next pay check before I go grocery shopping. So dinners have consisted of leftovers in the fridge thrown together into something hopefully edible. Last night we had bean chili with leftover taco steak thrown in, along with wild rice, spanish rice, and some salsa. Throw a little cheese on top and it wasn't half bad, plus I cleaned out my fridge with this one. But the real unexpected treasure was tonight's dinner. I had some ground beef in the freezer which I thawed, and a little bit of basmati rice in a bag stuffed into the back of the pantry. Out of this I made something quite delicious! I believe that part of what made this so very yummy was my chicken broth that I cooked the rice in. The recipe can be found in one of my past blogs. Basically just chicken, chicken bones, onion, celery, carrot, etc. I reccommend always making broth with all of your bones and keeping some in the fridge and some on the freezer. It will save a meal when you have limited ingredients.

Jasmine's Version of Dirty Rice

1 cup basmati rice
2 cups chicken broth
salt and pepper

1 pound ground beef
2 cloves garlic
a pinch of cayenne
a pinch of paprika
a pinch of whole cumin seeds
a pinch of mesquite seasoning
about 1/2 cup leftover spaghetti sauce
about 1/4 cup canned tomatoes

a little grated jack cheese on top

In a pot with a lid, boil the chicken broth, salt and pepper. Add the rice, turn down to a low simmer, cover and simmer the rice for 20 minutes. Turn it off and let it steam for a few minutes.

In a large saute pan, saute the garlic until golden. Add the ground beef and spices brown. Once the beef is cooked, add the spaghetti sauce and tomatoes to warm them. Let it all simmer together to create a little saucy meat mixture. To serve, put the rice down in a bowl, top with the meat and sprinkle with some cheese.


This really was very very tasty! And so stinken easy I can't stand it. :) I was also able to create a bunch of new baby food recipes while this was cooking that worked fantastic! Using the same basic, steam then blend method I cooked some apples, sweet potato, rice and carrots. All organic for my baby! Then I put some sweet potato in the food processor, a little but of rice and some apple puree. Blend it all up into a smooth puree and watch your baby love it! I would say the ratio was about 1/2 sweet potato, a little over 1/4 apples and the rest rice. (not the best ratio I have ever come up with, but hey, you get the idea right?) Also in my fridge is sweet potato rice, carrot apple, and apple. I am getting very good at this baby food making thing and I just love it! I wish it was as easy to feed grown ups...


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