Another Rachel Ray recipe, and a good one. The first time I made the rice pilaf, I used extra sharp yellow cheddar because that’s what I had. We found it overpowered all the other flavors. The second time I made it I used the white cheddar and it was very good.
The original recipe calls for green beans, but they’re not a favorite in our house, so we just have a nice side salad instead.
Another Rachael Ray recipe (http://www.rachaelray.com). It’s part of a rollover meal set, using the leftovers from Spanish-style Beef & Rice. The recipe as I made it is below, followed by my comments.
Serves 4
3 green bell peppers
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), plus some for drizzling
1 clove garlic, minced
10 ounces triple-washed baby spinach, coarsely chopped
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup beef broth or chicken broth
3 cups leftover Spanish-Style Beef and Rice
1 cup tomato sauce
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack, smoked cheddar or pepper Jack cheese
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Cut the green peppers in half lengthwise and remove the stem and seeds. Pierce the skin of each pepper half a couple of times. Place in a 9″x13″ pan (sprayed with non-stick cooking spray) with the cut side up (so they’re like little cups).
Heat a medium to large skillet over medium heat and add oil and garlic. Add spinach, a handful at a time, until it is all wilted and is giving off liquid. Season with salt and pepper. Remove spinach and drain. Set aside.
Defrost beef and rice in microwave oven. Combine broth and defrosted rice in the skillet you cooked the spinach in and reheat over medium flame. Add tomato sauce and heat through.
Pile spinach, hot beef and tomato rice into peppers, mounding them up in the center of each pepper. Top liberally with grated cheese and bake 20 to 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbling.
When I made the filling, it turned out really soupy. After reading the recipe through again, I wonder if I made a mistake and added too much broth. We’ll see next time I make it. And I will make it again, as it turned out pretty good.
I have a confession to make. We don’t eat fish. Why? Because I don’t make it. The closest I get to eating fish is a tuna salad sandwich, which is chunk tuna with mayo or Miracle Whip and – if I remember – sometimes salt and pepper. Maybe some relish for something different.
Oh, there are times when I’ve been a bit more adventurous with my fish. There’s an old Weight Watchers recipe I have that has you add dry roasted peanuts to the tuna salad. Sounds strange, I know, but I remember liking it. I’ll have to do it again soon.
Donovan loves fresh salmon (I won’t buy canned, as it just grosses me out). His favorite way to have it is on the grill. But I’m cheap – I can get three meals with ground beef (I stock up when it’s on sale) for the price of one meal of fresh salmon. However, I’ve made a conscious decision to try and improve the quality of our diet, and expose Ariana (the traditionally picky eater) to as wide a variety of foods as possible.
I decided to give fish a try. Frozen tilapia fillets were on sale the last time I did groceries, so that’s what I went with. When I told the kids we were going to have fish, I braced myself for complaints. Instead, I was bowled over by their cheers. If I’d known they were going to be this enthusiastic, I’d have taken the plunge sooner.
I found a recipe I wanted to try: Almond Tilapia and Herb Rice with Peas and Carrots. (As a side note, I’m tempted to change the title of this blog to “Lisa Hartjes Cooks Rachel Ray”, with a comment that no, we’re not really cannibals. 
) Below you’ll find the recipe as I made it. After the recipe, you’ll find my comments about it.
Serves 4
1 1/2 cups chicken broth or chicken stock
2 tablespoons butter, divided
3/4 cup long grain rice
2 carrots, peeled and sliced thinly
1 cup frozen peas
3 scallions, finely sliced
1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
1/4 cup slivered or sliced almonds
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
4 tilapia fillets (4 ounces each)
Salt and pepper
Flour, for dredging
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Heat stock and 1 tablespoon butter in a pot until boiling. Add rice and carrots, stir once or twice to mix it all together, then cover the pot. Let it simmer for 12-13 minutes, then stir in peas and scallions. Cook 3-4 minutes more. Remove from heat, stir in dill. Put the cover back on the pot and let it sit until you’re ready to serve.
While rice is cooking, toast the almonds in a skillet until golden, 5-6 minutes over medium heat. Remove nuts and set aside until it’s time to serve the fish.
Put the olive oil and remaining tablespoon of butter to skillet you toasted the almonds in. Season the fishwith salt and pepper and dust fish lightly in flour. Cook the fillets for 3-4 minutes on each side until golden and firm. Squeeze the juice of 1/2 lemon over the pan and let it bubble for a bit and reduce until there’s hardly any liquid left.
Serve the fish and rice combo immediately, topped with lots of nuts.
To my surprise (and delight), the meal was delicious. It received three thumbs up (I don’t count my own thumb for this rating system) with the request to put the recipe in Donovan’s cookbook and to make it again. Of course, I’m never satisfied without doing some tinkering to make the recipe my own. The next time I make this, I’ll be putting a bit of garlic in the butter and oil when it’s time to cook the fish. I’ll also put some lemon zest in with the rice. I think it would really brighten the flavor up (lemon and dill is such a great combination), plus it would tie the two dishes together nicely.
Sometimes I think I should just call this the “We use Rachael Ray Recipes” blog. This time we tried the Spanish-Style Beef and Rice. It turned out very good, and we have enough left over to do two more meals – provided that it’s not just the beef and rice.
Below you’ll find the version that I made. The next time I make it, I will add in a red bell pepper, and use more cumin.
Serves 4, plus extras for future meals
42 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups enriched white rice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
2 lbs pounds ground chuck
Salt and pepper
1 large red onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cups tomato sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley (a couple of handfuls)
Heat combine beef stock, rice and butter in a pot and bring to a full boil. Reduce heat, cover the pot and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit until you’re ready to combine everything.
Heat a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add EVOO, one turn of the pan, and beef and season with salt and pepper. Brown the meat for 2-3 minutes. Add onion, garlic, bell pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Cook together 5-7 minutes, until veggies are just tender. Add tomato sauce, cloves, cumin and parsley. Bring mixture up to a bubble and reduce heat to low.
Combine cooked rice with meat mixture and serve.
Ari loves chicken. It was the first meat we could get her to eat, followed closely by hot dogs. She can be a very picky eater – it’s not taste that’s the problem, though, but texture. Because of this, I’m always on the lookout for new recipes for chicken.
This week, I thought I’d try Rachael Ray’s Crispy Chinese Lemony Chicken. It’s from her Budget Meal section, but it sure doesn’t taste like a budget meal. I made a few changes to the recipe to better fit what I wanted to do. The original recipe calls for plain white rice and a dipping sauce. I think plain white rice is a sin, and we generally don’t do dipping sauces (Ari won’t dip anything, not even fries in ketchup), but I wanted to make sure we had all the flavors. What I did was put all the ingredients for the dip into the rice.
It turned out really well, and Ari said that if I made it again she’d eat it. That’s a winner to me!
3/4 c rice
juice of half a lemon plus enough chicken stock to make 1 1/2 cups of liquid
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp honey
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup unflavored breadcrumbs
Zest 1 lemon
1 tbsp (about a 1-inch piece) fresh ginger, finely grated
1 tbsp (a palmful) sesame seeds
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 scallion, thinly sliced
Place a medium saucepan over medium-high heat with the rice, soy sauce, honey and lemon juice/stock mixture. Bring the liquid to a boil then cover the pan and reduce the heat to low. Simmer until all the water has been absorbed and the rice is tender, about 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside.
While the rice is cooking, put a large skillet over medium-high heat with 4 tablepsoon of vegetable. In a large, re-sealable plastic bag, mix together the breadcrumbs, lemon zest, ginger, sesame seeds, some salt and pepper. Add the chicken to the bag and toss well to evenly coat the chicken (give each piece a good press with the crumbs to make sure the coating sticks).
Put the chicken pieces in the hot skillet and cook until golden brown and cooked through, 7-8 minutes. Cook the chicken in batches if you need to – place the cooked chicken on a paper-towel lined plate and cover them with aluminum foil to keep them warm.
When all the chicken is cooked, fluff the rice with a fork and stir in the scallions. Serve the chicken with the rice, and a nice salad.
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