When I think about how easy it is to have meals already made, just waiting to be heated or prepared with little effort, it’s almost mind boggling to compare starting from scratch every night for a meal versus having many jars of pre-prepared home cooked meals. We’ve had a busy few days so here are some photographs and stories about the weekend’s meals.
Jambalaya for Dinner
One night I fixed jambalaya from a jar, dried pinto beans in the crockpot and salad.
Ingredients
Lettuce, green onions and radishes from the garden. Rice for the canned jambalaya. So easy. So good. No chopping, minimum cleanup!
Next . . while canning chicken this morning,I didn’t want to stop in the middle of dealing with raw chicken, wipe down all the counters and fix lunch so I grabbed a bag of frozen homemade tamales, made Spanish rice and by the time the last of the chicken was in the canner, I had enough time to wipe down everything and make a bit of a salad. Quick, easy and delicious! My Spanish rice recipe is so simple.
Tamales
Spanish Rice:
1 small onion
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
2 T. butter
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup salsa (homemade or storebought)
1-1/2 cups raw rice
Salt to taste (Be careful with the salt if the chicken broth has salt already)
Melt butter in a pan that will work to cook the rice (something big enough with a tight fitting lid). Saute the onion and pepper. Add the rice and stir til the rice begins to brown. Add the broth, salsa and salt. Turn the fire down to a slow simmer. Cover and cook til liquid is absorbed.
Be careful not to scorch the bottom. The sugar in the tomatoes/salsa makes it real easy to scorch the bottom.
Karin Vail says
I make my Spanish rice with a can of Rotel and chicken broth (to equal 2 cups total) with a cup of rice – so easy and so good! I’ll have to try to sautee the rice first next time I make it 🙂
JudyL says
That would mean not having to add the jalapeno pepper!
Judy D in WA says
Yum! Now I’m really hungry. 🙂
I think Spanish rice will be on the menu this week.
Diana says
That is so funny…I made spanish rice to go with some beef burritos we had and I used a can of Rotelle tomatoes with habenaro peppers and it turned out so hot! I won’t do that again! I never thought to use a jar of my salsa instead. I’m going to try it your way next time I make it.
JudyL says
Thanks for the warning! I didn’t even know they made it with habanaro peppers!
Diana says
I cooled it down by mixing some shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes and sour cream into it on my plate. We love spicy food but it was over the edge. We still ate it!
Susan says
Those tamales look so good!
CindyM says
I had a large package of chicken breasts the other day and didn’t want to repackage them, so I cooked them all….. made one dish just roasted with mayo and siracha sauce on top, shredded up some and put salsa in them for chicken burritos later, and made a medium pot of chicken veggie soup with the other (and cleaned out the fresh veggies in the fridge)…. I wish I did this more often,….. perhaps when I stop working outside the home and can think a bit, rather than react. BTW, I’ve never thought of using salsa in my Spanish rice — although I just add everything that’s in salsa in separately! Sometimes I’m blind to the obvious! (Hope I can remember for next time!)
Dottie N. says
Sounds really good….I have used homemade salsa when making Spanish rice and thought it was a great change up. The only downside (to me) was not having any salsa left to eat with chips (had used my last jar of homemade salsa for the rice). 🙂
Peg H says
So here’s a question for you Judy: do you ever can your homemade tamales? Or do you just freeze them? (Both of those meals look DELICIOUS.)