Spinach and Cilantro Green Rice

Also from the What the Bible Says about Healthy Living Cookbook - I made this rice to go with the burritos last night.

Spinach and Cilantro Green Rice

Ingredients:

• 2/3 bunch cilantro (stems OK)
• 1 cup firmly packed fresh spinach
• 1-1/4 cups milk
• 1-1/4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• Juice of 1/2 lime (about 1 T)
• 1-1/2 cups brown rice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Several generous grindings pepper

Directions:

1. Trim the cilantro stems to 1 to 2 inches.
2. Add the cilantro, spinach, milk, broth and lime juice to a blender and puree the ingredients.
3. Combine the liquid mixture with the remaining ingredients in a medium saucepan.  Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat.
4. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan with a tightly fitting lid, and simmer fo r45 minutes.
5. After 45 minutes, turn off the heat and let the rice sit for 10 minutes, without removing the cover.  Fluff the rice with a fork before serving.

1/3 bunch of cilantro for the burritos, 2/3 bunch for this rice - you'd think all my cilantro would be used, but those aren't really good measurements, and cilantro bunches vary - so I just used quite a bit of cilantro and called it enough, for both recipes.  I also used frozen spinach because I didn't have any fresh.  I'm not sure how much frozen spinach equals a cup of fresh, so I just threw some in.

I made half this recipe because we just didn't need that much rice.  I usually cook my brown rice 40 minutes so I thought the 45 minutes would be plenty long enough, but there was still liquid in the pan when I took the lid off, and the rice was a bit chewy.  It tasted really good though, so I'm either going to cook it at a higher temperature next time or do like it says and turn the heat off and let it sit - instead of removing it from the heat to let it sit.  The rice should continue to cook on the still-warm burner for a bit longer.

I put some of this on my Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burrito for lunch - along with the salsa, sour cream and guacamole.  Yum!

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burritos

Jeffrey and I love the African Burritos I usually make, which also include sweet potatoes and black beans.  So, when I was browsing through the copy of What the Bible Says about Healthy Living Cookbook that I got from the library, I just had to try this recipe.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burritos

Ingredients:

• 1 unpeeled large sweet potato (about 1 pound)
• 1 large onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 T olive oil
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• Several generous grindings of pepper
• 1/3 bunch cilantro (mostly leaves)
• 2 15-ounce cans black beans
• Juice from 1/2 lemon or lime (about 2 T)
• 6 8-inch whole wheat tortillas

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400° and oil a 9x13-inch baking pan.
2. Cut the potato into chunks and put them into the prepared pan.  Bake fro 30-35 minutes, or until the potato pieces are tender when pierced with a fork.
3. While the potato bakes:
• Chop the onion and garlic.  Saute in the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large frying pan.
• Cook until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes.  Add the cumin, coriander, salt and pepper and cook for 2 to 3 more minutes.  Remove from the heat.
• Chop the cilantro.  Rinse and drain the black beans.  Add the cilantro, beans and lemon or lime juice to the pan.
4. When the potato chunks are cooked, remove from the  oven.  Reduce heat to 350°.
5. Add the cooked potato to the frying pan with the onion mixture. (Set aside the pan you used to bake the potato; you will use it to heat the burritos.)  Using a potato masher, mash the ingredients together to make a thick, chunky mixture.
6. To assemble the burritos:
• Lay a tortilla on a flat surface.
• Spoon 1/2 cup filling mixture over the tortilla.
• Roll up the tortilla and place in pan, seam side down.
• Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling.
7. Cover the pan with foil and bake burritos for 30 minutes, until well heated.
8. Serve with salsa, guacamole, and sour cream.

The verdict: These are really good.  Jeffrey commented that they are spicier than the other ones, so perhaps cut down on the cumin if you have people who don't like or can't eat spicy foods.  These are very filling - we both ate 1-1/2 burritos, and I wrapped the other three in foil and stuck them in the freezer.  I like the flavor of the roasted sweet potato and will use more sweet potato when I make these again.  Also, I'm not going to bother with the rolling up and baking step.  Instead I'll just mix up and heat the filling and let everybody heat and fill their own tortillas - with the filling along with salsa, sour cream, guacamole, sliced green onions, etc.  I had some leftover filling, and that's how I fixed it for lunch.  It turned out really good.

Crockpot Granola

Granola in the crockpot?  Did you know that was even possible?  The idea never even occurred to me until I saw this recipe for crockpot granola on Pinterest.  And then, I had to try it!  Here's what I did:

Crockpot Granola

Ingredients:

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups wheat flakes
• 1 T flax seeds, ground
• 2 T raw sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup coconut (plus a bit more)
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries (can use other dried fruits like raisins or dried apples or a combination)

Directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients in 5 qt. crockpot.
2. Add melted butter and honey and mix well.
3. Cover, but vent with a chopstick. Cook on high for 3-4 hours, stirring every so often - every half hour or whenever you smell the granola cooking.  Cook until granola is browned nicely the way you like it.
4. Scoop out onto a cookie sheet to cool.  Stirring occasionally while it cools.
5. Store in air-tight container.
6. Enjoy!

I have a couple other granola recipes, both are supposed to be baked in the over, but I think I will be trying them in the crockpot.  I think any combination of ingredients you like in your granola will work in the crockpot.  The granola really does cook and brown nicely!  But you don't have to worry about burning it. 

If you like clumps in your granola, you'll need to add more honey or butter or both - or maybe peanut butter like some of the commenters suggested on the other recipe.  I might try the peanut butter next time, but this is very good! 

Another change I'll probably make next time is to either add the dried fruit halfway through the cooking time or even at the end.  The cranberries are still good, but they dried out a bit more than I'd like.

Butternut Chicken Chili

I took this for a potluck this weekend, and everyone really liked it.

I was going to make my Corn Lover's Veg Stew - which I love - but followed a link to Butternut Chicken Stew on Simple Daily Recipes and decided to make a version of that.  I will be making this again!

 Butternut Chicken Chili

Ingredients: 

• 2 T olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cubed 
• 1/2 small butternut squash, peeled & cubed
• 1 small bell pepper, chopped (can use frozen)
• 1-1/2 tsp Chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 can cooked red beans (or kidney beans)
• 1 (14.5oz) can tomatoes
• 1 T tomato paste
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup frozen corn

Directions:

1. Over medium high heat, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onion begins to soften.
2. Add boneless skinless chicken thighs and cook until no longer pink, adding the peppers when chicken is almost cooked.
3. Lower heat to medium and add seasonings.  Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, while peeling and cubing the butternut squash.  Add squash as you get it cubed and stir to coat with oil and seasonings.
4. Once all the squash has been added, add beans, tomatoes, tomato paste, and broth.
5. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for about an hour or until squash is soft, stirring occasionally.  Add corn during the last 15 minutes.
6. Enjoy!

I made cornbread muffins to go with it, and it was amazing!

As with any soup, stew, or chili, feel free to adjust any ingredients to use what you have on hand or to suit your preferences.  Substitute chicken breasts or pre-cooked chicken (maybe from a rotisserie chicken), add more tomatoes or more beans, less broth, all chicken broth - it's up to you!

Free eCookbook - Salads for Every Season

Earthbound Farm is celebrating 25 years of pre-washed, packaged organic salads by giving away a free ecookbook - Salads for Every Season.

Salads for Every Season: 25 Recipes from Earthbound Farm by Myra Goodman (who’s been called “The Queen of Greens”) is 83 pages of delicious salad recipes from Myra’s first two cookbooks, Food to Live By and The Earthbound Cook.

The cookbook is available in several formats - Kindle, Nook, Google eBooks, etc. - so you can download the one that's right for you.

Enjoy!

How to Dice an Onion

I was trying to find a good video to go along with my post last night.  A post about getting rid of that onion smell on your hands when you chop onions should have a video on how to chop those onions, right?  However, even though there are plenty of videos on YouTube explaining how to dice an onion, they all seemed a bit over-complicated to me and added unnecessary steps.  So, I made my own video.



Maybe not the best, but it will have to do for now.  I've really got to get an assistant for the camera work!

Let me know if you have any questions.

Related articles

• Get Rid of That Onion Smell (recipes.alwaysbcmom.com)