Fresh start....

It is amazing how difficult it is to find the words after so much time has passed. What has happened in the past almost 3 months, you ask??? My answer: Summer Vacation!! If you want to call it a vacation. Personally, being trapped in the house avoiding the AZ oven temperatures is not completely my idea of a vacation. We did have some fun though. We spent almost two weeks on the beautiful North Carolina coast (my most relaxing vacation with children ever), got a beautiful and crazy new puppy and took a nice weekend to go tent camping in the Arizona white mountain area.
Now a new school years has started. My oldest, Sedona, started first grade as if she was going into seventh. She was confident and ready as was I. My job went back to being a little bit more of a mother and a little bit less of a referee. One week of the new school year has passed and it seems that we have all fallen back into the comforting routine.
I haven't had the opportunity to do much experimentation with food, especially healthy alternative food, but as I have mentioned before, I love to use my Blended Salsa recipe for many other meals and side dishes that I make. One delicious side (as rated by my husband and kids) that finds itself on our dinner table often is my Super Spanish Skillet Rice recipe. It is a necessity for serving with the ever popular tacos and quesadillas that we have in this house. I haven't put together all of the nutritional information though other than the rice and oil, there are very few additional calories (about 160 calories for 8 servings).

Super Spanish Skillet Rice
Ingredients:
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp chopped onion (optional - I use about 1/2 tbsp dried onion flakes because they are always in the house)
1 1/2 cups uncooked white rice (I use jasmine rice ALWAYS)
2 cups water
2 tsp (or 2 cubes) chicken bouillon
1 cup Blended Salsa (or favorite store brand)

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. (about 1 minute for onion flakes)
2. Mix rice into skillet, stirring often. When rice begins to lightly brown stir in water and bouillon. Add salsa and stir. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes until all liquid has been absorbed. Fluff with a fork and serve with your favorite spanish dish.

I hope that you love it.....my girls love the leftovers in their scrambled eggs in the morning. It can always be made healthier by using brown rice, though I have never done it and the cooking time and/or liquid amounts may not be accurate. I would have to experiment with that one.

Until my next post.......

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