Dreena-Roni

A couple of years ago, our visit to San Francisco produced a new interest in Rice-a-Roni.  When we realized that China Town and the Italian section were next door neighbors, the whole Italian/Asian fusion in that particular product just seemed so perfect.  At the grocery store recently, one of the girls begged me to buy Rice-A-Roni.  We usually eat brown rice and whole wheat pasta, but we all  know kids dig the simple carbs.    I did pick it up, but the list of chemicals is l-o-n-g.  So I put it down.  I said, "I wish we could make it at home."  Pepper said, "You can do it, Mom!

You gotta give the people what they want!

Herb and Butter Dreena-Roni

Serves 8 - 156 calories

1/4 lb. angel hair - broken into pieces of 1" or less
1-1/2 cups medium grain rice

1/4 cup butter - melt it in a LARGE skillet

• gently brown the rice and angel hair in the skillet until lightly browned

1 tsp. Herbs d/ Provence
2 cloves garlic
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

• Mash all this together with a mortar and pestle or crush the herbs in your hands and stir together

5 cups chicken broth, warmed*. 

• Add the herbs to the rice
• Add chicken broth slowly, 1 cup at a time, bringing it to a boil each time
• Stir gently as you add the broth
• Once all the broth is in, put the lid on tightly, turn the heat all the way down and simmer 20 minutes.

*  If using homemade broth, you may need to water it down about 1/3

*  If you don't have chicken broth, you can crush 2 chicken bouillon cubes with the spices, but go easy on the salt.

For a full nutritional breakdown, I have recorded the recipe on SparkPeople.