Baked Garlic Rice Pilaf

It’s always nice to add a new side dish to the rotation.

This looks like “just rice” in the picture, but it’s actually amazingly delicious from the garlic and chicken broth. The baking also gives it a different texture than regular rice….it was phenomenal!

It takes a little more time than I’d normally want for a side dish (25 minutes+45 minutes), but I made it work by starting the cooking, and then after I’d added the second bit of chicken broth, I’d walk the dog or prep the rest of the meal. It worked out well.

I served it with the lemon chicken — great pairing by the way — and had made the lemon chicken in advance. I just re-heated it in the casserole dish it cooked in, while the rice was cooking. Everything was done at the same time. 🙂

Baked Garlic Rice Pilaf

(Annie’s Eats)
2 tbsp. butter
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 cup long-grain white rice
2½ cups chicken broth, divided
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
Squeeze of lemon juice

Directions
– Preheat the oven to 375° F.  Have ready a covered casserole dish.

– In a saucepan or skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat.  Add the garlic and rice to the pan and cook until both are golden brown, about 3-4 minutes.

– Stir in 1 cup of the chicken broth, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.  Pour the mixture into the casserole dish, cover, and bake for 25 minutes.

– Stir in the remaining 1½ cups chicken broth and bake, covered, for another 45 minutes.  About 15 minutes before it is finished baking, stir in a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

Note: This recipe can be doubled without increasing the baking time.

Fried Rice

We don’t normally eat “make it at home” Chinese food because it is simply never as good as the Chinese restaurant stuff. (Must be all that MSG? haha)

Regardless, I periodically want to try another recipe. This time I decided to try fried rice…it seemed pretty basic, so I thought it might come out a little better than our previous attempts at “Chinese at home”.

This recipe is phenomenal. The key really is cold rice, just as Joelen remarks on her page. I made the rice 2 days in advance and kept it in the fridge. I also made real ‘rice cooker’ rice, although I’m not sure if it would matter or if you could just cook up a package of minute rice. 🙂

I also cooked off my chicken (I just put it in foil packets with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder and baked at 375 for 45 minutes) and cubed it in advance. This meant the meal took me a whopping 15 minutes to put together on the evening we ate it.

Awesome. 🙂

Final thought: I doubled the recipe when we made it (original measurements are below) — it served two of us dinner, and easily two lunches, with that amount as an entree. I didn’t serve anything with it, but egg rolls would be delicious!

Try this soon! We’ll be adding it to our rotation meals, and I’m dying to try it with pork, shrimp, etc!

Fried Rice

(Joelen’s Culinary Adventures)

1 cup leftover meats – pork, chicken, beef, seafood
1-2 eggs
3-4 cloves minced garlic
1/2 onion finely diced
3-4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup chopped vegetables (fresh or frozen) — Add whatever your family will eat. I added frozen peas/carrots mixture this time, but next time I’ll DEFINITELY add sugar snap peas and some of those mini corn cobs
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 tablespoon onion powder
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1-2 tablespoons light or dark soy sauce
1-2 cups prepared rice, cold
Directions

– In a hot skillet or wok, heat oil (I used a large ‘chicken cooker’ with sides, as I don’t own a wok)
– Add garlic and onions & stir, then add leftover meats of your choice, chopped up in bite sized pieces
– Stir fry meats until you get them a bit crispy, then push the meats aside and crack eggs into the pan
– Scramble the eggs into the pan until cooked
– Add cold rice over the eggs & meat into the pan, making sure to crumble it in your fingers. (Dumping a large chunk of rice is not going to work here. You need to crumble it so it separates nicely)
– Add salt, pepper, onion & garlic powders and soy sauce; toss
– Allow the rice to heat up and absorb the spices and soy sauce, tossing to help it along
– Add the fresh or frozen veggies and toss into the rice
– Continue cooking it all on high heat until rice is heated through and veggies are cooked

Mexican (Jasmine) Rice

DH and I love this rice. I think we’re just addicted to jasmine rice, and using this as an excuse to have it.

I should really make the jasmine rice — as is — and see if we enjoy it as much!

I serve this with tacos/burritos/etc.

Mexican (Jasmine) Rice

(Food o’ Del Mundo)

2-4 tbsp olive oil

3 cloves of garlic, sliced or minced

1/2 cup diced onion

1 1/2 cups jasmine rice

1 tbsp taco seasoning

2 1/2 cups chicken broth

Directions

– Place olive oil in a good-sized saucepan over medium heat. I usually start with 2 tbsp — you can add more when you add the rice, should it prove to not be enough to coat the rice.

– Add the garlic cloves and onion, and stir, cooking until onion is translucent and garlic is fragrant

– Add the rice, and pearl the rice in the oil/garlic/onion mixture for a few minutes, stirring to prevent burning. If there isn’t enough olive oil to coat the rice, add some now.

– Add taco seasoning and stir

– Add chicken broth, stir to combine, then cover and let simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes

– Turn the burner off and let the rice sit for a few minutes before serving.

Basic Parmesan Risotto with Peas

This isn’t a new recipe on the block, by any stretch of the imagination.

I’m just blogging it so it’s easy to find when I need it! LOL

Parmesan Risotto with Peas

(How Sweet It Is)

Parmesan Risotto

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup arborio rice

~ 20 oz chicken stock (vegetable, beef, seafood, etc can also be used too!)

1/3 cup parmesan cheese

1/3 cup frozen peas

Directions

– In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil and garlic until fragrant.

– Add rice and continuously stir until translucent, about 6-8 minutes.

– Add stock in 1/2 cup increments and bring to a simmer, continuing until the liquid is absorbed and the rice has reached the desired consistency. Stir occasionally.

– Remove from heat and stir in parmesan cheese and peas