Restaurant-Style Mexican Rice

[topaz119]

I've had this tab open on my phone for a couple of months and Wednesday seemed to be the night for something new but not complicated. So, Restaurant-Style Mexican Rice it was.

I made a couple of adjustments:

I didn't puree the onion with the tomatoes, partially b/c the thought of pureed raw onion makes me gag, but also b/c this isn't high cuisine and the thought of dirtying the blender just seemed overkill. So, I cut the onion somewhere between a dice and a mince and sauteed it with the rice (I started the onion first and then a minute or two later added the rice to toast it.)

I also cut the tomatoes up (literally--I used my kitchen shears in the can itself.)

Since the recipe called for only 2 cups of tomatoes, I used a 14 oz can rather than the 28 oz that would have left me with a random bit of tomatoes to hang out in the refrigerator and go bad before I used them again. The smaller can gave me a little more than 1.5 cups. I made up the rest of the necessary liquid with additional chicken broth.

I also did not heat the tomatoes to boiling but I did boil the water I used to make the chicken broth (Better Than Bouillon, ftw, always.) Another pan less to clean.

We are on a sodium-restricted diet around here, so I didn't add any additional salt.

I didn't measure but I'm pretty sure I added more than a 1/2 tsp of cumin -- that seems ridiculously small for what's essentially a quart of cooking liquid. I think you could also just use regular chili powder if you didn't have cumin.

Verdict: Really good! It smelled lovely as it simmered, I thought it was pretty good as I tasted to adjust the seasoning at the end, but then one of the kids took a taste and it got a "oh, that's tasty" as he fixed his plate.

I served it on the side with some quickly sauteed chicken breasts for the meat eaters and a thrown-together black bean, onion, and grilled corn (from TJ's freezer section, it's the best) sautee for the veggie-lovers. Definitely will make this again.

Perfect Pomodoro Pasta

[kingstoken]

This one had been pinned on my Pinterest for awhile, it is a fairly easy pasta recipe
( Recipe )

Changes and mistakes: I didn't have any basil so I omitted that. I also skipped the salt and pepper, my mother has high blood pressure so we try to limit salt intake, but we ended up having to add salt and pepper at the table because it needed the extra flavoring. I also only added the barest sprinkle of cheese, it needed more.

Verdict: It was okay, easy to make and good for a fast weekday dinner. If I make it again I will definitely not omit the salt and pepper, and add a good helping of grated cheese.