Rice - Not just plain white and boring!!!

Below are some easy rice recipes. Rice is a great grain to store in our food storage and right now is a good time to buy it. My local Sam's club has a 50 lb bag of rice for just $16.89. That’s less than $35 for 100 lbs of a great and versatile grain. We are counseled to store at least 400 lbs of grains per adult as part of our year’s supply. A lot of people will store tons of wheat – which is great – but variety is the spice of life. So may I humbly suggest that you add rice to your food storage. Stock up and store brown or wild rice when you find a good store special. Rice is simple and satisfying on many levels. Rice can be mixed with beans or canned meats to make it a protein rich casserole meal. It can be flavored with a variety of seasonings, sauces and broths. Add milk, sugar and cinnamon to make a pudding for dessert. Add almonds and Parmesan to perk up your plain white rice. Make stews and casseroles from that left over roast or turkey. Hot buttered brown rice sprinkled with a little cinnamon sugar is a yummy breakfast treat. For a refreshing summer drink, make the Mexican rice drink called Horchata. Enjoy Rice! It's doesn't just have to be a plain white boring side dish.

California Seasoned Rice Mix
3 cups uncooked regular white rice
1/4 cup dried parsley flakes
2 Tbsp. instant chicken flavor bouillon
2 tsp. onion powder
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tablespoons dried, minced onions
1/4 tsp. dried thyme leaves

Stir ingredients together and place in an air tight container until ready to use. To cook: Bring two cups of water to boil. Add two tablespoon butter or margarine and one cup of the mix. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed.

Homemade Rice-a-Roni
1 cup rice
4 tbsp. butter
4 cups chicken broth
2 tbsp. fresh parsley
1/2 cup spaghetti (broken in 1/2 inch pieces)

In a medium saucepan, melt butter and then add the rice and broken spaghetti. Brown well and then slowly add the chicken broth, reducing the heat to a simmer. After 10 minutes, add fresh parsley and continue cooking until rice is tender. Fluff with a fork.
Kay’s make-it-a-meal Variation:
Add 1 can chicken (10 oz) at the beginning when adding the broth to the pot. Then add ¼ cup sliced almonds and ¼ cup Parmesan cheese at the end with the parsley. YUM!!!!!!

Chinese Fried Rice
1 cup rice
3 Tbs. oil
2 eggs
3 Tbs. soy sauce
1 can chicken (10oz.)
1 cup frozen peas and carrots

Bring 2 cups of salted water to a boil and cook rice as normal. Rinse rice with cold tap water until cooled. Spread rice onto a cookie sheet and refrigerate 20 minutes. Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium high heat. Break eggs into oil and scramble with a spatula. Add the chilled rice and soy sauce. Drain chicken and add. Stir until rice is heated through. Add peas and carrots. Cook 1 minute to heat the vegetables. Serve hot.

Spanish Fired Rice
2 Tbs. Oil
1 cup chopped onion (or dry equivalent)
2 cups raw rice
4 cups water
2 Tbs. Chili powder
2 cups tomato sauce

Put the oil in a large frying pan; heat to very hot. Add rice and chopped onion; stir until rice starts to brown. Slowly add water and chili powder. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add tomato sauce. Cook 5 minutes more. Stir and serve. Add 1 lb. cooked and seasoned ground beef or left over Sunday roast for a delicious meal.

Horchata
1 cup uncooked white rice
1 quart water
¼ cup slivered almonds
2 sticks cinnamon
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ tsp vanilla

Grind rice to a coarse meal in a blender. Mix together rice, cinnamon, almonds and water. Cover loosely and let stand overnight. Puree the rice mixture, then strain through several layers of dampened cheesecloth. Mix in sugar and vanilla extract. Serve over ice.

Plain Horchata: Omit cinnamon and almonds. Continue as directed.

Chocolate Horchata: Omit cinnamon and almonds from basic recipe. Add 2 ounces grated chocolate to rice. Continue as directed.

Strawberry Horchata: Omit cinnamon and almonds. Add one 10 ounce package of frozen strawberries with the sugar and vanilla extract. Continue as directed.

Mexicali Bean and Rice Casserole
This is one of my own recipe creations. I was wanting Mexican food one night and had no money to go out. I was short on ingredients for one of my other favorite Mexican casseroles - so I started dumping things in a skillet that sounded good to me at the time and this simple casserole is what I got. My family loved it. I hope you enjoy it too.

1 lb ground beef (cooked and drained)
1 cup white rice
2 cans (8oz each) tomato sauce
1 envelop fajita or taco seasoning
1 tsp. chili powder
1 can (15 oz) red, black or kidney beans
4 oz. grated Colby jack or jalapeno Cheddar cheese (I like to mix 2oz of each)

Brown ground beef in a large skillet. Drain grease from beef on paper towel covered plate when done. Put rice on to boil as for plain white rice in 2 cups salted water. Turn down heat when it begins to boil. Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, while rice is cooking, return browned ground beef to skillet with the rest of the ingredients. Stir well over medium low heat until cheese is melted. Turn heat to low and let simmer, stirring occasionally, while rice is cooking. After rice is done, add to ground beef mixture and stir together well. Remove from heat and serve with fry bread and salad for a great meal.

Chicken Stew
This is an old Southern comfort food recipe. It was one of my favorites when I was a child. In this recipe the preferred ingredients are listed first but the substitutes work just as well. I have made this recipe using all combinations of the ingredients listed below depending on what I had in the pantry at the time.

1 cup rice
2 chicken breast (boiled and shredded) or 2 cans chicken (10 oz. each)
1 can cream of chicken soup (10 oz)
6 cups water from your boiled chicken or 4 ½ cups water plus broth from the canned chicken
4 tsp. chicken bouillon
1 cup frozen or canned peas
1 cup frozen or canned corn
1 carrot (sliced) or use dehydrated equivalent
2 stalks celery (sliced) or use 1 tsp celery seeds for flavor
1 small onion (chopped) or 3 TBS dried onions or 1 tsp onion salt
½ tsp. garlic powder
½ tsp. black pepper

Cook rice in 1½ cups water. It will not quite be done. Leaving it a little underdone will make sure it doesn’t go mushy in the last cooking stages. In a separate large pot, boil chicken breasts until completely done. They should be done at the same time as the rice or shortly after. Shred cooked chicken with forks so you don’t burn your fingers. Measure out 6 cups broth from boiling the chicken and freeze the rest for later use in casseroles. Replace the 6 cups broth to the large pot with the shredded chicken, rice and the rest of the ingredients. Stir together well and bring to a boil. Then turn heat to medium. Continue boiling over medium heat for 15 minutes until carrots and celery are tender. This makes 6 generous bowlfuls. Serve with homemade sunflower wheat bread and sliced cheese for a delicious and comforting winter meal.