In Need of Some Recipes

If you go to allrecipes.com they have a lot of good recipes with people sending reviews on them. i go there a lot because my family doesn't have such a diverse palate as i do and i need ideas on simple things.

Hi T....Below is my recipe for Spanish Rice.

1 cup white rice (adjust as needed, more/less depending on how many you're serving)

Small can tomato sauce

Chopped onion (about 1/2 cup or to taste)

Comino, to taste

Garlic salt, to taste

Place rice in frying pan with small amount of cooking oil. Fry rice till light golden brown. Add enough water to cover rice. Add chopped onion, tomato sauce, comino & garlic salt. Bring to boil and then lower heat & cook till desired consistency. Enjoy!

Mexican Rice:

2T oil
½ c. diced onion
2 c. rice
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 15oz can tomato sauce (only use about 10oz)
4c. chicken stock
1T ground cumin (or to taste)
cilantro to taste (I use about 1t dried or 1T fresh)
salt to taste (more if your using unsalted chicken stock)

Use a skillet with a tight fitting lid.
In the skillet, heat oil on med-high. Add onion and sauté until almost tender. Add rice and continue sautéing until rice is golden brown; add garlic, tomato sauce and chicken stock; combine and add cumin, cilantro and salt. Bring to a boil, (taste the liquid at this point for flavor, make sure it has enough salt). Lower the heat to a simmer, put a lid on it and leave it alone for 20. NO PEEKING! After 20 minutes, take the lid off and DO NOT STIR. Make a well in the center of the rice, put the lid back on and turn off the heat. Let sit for about 10 minutes. If your lid loses steam, you may need to add more stock and increase your cooking time.

To make a meal of it, I put 10-12 chicken legs with skin on top of rice. I season the chicken with cumin, salt, and garlic powder and put the lid on and let it all cook together. My family loves it! I have not tried this with breasts. I'm afraid it would take longer for the thicker breasts to cook which might end up burning the bottom of the rice...

Refried Beans:

4T oil
2-3c pinto beans, cooked
Salt to taste
Cumin to taste
Cilantro to taste

In a skillet, heat oil on med-high heat until very hot. While oil is heating, use a potato masher and smash the beans. Add beans to skillet (be careful, the grease is going to pop!). Stir until beans are desired consistency. Season to taste. Put a small amount of cheese on top when serving.

Fresh beans are best. If you need a quick method, use canned pinto or Ranch Style beans. If you need an even quicker method, use the Rosita brand refried beans straight from the can or you can put them in the hot oil to give them a fresher taste. Just remember to season well.

**I cook up a big batch of beans on the weekend to use during the week. In a large stockpot with a tight fitting lid, I use 4-5 cups of dry pinto beans and enough water to cover about 3 inches over the top of the beans. On Med-high heat, bring beans to a boil and continue boiling for 10 minutes. Without removing the lid, turn off the heat and let beans stand for 1 hour. Without removing the lid, turn beans back on med to med-low heat and simmer for about 2-3 hours (you may need to add more HOT water while they cook). When beans are almost done, add your seasonings. I add chopped garlic, onion, cilantro, cumin, salt and pepper. You can add a can of Ro-tel if desired, but remember to get out bigger chunks when you’re preparing beans to re-fry.

Fresh cooked beans will keep in the fridge for about 5-7 days.

Sorry about the length but I wanted to give you enough detail to get you started. You might want to copy and paste to word and save under recipes...Just a thought...
J.

You need to try Homemade Gourmet! It is a company that is all about quick and easy dinners for those of us with no time (or no desire:)) to cook! We even have a Spanish Rice mix and all of the products are backed with 100% satisfaction guarentee. You can check it out by going to www.easytopreparemeals.com. Let me know if you have any questions and I will be glad to help! I have been using Homemade Gourmet since 2000 and absolutely LOVE their stuff!

K.

Well I have a very simple spanish rice recipe that my stepmom uses (she's from Mexico).
Ingredients:
1 tbl spoon of veg. oil
1 cup of Aldolphus Rice
2 cups of water
1/2 to 3/4 can of tomato sauce
the seasoning that is key is by Knorr "Caldo de Sabor de Pollo" basically it's chicken bouillion. I actually use it for a lot of spanish dishes. You won't need any salt.

M.

Fry your rice with the oil for a few minutes, you don't have to wait till it's brown. Add your water, tomato sauce and seasoning. Be careful on the seasoning if you add too much it will be salt. So add until the flavor is to your liking. You can add pepper too if you'd like. Bring it to a boil. Lower the heat to low, cover and let it simmer till all the water is absorbed. Good luck! I hope you like it.

Hi T., The recipe below is absolutely fantastic. It is my good friend's long time family recipe. You wont find a better Spanish rice at any restaurant. It's the best!
1 Cup Rice

¼ cup of oil

1 Clove Garlic

¼ cup yellow or white onion (sliced in half rings)

3 Cups Cool/Cold Tap Water

1 Tablespoon Knorr’s Chicken Bouillon powder (comes in a jar with a green lid)

4 Tablespoons of tomato sauce

½ Teaspoon salt

Add your oil to the pan and lightly brown the rice on medium heat (stir frequently to prevent burning). After browning the rice, stir in your garlic and onion to flavor the rice. Stir a few times.
Add in the water, bouillon, tomato sauce and salt.
Heat to boiling, then reduce heat to low boil (down to a 3).
Cook on low for about 15 minutes. Don’t stir the rice. Stirring makes your rice mushy.
Turn off the heat at about 15 minutes then let it sit for about 5 minutes on the same burner to allow the rice to absorb the moisture and make it fluffy!

btw...the night I wanted to make this, my HEB didn't have the Knorr bullion so I bought HEB brand tomato and chicken flavored bullion. I ommitted the tomato sauce from the recipe and used these instead. Tasted exactly the same! You won't be dissappointed!

For not wanting to cook or not a lot of time after getting home from work and needing to cook, I suggest you invest in a good crock pot. You throw in meat, veggies and some sort of liquid and leave it on low all day...When you get home all you have to do is eat and clean up...

There are several good crock pot cook books and it can be used for everything from soups, stews, and roasts to lasagne, desserts and other things...

Do all of your prep work before you go to bed, put it in the fridge overnight, then take it out and turn it on before you leave for work!!

Also...easy after work cooking ideas are:

Tacos - simply buy the trimmings, crumble cook 1 to 1.5 lbs of beef or cook cubed chicken and let everyone put their own tacos together... don't forget to warm the shells (so their not so brittle) or the tortialls (so they give and don't rip)...

Sloppy Joes - crumble cook the beef and add can of manwhich or packet of sloppy joes mix, water and can of tomato paste.

Pork Chop Bake - Make boxed stuffing put in bottom of pan, Lay pork chops on top, season chops, drizzle all with honey and bake on 350 for 40 min. Serve with vegetables and/or a salad.

Spaghetti - Crumble cook ground sausage, pour in preferred brand of Spaghetti sauce, warm through...Cook pasta and serve.

I hope the above helps you out some... ;-)

I have a great email with wonderful crock pot recipes. But it would not let me paste on here. So if your interested email me your email address and I will forward it your way.

I also use this site for many ideas and quick recipes.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/

ooohhh!! i just tried this recipe like 2 weeks ago! I too am NOT a good cook but this rice recipe turned out really good!! you brown your white rice in vegie oil, add diced tomatoes, garlic salt, salt, pepper (to taste), and thats all i did.... but the girl who told me about it, adds a can of Rotel... which im sure makes it even more yummy. anyways, you bring to a boil... for a few minutes, reduce heat, and cover! and thats it. I added quite a bit of garlic salt. good luck.

Refried beans:
Leftover pinto beans
bacon grease or lard

Tip: Anytime you fry bacon, save the drippings in an airtight container and freeze to keep it from going rancid. A little bacon grease can be mixed with your oil anytime you're going to pan fry or saute somethine and adds a special flavor.

While bacon grease or lard is heating, mash your leftover beans. When grease is very hot, dump the beans in the skillet. Keep mashing and stirring to keep from sticking until heated through.

I buy 10 lb bags of chicken leg quarters because they are usually cheap (39 to 59 cents a pound). When cooking on the weekend, bake some extra until not quite done. Put them in a zippy bag and throw them in the freezer to be finished cooking anytime during the week.

Cabbage potato soup:
1 lb ground meat (hamburger, sausage...whatever you have)
several cloves of garlic (to taste)
1 large onion
5 or 6 good sized potatoes
1 head of cabbage
(I don't add salt/pepper to the pot for this because potatoes can take a lot of salt. Much easier to season each portion)

In a large soup pot, brown the meat on medium heat. While the meat is browning, peel and coarse chop or slice the garlic and peel & dice the onion. Throw the onion & garlic in with the meat and stir.
While that gets started, peel the potatoes and cut into chunks. Rinse well and dump them in the pot. Add water until level is about an inch and a half from the top of the pot and the potatoes are well covered. Turn heat to high to bring to boil and then reduce to medium/medium high heat to keep at a slow perk.
While the potatoes are cooking, remove the outside leaves from the cabbage. Cut the head into quarters. Remove the core and discard. Cut the quarters in half again. Chop each section into pieces 1 to 1 1/2 inch "square". When all cabbage is chopped, add it to the pot and cover with lid.
Soup is done when the potatoes are cooked through and cabbage is thoroughly wilted.
Freeze leftovers for a quick meal another time. This is one of those soups that's better the next day!

"Pizza" sandwiches

Oven 350

1 pound of hamburger
1 package of taco seasoning
1 can chopped black olives (optional)
1 loaf french bread or bag of bolillos
Sandwich cheese slices

Slice bread in half length ways and place on baking sheet.
Thoroughly mix hamburger, taco seasoning and black olives.
Spread the mixture THINLY on the bread and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until meat is done. Remove from oven. Fold cheese slices in half diagonally to make triangles. Arrange on top of the meat so that the point of each triangle slightly overlaps the one before. Return to oven just long enough for cheese to melt slightly. (Watch it close it doesn't take long!)
If you used bolillos, just start munching. If you used french bread, cut each half into 3 or 4 inch slices.
Leftovers can be frozen in a quart zippy bag and make an excellent zapped lunch the next day.

If you bake a whole chicken (or turkey) or if you buy a roasted chicken at the store, save the bones!
Put them in a soup pot, cover with water, boil for an hour or so (until any meat left comes off) to make a stock. Put a colander into a large bowl. Fish out the bones and place them in the colander. Add a large bag of noodles or frozen mixed vegetables to the stock. While that's perking, make sure all meat is off of the bones. Add the meat to the pot and you have chicken & noodles or chicken vegetable soup!

Cheater dumplings:
Get a can of the cheap biscuits. Bring stock (canned broth is fine) to a full rolling boil. Cut each biscuit into quarters and drop one at a time into the boiling stock. Cover with lid and in about 20 minutes, you've got chicken & dumplings.

Cheese Enchilada casserole

Oven 350

corn tortillas
grated cheese
large can of chili
minced onions (optional)

In baking dish (8x8 or 9x13 or....) spread a little of the chili on the bottom of the pan
Make a layer tortillas
Sprinkle generously with grated cheese
Sprinkle with minced onions (optional)
Another layer of tortillas
Spread the chili on top the the tortillas
Sprinkle with more cheese

Bake until bubbly (about an hour)

Here's a recipe for Spanish Rice my family has been making for over 50 years. My mom got the recipe from her Spanish friend at church. It's really good - and really easy, too.

2 T. bacon drippings
1 c. uncooked long-grain rice
1 - 14 or 15 oz. can tomatoes
1-1/2 t. salt
1-1/2 c. water
1 sm. onion, chopped
1/2 med. bell pepper, chopped
2 t. chili powder

Wash rice well and drain. Brown rice in hot bacon drippings. Add onion, bell pepper, salt, chili powder and tomatoes. Mix well; add just enough water to cover well. DO NOT STIR AFTER ADDING WATER!!!) Cover with lid and allow to simmer until rice is tender, about 30 min. Remove lid and allow rice to sit to dry a little. Stir before serving.

Extremely easy orange chicken.

Chicken (I prefer deboned thighs but anything you like will work)
Orange juice
Knorr chicken flavor bouillon (it's powder)
butter

Put the chicken in a container with the juice and the buillon powder and let marinate for as long as you have time. (the longer the time the more orange flavor will get, you can even leave it to marinate the night before or in the morning)

when ready to cook... put the chicken in a pan with butter (without the juice) and fry from both sides, once is golden brown or to your taste add the rest of the juice and let it cook until the juice turns brownish but there is still juice to put on top of your chicken.

here is my receipe for good rice

before getting started heat water, (on the stove or micro to have it ready) with a little oil brown the rice, when the rice is brown (a lite color not burned brown) add the hot water, add tomato sauce, knorr chicken flavor, cumin, onions and salt. cover and simmer (lower the flame) to rice is to your liking if you like moist rice, don't allow all the water to dry up. GOOD LUCK!

8 oz of riceland rice

4 cups of boiling water

1 can of tomato sauce -use another can if you like it a redder color (my kids like it with color)

2 spoons of cumin

3 spoons of knorr chicken boulion

slices of onion to your liking

Spanish rice - I use the Mahatma kind from the store and doctor it up. LOL

Recipe below for refried beans. Slow cook the beans - either pinto or black beans. I prefer black beans. Don't use the ones from the can it is not the same. When I cook my beans, I add salt to the water then add less salt at the end.

Frijoles Refritos

vegetable oil or lard

3 cloves garlic minced

one onion chopped

about 3 cups of cooked beans and some of the liquid from the cooked beans if you've got it.

salt

Heat about 4 Tbls of vegetable oil or lard (use lard if you've got it for a great rich taste that's truly Mexican) in a heavy fry pan or a wok, over medium heat. A big heavy wok actually works really well when you're squishing the beans later.

Add the chopped onion and sauté until softened and beginning to brown, about five to ten minutes, stirring or shaking occasionally.

Add in your garlic and sauté for about thirty seconds.

Immediately add a ladle full of cooked beans, and using a big spoon or potato masher, start mashing the beans in the oil. Once the first spoonful of beans has been mashed completely, keep adding progressive more beans and repeating the process. The unique taste of refried beans occurs as a result of slowly frying the starches inside the beans in the oil, so you want to add the beans a little bit at a time, to make sure they all get good and fried.

Once all the beans have been mashed add a little bean liquid or water, until you get the texture that you want. Keep it a bit looser than you eventually want, as they will continue to firm up as they cool off the heat.

Now all that you need to do is salt your beans. The beans need a lot of salt, so just keep adding pinches of salt and tasting until it tastes right.

These will also freeze well, so it's a good idea to make more than you need. The recipe above can be easily doubled or more. I used Tupperware to freeze it. I do some in a big container and some in a small one. So, I can grab the amount I need without having to thaw the whole thing.

L

Hi T.,
Here is the recipe for true Spanish rice. You need the following:
rice
vegetable oil
½ regular size tomatoes
½ garlic
quarter sz onion
and salt to taste or for real good tasting of real Spanish rice you can also add Tomato bouillon in powder.

For your size of family, all you need is about a cup and a half of rice. (Note) For every cup of rice, you need two cups of water but depending on your stove how it cooks you might need to add a little bit more.

To start you wash your vegetable (tomatoes, onions, and garlic) put all the raw vegetables in the blender and blend it until it looks like a smoothie. You set aside. You add about two tablespoons of oil in a deep skillet. Heat it up (oil). When oil is hot, add the rice. Fry it until it gets golden brown. Then you get your vegetable “smoothie and add to the golden rice (you see vapor coming up when you add it to the skillet). Fry it for a couple of more minutes. Then you add the water to the rice, then you add salt to taste. You let it boil while you stir and then you lower your temperature. Cover it up with a lid that has either upper or side holes to let out vapor. Let the water evaporate until you see that the rice has softened and dried up. If the rice is still a little bit hard and somewhat chewy, add a little bit of more water. You stick a spoon all the way to the bottom to make sure the water has evaporated. Turn off the rice. Keep the lid on until ready to serve. To store what is left, make sure it is completely cooled down. Put it in a storage container and put it in the refrigerator. When you want to reheat it, put it in the microwave and add a little bit of water or broth, like about a tablespoon to plate, and heat for about a minute to minute and a half depending on the microwave.
On the beans, all you have to get is purchase a bag of pinto beans. Depending on how much you use for the week. If you don’t eat them daily you can cook about 2 cups of beans. So for two cups of beans it would be four cups of water on the pot.

This is what you do, you clean the beans and then you rinse them with water and then drain them. You then put them in a pot with water. You add salt to taste about 1(one) tablespoon. Then you cook them for about two hours in medium heat or until fully cooked. Then you just sit back and relax. After they are cooked, all you have to do is add a little bit of vegetable oil to a skillet. Heat up the oil then add the beans (be careful because the oil goes crazy when the beans are added to the hot oil skillet) you then stir them for about two minutes then you start mashing them with a potato masher until they are completely mashed. You can also add them to the blender, then put them in a skillet with oil, and just stir until they are hot and ready to serve.

For the Rice: Sautee your rice with a little bit of diced onion with oil until it's golden, not too dark, but not too light either. Then I use fresh, very ripe tomatoes (puree them in the blender with a clove of garlic)add them to the sauteed rice and let the tomatoe cook for just a bit, add about a teaspoon of cumin. Then add your water or chicken stock (ad salt if your stock is not salted). Use twice as much as rice (one cup rice, two cups stock). Bring to a boil, (taste the liquid at this point for flavor, make suer it has enough salt)lower the heat to a simmer, put a lid on it and don't check it until 20 ,minutes have passed. After 20 minutes, take the lid off and do not stir. Make a well in the center of the rice and put the lid back on and turn off the heat. Do know why, but that works. My mom taught me that and I do it religiously. Use a heavy pan with a good fitting lid so the steam that is cooking the rice does not escape, if your lid loses steam, you might need to add more liquid and extend the cooking time. Good luck.

Hey there, I remember watching my grandmother make beans very easy ...

1 large pot filled with water (about 1/4 to the top)
1 chunk salt pork (you find it at HEB in the sausage/ bacon section) cut in 1 inch cubes
2 cups pinto beans
about 1/8 teaspoon comino (cumin)
2 garlic cloves
1/2 medium onion (cut in rings then in half)

go ahead and bring the water to a boil add pork, beans, onions and garlic *you can add salt and pepper to taste*
bring to medium heat level and let simmer for a good hour or so stir occasionally so beans don't stick and burn, cook to desired tenderness (I'd recommend a good 2 hours)beans should be a nice brown color and you should not be able to see the "pinto" spots.

You can also go to campbellssoup.com and there is a section where you can sign up for daily recipes! Good luck!

Like my mom told me, "You will learn how to cook when you have to cook" It's true, when you work full time have 3 kids and a man to feed you can become very creative! Or else you learn the number to DOMINO'S!! LOL!
I started off collecting recipes and cookbooks and following them to a T. I can honestly say that now, I am a good cook! I watched my grandmother use her hand to measure when I was growing up. How do they do that???? Just put this much meha, then wait for it to bubble..... LOL!! A good mexican grandma never measures!! It took me 20 yrs to learn how to do good mexican rice!!!! The steady one wins the race! It comes out fluffy and yummy! The real key is to NOT pick up the lid and peek at it! The recipe from Guille is good. If you do not have time to put the tomatoes in a blender just used a can tomatoe sauce. I add the garlic and onion to the rice after the rice is close to the right color, then add tomatoe sauce when they become clear, be careful it's very hot, add the water/broth, add cumino and salt and pepper. Be careful with the cumino, it is very strong and too much will not taste good! Bring it to a boil, lower temp to simmer, cover and leave it alone!! When it is has been 20 min, turn off the heat and leave the lid on. Sometimes I throw in sprigs of cilantro. YUMM!!
Do you have a rice cooker? This is a real easy one. Add the rice and water, then also put chopped onion and garlic and sprigs of cilantro. Turn the cooker on, when it is done mix all the goodies together and you have cilantro rice. White rice with alot of flavor!
Good luck, you will get it, just like anything else it just takes TIME!!
God Bless!!

Cheesy Enchiladas

Velveeta Cheese - 1 sm block
Corn tortillas - 10-15 tortillas
Gebhardt enchilada sauce - 2 cans
Yellow onion - half small onion
1. chop onion into very small pieces.
2. heat sauce in pot over medium heat.
3. microwave tortillas in plastic bag (remove twist tie because it has metal) for about 20 seconds until tortillas are soft.
4. add a little onion & mold soft velveeta cheese into tortilla in a line and roll tortillas.
5. After lining all tortillas in pan, pour warm sauce over all the rolled enchiladas add more cheese crumbles on top & sprinkle more onions.
7. place in a pan and put in oven at 375 degrees until all the cheese is melted. About 35 minutes.

Look in some past requests on here.. just a couple of weeks ago, someone asked for some easy recipes and got alot of responses. There were some great recipes and ideas given. My suggestion was to register on campbells.com and sign up for the daily email recipe. They send you a new one everyday and most are pretty easy to follow and are usually pretty good!! =)
Good Luck!!

here is the link to the one I was talking about, she got 57 responses!! If this doesn't work, it was asked by Kimberly N. on Jan 5th.
http://www.mamasource.com/request/recent/77355/1232031449...

I can't help you with an actual recipe, but I can tell you what I know. Older people were quite frequently illiterate and remembering recipes came from use and repition. With that said, the secret to good home cooking is a good set of tools, you, your nose and a cookbook or the internet. (Cast iron is FABULOUS for home TexMex)

I don't consider myself a great cook. I love to do it and it usually comes out good, but I still burn stuff and undercook somethings. I like America's Test Kitchen for recipes, because they actually do the recipe and then fix it so it's yummmmmmmy and usually not too hard. If you use them follow all of their steps, there is a reason for it.

Go to Kraftfoods.com great reciepies.

Hi T.,
I hate to cook so I can relate. But I can cook. The trick to cooking is practice!

I didn't read all the responses so I apologize if I am repeating this, but I would suggest for you to check out http://www.foodnetwork.com/

Rachael Ray's 30 minute meals are always easy and fabulous! She uses real ingrediants, nothing too fancy and her steps are easy to follow. Also if you can catch or record her show it's great!

I'm sure with practice you will have no problem finding your own favorite recipes!

R. :0)

There are so many different ways to make Spanish rice and refried beans, if possible I would go back to the person who made them for him and ask them to teach you. Even if they don't have a recipe, you could write down the ingredients and steps while the person is making them. That way you can get as close to what your husband is used to as possible. If this person is not around to show you, then maybe another family member might know.

These items remind me of potato salad. Everyone has a different recipe they use and everyone thinks that theirs is the best in the world.

T., Not much is easier or faster than this Quesadilla. You will need your favorite canned chili (beans, vegetarian, beef, turkey – whatever), cheese, chopped onion, tortillas, sour cream and picante sauce. Put one or two tortilla’s on a cookie sheet and spread on the chili. Sprinkle on chopped onion and cheese. Top with another tortilla which you have quickly run under some water. Pop this into a pre heated 400 degree oven for 10 minutes (no more than 15 minutes). Serve with the sour cream and picante sauce. Makes one large or two smaller Quesadilla's