italian rice casserole

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

logs

I'm pretty sure I saw someone do this somewhere, so I can't claim originality. I removed the crust from soft whole wheat bread and rolled out  the slices of bread very thin. I smeared some Hungarian cream cheese (paprika, Better Than Cream Cheese, green onion, salt and pepper) on the slices and rolled them up.

It was very simple and easy and tasted pretty good. It made a great picnic/to go lunch fare and that's exactly what I needed a half hour before we were supposed to leave.

Cost Breakdown:

bread: $2

Better Than Cream Cheese: $2

spices, green onions: $1

Total to make 10 logs:

$5.00