Chicken and Rice Recipe

Every blog worth its salt needs a post about cooking and recipes.  Here's my entry:

I don't have a lot of time to cook.  But the challenge is to eat something that is nutritious, tasty, filling, and cheap.  I feel pretty good about this dish that I recently came up with called (for lack of a better title) Chicken and Rice Concoction.

Here are your basic ingredients:

Salsa -- I like to use Pico de Gallo Salsa.  It is mild but with a little zing.

White Chicken Breast

Organic Brown Rice

 Not only is this easy to make, it's also easy to get the ingredients.  Salsa is available at any grocery store.  The chicken and the rice are both available from Costco.












If I were a little less lazy, I would just do one cup of rice in the rice cooker.

I like to do brown rice because I think it's healthier.  When I cook in the rice cooker, I use three cups of water for every cup of rice because I like my rice stickier and not so dry.  It takes a little longer to cook in the rice cooker, but it's worth it.

Also, be sure to add a little salt to the rice cooker as well.  :)  It really helps with the flavor.

Directions:


1.  Pop the top on the organic rice bowl and pop it in the microwave for 90 seconds.  Use two of these bowls.

2. Empty half of the salsa container into a mixing bowl while the rice is cooking.

3.  Empty the can of chicken into the mixing bowl while the rice is cooking.

4.  Stir well.

5.  When the rice is done, dump both packages into the mixing bowl and keep stirring.

6.  Enjoy!

My kids love this stuff.  The picture doesn't do it justice because my kitchen lighting is terrible (but oh-so-"eco friendly" thanks to California's "green" building standards)!

 Health Factor:


You are eating the following:

• Chicken (good source of protein)
• Organic Brown Rice (that gets your grains covered with some good complex carbohydrates)
• Pico de Gallo Salsa -- basically tomato, cilantro, onion, and lime juice  (fruits and veggies--check!)

A very balanced and nutritious meal.

Budget:

I'm a big eater and this comfortably served for two meals for me.

Here's the breakdown:

• Rice - 2 packages at $1.17 per bowl = $2.34
• Chicken - 1 can at $1.67 per can = $1.67
• Salsa - 0.5 packages at $1.50 per package = $0.75

Total = $4.76 for two servings or $2.38 per meal

Time Factor:

Honestly, less time that it took to do this post.  Approximately 5-10 minutes.

Now I'm hungry!