Spanish Rice

I love a good Spanish rice, there is something about the combination of sauteed onions and peppers with skillet browned rice and slowly cooked with tomatoes. Delicious. It is the perfect side dish to your favorite taco or enchilada or a great filler with beans in a delicious taco salad.

Start off by chopping one onion and green bell pepper. Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute' pan and add chopped onions and peppers. Cook until tender and fragrant, about 5 minutes.Add two cups of rice to the pan. Cook until the rice starts to just barely brown, stirring frequently. It will brown fast.

 

Add 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoon of chili powder, and stir to coat the rice.

 

1 can of diced tomatoes, stir to combine. If you have extra tomatoes around (anyone else have an overload of garden tomatoes?) feel free to add 2 cups of fresh chopped tomatoes.

Add three cups of chicken or veggie broth - or bouillon and water.

Cover, turn to low, and cook until all the liquid is adsorbed and the rice is tender - about 20 minutes.

Spanish Rice
Serves 8

1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 cups long grain white rice
1 can diced tomatoes ( or two cups of fresh chopped tomatoes)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon chili powder
3 cups of chicken or veggie broth

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute' pan. Add the chopped onion and green pepper and cook until tender and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add the rice, stirring frequently, cook until the rice starts to brown lightly. Add the salt and chili powder and stir to coat the rice. Add the tomatoes and stir to combine. Add the broth. Cover and cook on low until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, about 20 minutes.
 

Baby-Led Weaning (Solids)

When I found out I was pregnant (almost two years ago) one of my first reactions was “holy cow, how on earth do I take care of a BABY?!” I was excited, obviously, but realized I really had no clue how to take care of a newborn. Then came my reading obsession about babies; if there is a book about babies on the library shelf, there is a 99.9% chance I read the book. Because of all the reading and researching I felt like I knew every “method” of baby raising, and I was able to modge podge all of my favorite’s into my own version of child rearing. (which turned out great, by the way. Baby sleeping through the night by 10 weeks? Yes please.)

When time got closer for Calvin to start eating solids, the same thing happened (book frenzy). I remembered my sister Natalie telling me about Baby-Led Weaning, and how it worked wonders for her little man, I decided to pick the book up, along with a few others. I instantly fell in LOVE with the idea; bonus, the thought of feeding my child rice cereal kind of gave me the heebie geebies.

Like the whole newborn rearing, I definitely made my own version of BLW, and both my husband and I felt comfortable with the way we ended up introducing solids, and let me tell you; almost everyday I get a comment like “Claire, he is SUCH a great eater!”

Here we are; now that I have given you that rather lengthy introduction, you can choose to go to another web address, or just stick with me as I take you on the journey of BLW.

Shredded Veggie Rainbow Salad

I recently returned from a week-long trip to Israel with some family members. One of my key takeaways was to never visit Israel in August. It was blazing hot! We kept hearing "heat wave, heat wave, blah blah", but man we roasted. Second, and far more exciting to me, Israel has AMAZING produce. I'd heard that Israeli farmers do some impressive things, but it wasn't until I visited that I realized how impressive it is. We saw all different types of farms and orchards and fields and the produce in the markets was always fresh and gorgeous.


One of my favorite meals we had (and we had some really great meals) was at a lovely restaurant in a small town in upper Galilee. We sat, sweating, on a lovely veranda overlooking the valley and gushed over the amazing food. I absolutely flipped over one of the salads we were served. It was a combination of simply-dressed shredded raw vegetables topped with candied walnuts and Parmesan cheese. The light flavors of the raw vegetables balanced out the rich nuts and cheese and dressing just perfectly and it was so lovely in the heat. (Technically it wasn't actually my salad, but I'm confident the rightful owner didn't mind that I ate most of it.)

In all of of its grainy glory, here is The Salad. So delicious we're making it a proper non.  

My sister and I went back and forth trying to break down the ingredients. She was convinced it was dressed with olive oil and lemon juice, but I just couldn't believe it was that simple. We finally asked the waiter in what turned into an embarrassingly long ramble about "how much we loved the salad and how we wanted to make at home and could he please oh please tell us what was in it because we couldn't quite figure it out, and would he be so kind as to tell us, please and thank you." He stared at us for what seemed like way too long and then, with what I'm sure was a heroic effort at suppressing an eye roll, confirmed that the salad was dressed simply with lemon juice and local olive oil. Bam.

Of course, I knew immediately I had to recreate this salad. Dear readers, these are the lengths we go to for this blog: embarrassing ourselves in front of Israeli waiters and a healthy lack of self respect. Dedication, folks. Dedication.

Veggie Lasagna Roll-ups

We love lasagna over at our house, especially since we can fill it with delicious veggies and it is always a hit. I tried numerous recipes for lasagna and lasagna roll-ups over the years and through trial and error this recipe was born. The beauty of this recipe is how completely versatile it is, you can add meat or leave it out. You can use an mix of vegetables that fits your fancy, or what you have in your fridge. I happened to use a mix of things that I had on hand from the garden for this batch.

Chipotle Sweet Potato Shepherds Pie

For a few weeks this summer my husband went to Rhode Island for his Navy Officer school. While he was gone I ventured out on some trips and ended up in Las Vegas with my parents for the last few weeks. My mom is gluten free and has a wonderful America’s Test Kitchen Gluten Free cookbook, which I frequently used. One night I was flipping through the book and saw a shepherd’s pie that looked absolutely delicious. It was a success, but as I was eating it I instantly came up with ideas to lighten and spruce it up a bit!