Q: Please help me make my rice more interesting. I love to use basmati rice with many different dinners, but I am tired of the same old rice. What are some good recipes to liven up my rice?
Sent by George
After evaluating dinner habits for The Cooking Cure, yesterday we asked our readers to choose five new dinner recipes. After all, sometimes deciding what to cook is the hardest part of dinner!
We checked out the #cookingcure hashtag to see how Day 13’s assignment went for you — here are some highlights!
We’ve all been there: it’s 5pm and you have no idea what you’re going to do for dinner. You might wander around the grocery store after work or school without a real recipe in mind and choose a whole bunch of stuff for a “salad”. You might even skip the grocery store altogether and just order take-out or eat cereal straight from the box.
Well, this doesn’t need to be you any longer! Take this totally easy magazine-style quiz to find out what you should actually be eating for dinner.
I’ve been in Los Angeles for a week and we’ve already grilled artichokes three times. While the earth in my neck of the woods back east still snores through its winter slumber, agriculture is full-on here. Given the warm weather, we decided to grill as much as possible so we’ve been finishing off the ‘chokes on the grill. It lends a nice crispy texture to the edges (think potato chip!) and a smoky flavor that you just can’t get out of a pot of boiling water.
Fortunately, for like nutritional balance and all that boring grown-up stuff, we did not entirely subsist on double-chocolate banana bread for the last few weeks, tempting as it may have been. We’ve also been making chicken fajitas like it were the early 1990s and they were all the new rage again.
I don’t mean to mock the dish. I have fond memories of going to Tex-Mex restaurants in strip-malls (New Jersey, represent!) in high school and college, the kind of places that served slushy margaritas in cactus glasses and had waiters hurrying loud, sizzling skillets of meat and vegetable fillings from swinging kitchen door to various tables. But once the dish cooled, expectations usually did as well. Mounds of extras (chopped fresh onions, tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro were the standards) turned them into passable tacos, but without the fixings, they were deceptively dull despite their dramatic entrances. I never imagined a future where hacking the dish to our satisfaction would be probably the only meal we’ve ever eaten four times in three weeks; we’re a little addicted and it’s amazing how well it works on a weekday night. [Or where I’d make my own corn tortillas for it, but that for another day, when I’ve returned to my sanity.]
… Read the rest of sizzling chicken fajitas on smittenkitchen.com
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4.8 / 5 Stars | 27 Reviews
by TIVERTOWN
“Peach filling is prepared ahead of time and frozen inside a pie plate. When ready to bake, simply place it in a crust-filled pie plate of the same size, and bake.”
At the tail-end of winter, I’m often tempted to buy out-of-season produce flown in from far-flung regions. This week I’m taking a big breath, putting the asparagus down, and giving rutabagas and potatoes a last hurrah. They’re the perfect additions to this Thai-inspired chicken soup, adding a hearty note that feels just right for the equinox.
Day 13: Wednesday, March 19
Assignment: Find 5 new recipes to make for dinner
The Cooking Cure: See all assignments so far here
Sometimes deciding what to cook is the toughest part of making dinner, don’t you think? Whether you’re in a total dinner rut or, the opposite, you’re overwhelmed with the number of recipes you’re constantly accumulating, the problem is the same: taking time to make a conscious choice about what to have for dinner.
Today, your assignment is to make that time. Set aside part of your day to sift through your cookbooks, comb your favorite blogs and magazines, and sort through your recipe box. Give yourself the time you need to find some recipes that make you excited for dinner.
Rice and beans makes for the ultimate budget meal — especially if you cook dried beans from scratch — but that doesn’t mean your dinner has to be boring. Simmered with fragrant spices, wrapped up in a tortilla, baked into a comforting casserole, this combination can be cooked up in a variety of ways that manage to be satisfying and tasty, without breaking the bank.
