Quinoa Rice Bowl

We actually just call it Quinoa Rice, but it's much more than that.  I love this dish because I can have a filling warm meal in about 15 minutes.  Another thing to love is that my ten year old also enjoys it!

I started making this after having Panera's Baja Bowl and finding copy-cat recipes.  Initially, I always added chunks of avocado, halved grape tomatoes, and feta cheese.  More recently, I have it without those extras and add some Mexican cheese.

The ingredients are

brown rice

quinoa

a jar of black bean corn salsa

a can of rinsed black beans

a tablespoon of salsa verde (optional because sometimes I forget)

My 15 minute prep:

First choose a medium sized glass bowl and fill with one cup of water and one cup of par-boiled brown rice.  Cook in the microwave for 5-6 minutes depending on the strength of the microwave.

In a small saucepan, add one cup of water and 1/2 cup of quinoa, bring to boil, then cook for 12 minutes on low.

While things are cooking, open a can of black beans and drain and and rinse.  Open the jar of salsa and salsa verde.

Once the rice is done, dump in the whole can of black beans, the whole jar of salsa and one tablespoon of salsa verde if you like the added zip.

When the quinoa is done, I add it right into the rice, salsa, bean mixture and eat it right away!  The quinoa instructions usually recommend letting it sit, but I don't find it necessary.  I don't rinse my quinoa either!

With room temperature beans and salsa, the mixture is a little on the lukewarm side, but it's
not terrible.  A quick zap of the microwave can bring it up to nice and warm.

I often eat this in a bowl topped with Mexican cheese and sometimes some corn chips.  The ten year old likes it in a flour tortilla.  This recipe yields 4+ meals.

Mexican Rice Dish

It has been years since I made this recipe.  It yields a lot of food and usually goes over well.  It's pretty easy to put together, though I dirtied three pans and two casserole dishes.  Also, I am realizing the ratios may not be perfect.

Rice and Corn Mixture:
2 cups of brown rice cooked in vegetable broth - I made up 4 servings which yielded a bit more than 2 cups, used it all

1 3/4 cup corn made into creamed corn 

2 TB butter, 2 TB flour 1.5 cups of milk, 2 TB sugar, pepper

Additional 2 cups of frozen corn

Black Bean Mixture:
About a cup of peppers and onion mixture frozen, then diced, Sauteed in olive oil

Add big can of black beans 25oz, 2 cans of diced tomatoes

Small can of jalapeños 

1 TB cumin

1 cup fresh salsa

2 8oz packages of Neufchâtel cream cheese
Mix all together until cheese is melted

Layer bean mixture, rice/corn mixture, shredded cheddar, bean mixture, rice/corn mixture, shredded cheddar.

Filled one 3 quart oval dish and had lots of extra bean mixture, only 3/4 cup rice/corn mixture left. Ended up having one small dish of bean/salsa/cheese mixture for dipping and the larger casserole with rice and corn.

This is great with corn chips or just eaten with a spoon.  The leftovers we had in tacos with ground turkey.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 mins

White Chicken Chili

Ground Turkey Chili was part of our regular rotation until the family seemed to tire of it.  I looked around for a white chili recipe.  After considering different recipes, I tried this one by Cooking Classy with minor modifications.

Beginning with a whole routisserie chicken pre-cooked from Wegmans saved some cooking time, but did take some time to prepare.  The whole chicken yielded almost 4 cups of chicken.

Into the pot went a bit of olive oil and minced onion and garlic flakes, then a whole 32 oz box of chicken broth, the chopped chicken, and green chilies.  The only spices I used were cumin, oregano, paprika, and black pepper.  After a bit I added the room temperature Neufchatel cheese sliced.  It did melt in nicely and gave the soup a creamy texture.  Per the recipe, I did mash up about a cup from the 2 cans of rinsed Cannellini beans with a potato masher.  Pre-heated frozen corn was also added.  Once ready to serve, we added shredded Mexican blend cheese.

While the chili was simmering, I started on the cornbread muffins.  I had tried some variations with the Jiffy mix, but tried a new mix, Wegmans Gluten Free Honey Cornbread Mix.  It has no added oils in the mix and also has fewer ingredients.  The instructions are to add one egg, 1/3 cup of oil and 3/4 cup of milk.  I added 1 egg, 2/3 cup of plain Greek yogurt, some skim milk to make up a mixture of yogurt and milk totaling about 1 cup.  I'm guessing it was about 1/2 cup of milk.  The mixture seemed dry until I added a can of creamed corn, then it seemed perfect.  Because of the additional ingredients, it yielded a bit more than the 12 muffins the box states.  I got 12 muffins and 16 mini muffins.  They baked 18 minutes for the regular size and 13 minutes for the minis at 400 degrees.  Everyone loved the muffins.  They came out moist and tasty.

The chili was enjoyed by everyone who tried it. It isn't spicy, but the green chilies do stand out.

1/17/2014 - Tried smashing more of the beans and added more corn ~2 cups.  I liked this version better.

Chicken Marsala Casserole

Baked Chicken Marsala Casserole

I love Chicken Marsala in restaurants and wondered about making it at home.  My main reason for trying this out was to make it as a gift for my parents.  Then I would pack it up in individual meal packets for their freezer to be eaten whenever they needed a quick meal.  I found many recipes and loosely followed one.

Most of the Marsala casserole recipes used rice in them, but I wanted to serve it over pasta.  This recipe yielded not much "gravy" for a whole box of pasta.  Using less pasta is better, or saving some of the box for my picky eaters works too.

Also I ended up doubling the amount of Marsala wine and half and half and that seemed to work better.  Other modifications, I used only 8 oz of mushrooms.

My version:
boil pasta, use about 2/3s of 16 oz box or save some after boiling
 in a small casserole dish

Begin with olive oil and minced onions and minced garlic
add 8 oz of mushrooms, cook for 5-10 mins
add 2 TB of flour
add 1 cup of marsala wine, 1 cup of half and half, stirring constantly until thickened.
add 1 14.5oz can of chicken broth

Place pasta in small casserole dish,
add chopped chicken on top (2 cups is ideal),
add mushroom, gravy mixture on top

bake for 20 mins in 350 degree oven

This was very saucy and tasty.

Leftover pasta for the kiddies