Rice, Rice Baby!

I'm a big fan of quick and easy weeknight meals (like Black Bean Soup & Lemon Chicken). One of my favorites is Taco Bar night. Basically I just cook the meat, rice & beans and the rest is chopping veggies for everyone to assemble tacos/burritos/salad their own way. And while this not an original meal, I wanted to share a little flavoring combo I've been using for rice. We could all use a little change now and then with something as simple as rice, right? First, I prefer to toast my rice in a saucepan with olive (or whatever) oil. Once it gets nice and brown I turn down the heat and pour water in equal to two times the amount of rice used (1/2 cup of rice = 1 cup of water needed). 

Then I heap on some herbs (you should know by now I hardly ever measure), in this case Mexican Seasoning and lime juice. This combo was quite good mixed into shredded chicken too. I also enjoy tomato bullion or thyme in the rice (have yet to try those two together...).

Let the rice simmer a while (20-30 min), and you have a great fluffy but not sticky rice consistency. I will usually start the rice first and then cook my taco meat (chicken or ground beef), chop veggies (tomatoes, onion, lettuce, avocado) and warm up the tortillas and black beans.

Wow, I didn't realize how multi-tasking that meal is till now. It really doesn't feel so bad once you get going though--I promise!