Mexican Rice

I grew up in the California Bay Area where there was no racial majority at my high school. It was such a culturally diverse place to grow up and I LOVED it. Not only did I have access to a great mix of friends, but I had access to their authentic, wonderful food! There were little hole-in-the-wall restaurants and mom & pop shops tucked into nearly every single shopping center. And it was wonderful! The Chinese food was one of my favorites, but miles above it were the Mexican cafes! And my all-time favorite is a good carne asada burrito - grilled beef, whole pinto beans, a little rice & lots of salsa. Ahhhh..... I digress. The Mexican food/culture is one of the biggest things I miss about home! I learned to cook a few things, though - so when I'm really craving it I can whip up some authenticity here at home. This is the rice we had with our carne asada street tacos the other night. Good stuff!

You'll need:


Instant white rice, olive oil, onion, garlic, chicken broth & salsa - I always use Pace Picante Medium.

Start out by mincing your garlic (or using the jarred stuff as I sometimes do) and dicing up about 1/4 of the onion (you'll only need 2 tablespoons). Put the oil in a skillet over medium heat & get it hot. Add the onion & garlic; saute about 5 minutes. Just get some color on it but watch closely - the garlic will sneak up & burn on ya!


Add the rice - just straight outta the box. Don't cook it or anything - just toss the dry rice in the pan. Give it a few stirs & brown it up a smidge. Maybe 5 more minutes.


After that add in your salsa & chicken broth.


Cover the pan & reduce the heat. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring once or twice as it cooks.


Serve it up!!
(I totally forgot to take a freshly plated picture - sorry, you get my plate after I'd eaten most of my dinner!! LOL I had to add some new rice so I could get this pic for you!!)

Mexican Rice:

2 Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 cup minute rice
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup salsa (Pace Picante, medium is my recommendation)

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion & garlic; saute about 5 minutes.

Mix in rice & stir occasionally. Once it begins to brown add broth & salsa.

Reduce heat, cover & simmer for 20 minutes, stirring once or twice.

Wordless Wednesday - Wouldn't it be nice!?

Chicken Cacciatore

As many of you know, my husband is a fire fighter. And yes, the rumors are true... fire fighters can cook! Well, not all of them - but mine sure can! And every once in a while I let him have free reign of the kitchen here at home & magical things happen. Here is his chicken cacciatore - and rather than serving it on the traditional pasta you might expect, he cooked up some spaghetti squash & forked it out of the shell into wanna-be-noodles. And you know what? It was good. And way more guilt free than the carb-loaded pasta. And you don't get that heavy-gut feeling of being loaded up on the starchy carb. You really don't even notice that you've swapped out the noodles - so you should try it! You'll love it.

Ingredients:


Any combination of chicken breasts & thighs, flour, salt, pepper, onion, garlic, red bell pepper, a large can of diced tomatoes, capers, chicken broth, white cooking wine, oregano. And, if you're doing the noodle swap, grab a spaghetti squash.

First up - dice your produce.


Now get your oil hot in the pan over med-high heat. Salt & pepper your chicken - heavy on the black pepper - then dredge it through some flour & pop it into the hot pan.


You don't need to cook it through - just get it browned - about 5 minutes per side.


Remove the chicken & set it aside. Drop the heat down to medium & add your peppers/onions/garlic to the pan & let it saute for about 5 minutes. Get your onions tender.


Add the wine. Simmer it for 3 or 4 minutes then add the broth, can of tomatoes, capers & oregano. Give it a good stir.


Put the chicken back in the pot. Swish it around to coat it in the sauce then drop your heat down a little more, to med-low. Cook it til the chicken is done - about 30 minutes.


From here you can either just serve the chicken whole with the sauce on your noodles. Or, if you're like me, you can dice up the chicken then return it to the sauce & stir it around to cover it all again.

If you're gonna do the squash, you'll cut it in half, lengthwise, cover it in plastic wrap & pop it into the microwave, cut side up for 15-20 minutes, depending on how crunchy/soft you like your squash. It'll get hot so use an oven mit to take it out. Scrape the seed & guts out of the middle & toss them in the trash. Then just start scraping out the squash into a bowl.


Aaaaaaaaaaaand you're done!


See the 'noodles' under there!!?


YUM! It smells amazing, it tastes amazing... win-win! And you can add one more WIN to that if you can get your husband to cook it!!! LOL

Chicken Cacciatore:

4 Chicken thighs
2 Chicken breasts
Salt & pepper, to taste
1/2 cup flour
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, diced
3/4 cups white cooking wine
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes, UNdrained
3/4 cup chicken broth
3 Tbsp capers, drained
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

Dice your onion, pepper and garlic. Set aside.

Add oil to a large skillet over med-high heat. As that's heating salt & pepper your chicken. Go a little heavy on the pepper. Dredge chicken in the flour & add to the hot oil in the pan. Cook about 5 minutes per side, until nicely browned. Remove chicken; set aside.

Reduce the heat a smidge - to medium. Put your pepper, onion & garlic in the hot pan (with the oil/drippings left behind from the chicken) & saute for about 5 minutes, until the onion is tender. Add the wine & simmer for 3 or 4 minutes. Add the broth, tomatoes, capers & oregano. Stir & return the chicken to the pot.

Drop the heat to med-low and cook until the chicken is done - about 30 minutes. Serve over noodles.

Source: Giada De Laurentiis

Pineapple Glazed Ham

Costco sells these Ham Steaks. They come individually wrapped, 3 in a pack & they're like $12-$14. Each one is the perfect size to serve my [not so] little family. I cut it into 8 pieces (like you would a pizza) & each kids gets one, Hubby & I each take 2.

I LOVE THEM.

I really, truly do. Not so much because they're amazingly delicious or anything - I mean, they're ham. Not gourmet ham, but not trash ham. Just good, acceptable ham. So why do I love them? Because you can keep them in the freezer & if you have a night where dinner time sneaks up on you & you have the ever-familiar Oh Crap!! moment (ya, you know what I'm talking about) you can stick this little plastic sealed steak of ham in the sink, cover it with hot water & it's thawed in like 5 minutes. Then pop it into a pan over med heat, 3-4 minutes per side & you're done! From Oh Crap!! to DONE! in under 15 minutes. High 5's for Mom! This week I dressed it up with a pineapple glaze, but oft times I just serve it straight or with a squirt of mustard.

Let's get cooking!


Ham, brown sugar, crushed pineapple, ground mustard, cornstarch.

If you're just making this to have right then & there just mix things in a bowl. But this is also a wonderful freezer meal that you can prepare ahead. My pictures reflect the freezer prep just because I felt like doing it that way for the pics. But no need to spend a Ziplock bag of you don't want to.

Mix everything but the ham in your bag/bowl.


Add the ham. (If you're not going into the freezer you can skip this step!)


Dump everything together into a large skillet over medium heat. Cook about 4 minutes per side.


Serve with some of the pineapple sauce spooned over the top & enjoy!

Pineapple Glazed Ham:

Ham Steak
1 14-oz can crushed pineapple, undrained
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 Tbsp cornstarch

Mix everything but the ham together in a bowl.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Spray with a shot of PAM & add the ham & pineapple mixture to the pan. Cook about 4 minutes per side & enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday - Mama's Boys

Meatball Subs

This is seriously one of the easiest but still super delicious dinners we do around here. I suppose you could make it more complicated by doing homemade marinara & meatballs from scratch but that kinda kills the quick-and-easy appeal of this one! Just toss your fixings in the crock post around lunch time & by dinner all you have to do is serve it up!

The shopping list:


Frozen meatballs (I get the enormous bag of Italian Style from Costco), a jar of your favorite marinara (my absolute all-time favorite jarred sauce has to be Newman's Own Sockarooni!), some hoagie rolls & shredded Parmesan (not the powdered kind - you want something that will melt down over it). Provolone or Mozzarella slices would also be great!

Throw the meatballs & sauce in the crock pot. I use about 8 meatballs per sub (this time that was 32 - one jar of sauce is the perfect amount for this many meatballs, resulting in 4 full-sized subs).


Give them a stir, put the lid on & walk away for about 6 hours (on low). Stir them a time or two as they go. This isn't totally essential, though, so if you've got somewhere to be just ignore them altogether! They won't mind.


When you're ready to eat just toast up your buns & add the meatballs.


Add some cheese & either just close it & let the heat melt it a bit or pop it under the broiler for a minute to get a good, gooey melt!


Now wasn't that easy!!??

Dinner is SERVED!

Meatball Subs:
(to make 4 full-sized subs)

32 frozen meatballs
1 jar of non-meat spaghetti sauce
4 hogie rolls
Shredded Parmesan or sliced Provolone or Mozzarella

Put meatballs & sauce into the crockpot, set on low. Stir well, cover & cook for 6 hours.

Toast the rolls. Add 8 meatballs per roll, top with cheese.

Slow Cooker

Tangy/Savory Basted Chops

Kind of a long name, huh? I was trying to think of something better to call them but I'm starting to learn that naming a dish is a difficult task! I have little names that I call them but "those Worcestershire & lemon chops" just doesn't feel good enough to go public with, you know what I mean?! These are good chops. There's enough soy to play well with the Worcestershire but not so much that it over powers the dish. And then there's the subtle bit of lemon that pushes through with the brown sugar to give some great tang. So they're savory - but they're also tangy - and completely delicious!

Our ingredients:


Pork chops, ketchup, brown sugar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, canola oil (or veg), garlic powder.

First get your chops into your baking dish & sprinkle them with garlic powder.


Now grab a bowl & mix the rest of the ingredients to make our sauce.


Pour half the sauce over the chops & spread it around to cover them.


Pop into an 350 oven & bake for about 15 minutes each side (or longer if you're using thick chops.)

Flip 'em & baste the other side with the rest of the sauce. Cook until done (160 internal temp for pork!)



That's it! Serve it up with a carb & a veg & you've got a great dinner in no time with nearly no hassle! Enjoy!

Tangy/Savory Basted Chops:

2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp canola/veg oil
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
4 pork chops, trimmed
garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350.

Place chops into an 8x8 baking dish & sprinkle with garlic powder.

In a small bowl thoroughly blend remaining ingredients. Pour half the mixture over the chops. Bake about 15 minutes. Flip chops, baste with remaining sauce & cook another 15 minutes (you'll need to go longer with thick chops - get to an internal temp of 160).

*Optional: You can give the chops about 3 minutes per side under the broiler to help the sauce stick to the chops.