Monday, September 8, 2014

Spanish Rice...or lasagna rice, whatever


My Oldest has felt for most of her life that rice is not her favorite thing to eat.  In fact, there have been flat out refusals and tears over rice.  Her tears, not mine.  All I ask is that my kids try a bite of everything I've prepared them for dinner.  If they don't like it, fine, I call it good.  But rice has always been that one thing that I've had to coax and convince my first born to take her bite, and this kid'll almost eat anything.

I am happy to say that we've reached a turning point in the rice saga, and it started with this dish. Spanish rice, the recipe my mom has made since I can remember.  I made it to accompany tacos and portioned out the girls' servings and then waited, breath held for the inevitable I don't like it.  

After the first tentative bite, her eyes lit up.  Then she went for another forkful.  What is this?  My heart jumped in my chest.  Is my child actually voluntarily eating rice?  She was pretty enthusiastic about it, too.

Mom, I love this lasagna rice!

Lasagna rice?....right...lasagna rice.  That's what it's called.

It tastes so good just like lasagna, all tomato-y and flavor-y.

Since this fateful day she has since eaten rice with her chicken tika masala, at our favorite Indian joint and has even had a bite or two of fried rice.  I think we may have had a break through.  Thank you, lasagna rice.


Spanish Rice
1/2 onion, diced
1 small green pepper, diced
2 Tbl Vegetable Oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp chilli powder
1 quart stewed tomatoes, homemade...you could also go with store bought, I won't judge...much.  You need about 28 oz of tomatoes, give or take, so I don't use the entire quart.
3/4 C. rice, uncooked
1 small can diced green chiles.  I have used both 4 oz and 7 oz
salt and pepper to taste
1 C. water
A couple dashes of hot sauce if you want to sass it up
Shredded cheese to garnish, a mix of cheddar and monterey jack is always nice
cilantro, optional

In large skillet over medium heat, saute onion and green pepper together until softened, about 5 to 10 minutes.  Add garlic and chili powder and cook approximately 1 more minute until fragrant.

Stir in tomatoes, rice, canned chile peppers, water and salt and pepper.  Season this to taste.  About 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp salt (I'm a salt lover so I lean towards the 1/2).

Bring this to a  boil and then reduce heat to low.  Let simmer, covered with foil or a lid, 20 minutes or until the rice is tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed.

Serve with a sprinkling of cheese and cilantro and enjoying the awesome lasagna-iness of this rice.


Recipes to try with this dish:
Fish Tacos
Ground Beef Enchiladas
Thanks for reading!

Heather



8 comments:

  1. I am totally making this for supper! I know I will love lasagna rice just as much as your oldest! Pinning!

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  2. What a great title! I have never made spanish rice (or lasagna rice!), I've always bought mine at the store in a package and always am trying to spice it up and make it taste better. I'm making yours (I guess your mom's) from now on! Thanks Heather!

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  3. LOVE it! I am going to make this lasagna rice. My children will somewhat eat white rice dishes...but not brown rice...of which I have about 20lb worth of it...yep

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  4. It's so funny how children learn to like and try new foods. I'm so glad your oldest is overcoming the anti-rice thing. I've never had lasagna rice from scratch, only store bought. Pinning so I can try this with our next taco night!

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  5. Hehehe so funny, I love when they come up with random names for food. We eat dark chicken here, aka lamb, hates lamb loves dark chicken. My boys when they were little wouldn't eat home made burgers until one night while watching sponge bob I called then crabby patties, they LOVED them. Rice looks great, but I love the story.

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  6. "Lasagna Rice" is my husband's fave when we're having Mexican food. :) Glad you had a break through over thar' ;)

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  7. Hahahaha....I LOVE "whatever" recipes! And I love rice. So glad the little ones are finally catching on. I started making "rice porridge" because it's supposed to be fairly easy to digest. Basically you take cooked rice (I use basmati) and add some water to make it kinda soupy, cook it for about 10 minutes and whip in an egg at the end. I also add some chicken base to make it tasty. It looks like baby food, but it's actually really yummy! Now that I've created my own blog post on your blog....

    -andi

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  8. Ha! Lasagna rice. That's so funny. It looks delicious. I have a girl that would eat rice for every meal so I'll have to give this recipe a try. I also love that you added suggestions of what to eat it with...your other recipes look amazing as well.

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Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Love ya! XOXOXO

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