Rice challange

Alright, so it's 11pm and you just realize that you didn't make lunch for work tomorrow. What do you do? Why, improvise of course! I decided to take a ordinary rice mix and kick it up a notch. I had one of those store brand rice mixes just laying around, the kind that's on sale for a dollar 3 weeks out of the month. It was a chicken flavored rice and vermicelli mix, kind of like this brand name. Here's what it took:

1 Box chicken flavored rice and vermicelli mix
1 med size onion
3/4 cup mushrooms
3 chicken bouillon cubes
1-2 cloves of garlic

How to prepare it:


-Chop a medium sized onion into small pieces (but don't mince it).

-Saute onions over medium heat with a teaspoon of butter until they're transparent.

-Add in 1-2 garlic cloves that have been minced.

-Once the onions are getting close to browning, add the rice mix right into the skillet. Make sure to stir the rice often or else it will burn.

-While your waiting for the vermicelli to brown, add 2 and a half cups water to a pot with 3 chicken bouillon cubes and place on low heat. You just want to melt them in the water, not boil it yet.

-Once the rice has browned (about 5 minutes) put it in your water and add the seasoning packet. Put a lid on, and let it come to a boil. Once it's at a full boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

-Chop 3/4 cup of mushrooms and saute over medium low heat until their tender and brown.

-Once the rice has absorbed most of the liquid, add in the mushrooms and stir to combine. Continue to let the rice cook on low heat for another 10 minutes, or until it has the consistency you want.

Notice that I haven't added any type of spice to this yet. I wait until the very last minute of cooking, so I can taste it and see if it actually needs anything. Some people add salt in automatically while cooking, but I find that because of the bouillon cubes, it's just not necessary. In my case, I ended up not needing to add anything in, the onion and garlic infused a great flavor right into the rice.

Take a moment and think about how inexpensive this was. It was a dollar for the rice, maybe 10 cents for the amount of garlic I used, 25 cents for the onion, 50 cents for the mushrooms, and 30 cents for the bouillon cubes. This made four large servings for only 54 cents each. It's a dish that looks (and tastes!) gourmet. I used things that I already had, that I bought while on sale, and is going to make a great dinner paired with some baked chicken. If your vegetarian you could easily add black beans to this, and have a complete meal.

I took pictures while I was cooking, I'll post them tonight. Try this out and let me know what you think!