Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food

This is an amazing article in TIME about our food supply. What are you really eating and what does it mean for your health, your wallet and the environment? This is the what we all need to know!

Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food

Making a Rice Combo for Dinner

I often have those days or evenings when I just don't know what I'm going to cook for dinner. Can you relate? It just feels like I'm using up too much brain power trying to figure it out - simple, quick, healthy. Those are usually my goals - and of course - delicious! However, too often I just don't want to figure out what to put together, so I've created a life saver of a dish - the Rice Combo!!!

For example, for dinner tonight I knew I wanted to have some beets I picked up at the farmer's market (by the way - boiled sliced beets, drizzled with crumbled goat cheese, olive oil and crushed pecans - yum!), but what else would we have with those beets? I had no meat or fish at all, and while I'm not a huge meat gal myself, my husband definitely likes to have his fair share. Usually, I'll do a quality, lean protein, lots of veggies and some whole grains. Then you have your nice, neat three part dinner. That wasn't happening.

Introducing the Rice Combo! Basically, I cook some organic brown rice (or quinoa, wild rice, forbidden rice) in my rice cooker - no monitoring needed. Then I saute in a pan other foods that I have, like veggies, beans, lentils, herbs, spices and oil. I check my pantry, the fridge and think about what would be some tasty, healthy foods to add. I try to add variety, different colors, textures and lots of veggies. Once those are mostly cooked, I add the cooked rice to the pan and mix it all together.

Here's what I came up with tonight: forbidden rice, green lentils, fresh corn I cut off leftover cooked corn cobs, scallions, garlic, yellow pepper and toasted sesame oil. Voila! I also decided to throw the beet greens in with the rice and just have the beets on the side. It's simple, super easy and if you make enough - perfect for lunch the next day. And my husband loves it! :)

The next time you are at a loss for what to have for dinner - experiement with a rice combo of your own!