Dinner = FAIL! (and some good recipes too :) )

So I found a recepe that sounded delish. I decided last night to make it. Well, in my own little beginner cooking world, I forgot that there is in fact rice thats NOT minute rice. The recipe went something like this (the baby is sleeping where the cookbook is):

Brown 3/4 lb ground beef in a pan with a half of an onion, minced. ( I used a whole small onion). In an 8x8 casserole dish, put 3c water with 1c rice (duh, NOT minute rice haha), 1 can of diced tomatoes with juices, 1 tsp of olive oil, 1 tsp each of dried italian seasoning and garlic, salt, pepper and the meat and onion mix. Cover with aluminum foil and put in oven for 1 hour at 350. Take out, sprinkle with chedder cheese and return for about 10 minutes (or until melted).

Sounds good right? I figured, what could be bad about that? Well while making it, it seemed like a bit much liquid, because whenever I make rice (minute rice that is, who has time for regular rice?) its always equal parts water and rice. It came out GROSS! Mushy and BLAND. I called my mom (AKA Betty Crocker) and explained to her. She then pointed out there WAS in fact something other then Minute Rice and thats where I went wrong. Who knew??

The best part of the meal was the fresh spinach. I just take some OO and sautee minced garlic in it. Then I throw the fresh spinach in the pan and sautee. Word to the wise, also something I learned along the way: fresh spinach shrinks down ALOT. I bought a bag one time thinking it would be plenty. I think we all ended up with like 2 forkfuls. (oops!) But hey, Im still learning!

I do have some tried and true recipes to post today. Ive been so crazy busy the last week or so with doctor appts, bringing Jay back and forth to work and Spidey going to school. We have been getting SLAMMED with snow this winter already and were getting ANOTHER 3-5 inches tonight. Cant wait til summer! Anyway, keep an eye out later today and dont forget to pass my blog along!

PS- The cookbook I got that recipe from was "The 5 dollar dinner mom cookbook" HIGHLY reccomended. In fact, I plan on posting a review of it in the near future. But when I looked on her site for the actual recipe, it was COMPLETELY different then the book! Here is that version: http://www.5dollardinners.com/2009/03/rice-meat-casserole.html