So, not quite knowing where I was going with this week's menu, Saturday morning I put a family pack of boneless skinless chicken in the crock pot. I grabbed the vat of organic salsa from Costco and poured a couple of cups over it, then set off on the usual weekend errands.
Come dinner time, I discovered there was only a half cup of brown rice left. Enough for a meal or two for me and Spouse 1.0, but not enough to justify the effort of sauteing, opening a can of tomatoes, and all the ingredients that would go into even the easiest Spanish Rice.
I thought of cheating and just cooking it with some of the Costco salsa. But, then I remembered seeing the words "Cilantro Lime Rice" somewhere... maybe when scanning through recipes online while looking for rice pudding, maybe on a restaurant menu. Anyway, I figured, "How hard can it be?"
And, for once, the answer was: Not hard at all.
Recipe:
1/2 cup of brown rice
1 cup of water
A big splash of bottled lime juice (maybe 2 or 3 T?)
Tiny dash of granulated garlic
Dash of salt
3 cilantro ice cubes from Trader Joe
Rinse the rice, then mix it and everything except the cilantro in a pan. Cook until the rice is nearly done, then stir in the cilantro ice cubes.
Obviously, you can make this even easier by using leftover brown rice, and just reheating with all the flavorings.
The super-easy chicken and rice became part of an almost-easy taco salad dinner, plated as follows:
Layer lettuce and tomatoes on the plate.
Place about 1/3 to 1/2 cup cilantro lime rice in the center.
Top the rice with about 3 to 3.5 oz of the cooked chicken.
Spoon reheated refried beans over all in an X.
Drizzle salsa inside the beanly spokes.
Sprinkle a few canned olives around the edges.
Top with a tiny fluff of shredded cheese.
One of my favorite meals, even though lettuce washing doesn't count as "easy."
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