Italian Night
Having to come home pretty late, I needed to plan something that would be easy and pretty hands-off. I cooked an Italian rice casserole full of vegetables: onion, garlic, pepper, spinach, olives, chickpeas and green beans.
After all the vegetables were chopped and the garlic, onion, chickpeas and peppers were sauteed, there was nothing to do but add the rice, the rest of the vegetables and stock. I baked it for 40 minutes and dinner was on the table without a whole bunch of hassle. The taste was pretty nice, too, so this was a success as far as I was concerned.
Cost Breakdown;
rice: $1
green beans, spinach: $3
olives, onion, garlic: $1
peppers: $2
chickpeas: $2
Total to feed a family of 8:
$9.00
Looks so yumm.
ReplyDeleteThanks! It WAS pretty good! Lots of wonderful vegetables and eventhough it was baked for awhile, the vegetables weren't overcooked.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting.
did you use brown or white rice? i can't tell from the photo and that would totally mess up the baking time if I used the wrong one. Thanks! It looks so good- i'm in grad school right now and I need food like this!
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge fan of brown rice, but my kids aren't, so I made this one using white basmati.
ReplyDeleteBring the rice to a boil for 5 minutes
AND then EITHER
simmer on the stove for 20 and bake uncovered for 20-25
OR
bake for 40, uncovered, or until the liquid is absorbed.
This just uses 1 cup of rice, but makes a bunch of food, so you can halve the rice and stock:
4 c stock
1 c rice
And then add whatever spices, veg or beans you'd like. Saute some of the vegetables to give it more body, such as the onions, peppers, carrots, chickpeas, etc.
Have fun! And you're doing a lot better than I did in school, eating only cereal and instant mashed :)