Taco Seasoning Flavored Rice

  I'm always experimenting with food and find some of the food combinations fascinating. This week, I decided to make tacos. I wanted everything to be organic as well, so I went to Whole Foods and bought the shells and the seasoning packet. I already had grass-fed ground beef in, as well as homemade sour cream and lettuce from an organic vegetable co-op. We also had a lot of white rice left over from dinner the other night, although I doubt that the rice was organic. You can buy organic rice and that of course, would be preferable. I'm sure you could use brown rice for this recipe as well.

   Here is what I did: First, I browned the ground beef. After the meat was browned I added the water and the taco seasoning mix to the meat. I let it simmer for a little while. The liquid did not thicken, so I took the meat out and put the leftover white rice in (I didn't measure. I just put in enough for three of us if we all wanted to have some). I let the rice reheat and soaked the taco flavored liquid in the pan in. Then I added some butter (I actually cut about 1/4 cup off. Maybe even more than that). Yummmmm.
 
   Note: I am not ordinarily a fan of Spanish rice, but this tasted pretty good. I would imagine if you could make your own taco seasoning mix, and then add water, you could make your own version of it. I, personally, like the packets because of the orange color of the mix. I will try to recreate this recipe and put it into a recipe format so others can make it. If you do make it, let me know how it turns out. I can tweak the recipe where necessary.

   Taco Seasoning Flavored Rice

2 cups leftover white rice
1/2 packet of taco seasoning mix
1/2 cup water
Butter, to taste (optional, only use grass-fed butter if possible)

   Put the taco seasoning mix and water in a frying pan and heat up. Add leftover rice. Let the rice absorb the liquid and add more water if necessary. Turn rice often. Add butter, if using.

Note: I got my seasoning packet from Whole Foods. You can use any seasoning packet for this. Keep in mind that well known companies may have additives or preservatives in the seasoning.

Making Homemade Strawberry Quik

   I have to be honest. I love the strawberry Nestle Quik milk powder. I had it when I was very small and I gave it to my kids when they were small. We called it, 'Pink Milk'. Our daughter would wake up and her first words were 'pink milk'.
  I am now opposed to using sugar, but it is almost inevitable. I don't know what kind of ingredients are in strawberry quik, but I know there is probably a lot of sugar in it.
  This week I am reading a novel like book called, 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'. In reading this book, an autistic boy is the narrator. Because of his condition, he becomes easily angered. He hates the colors yellow and brown. One of his favorite drinks is the strawberry shake. It sounds a little like strawberry Quik to me.
  So, I figured out how to make my own strawberry Quik. I took a cup of raw milk and added a couple of strawberries. Then I blended it in the Vitamix. It looks just like strawberry Quik and tastes good too. Yum!

Homemade strawberry Quik can be made from 8 oz. milk,
a handful of strawberries, and a couple of drops of Stevia
blended in a food processor or blender. 

Homemade strawberry Quik, without sugar and other
additives. 

Making Tomato Powder

  I used to wonder how they made those barbecue potato chips and now I think I have a better idea of how they are flavored. One of the main ingredients is powdered tomato. I always had wondered how tomato powder was made, so I was doing searches for tomato recipes, I found out.

  Here is what you do to make tomato powder; You take the skin off the tomatoes and dry them. Then you put the dried skins through a food processor or blender until ground fine. I take tomatoes and wash them off and place them in a slow cooker for about an hour, or until the skins begin to split open. Then I take the skin off and puree the rest. Instead of throwing the skin into the compost (although the compost bins can use them) I take them and dry them, they grind them into powder once they are dried.

Problem solved!

  You can add them to taco seasoning or sprinkle on a salad. I would love to see what the different colored tomatoes would look like, when the skins are turned into tomato powder!

  Did you know that the black krim tomato is very high in lycopene? Black krim tomato is a very dark tomato, like a deep purple one.

   Tomatoes come in red, yellow, pink, black (purple), green, orange, cream colored, and striped. Many are very pretty and there are a lot of heirloom choices available today.

  Some companies to order heirloom seeds from are; Baker's Creek (www.rareseeds.com) and Pinetree Seeds (www.superseeds.com). A good company I just recently found is Tradewinds Fruit (www.tradwindsfruit.com). They have lots of choices on both fruits and vegetables.

  Go to the tomato sections of these companies and look at the wide variety of tomatoes. You would be surprised of all the variations.

Nana's Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

  When I was in high school, I took a class called, 'Home Ec' which taught us a variety of things that had to do with housekeeping. I zeroed in on the cooking classes and even took 'Gourmet Cooking' in my Senior year.
   I was married at the age of 18, and although I learned a lot from Home Ec, there were a lot of things I did not know how to make. One night, I decided I wanted to make spaghetti sauce, so, I called my mom and asked her how to make spaghetti sauce. There was no Internet or even a good supply of books available with recipes, and even if there were, I certainly could not afford to buy any of them at that time!
   My mom gave me her recipe. She told me how to make it, and I remembered everything that she said.  Here is the basic recipe she gave me at that time. You can add things to it, or delete some things, although I think everything in this recipe is pretty basic and you would miss something important if you took away any of these ingredients:

Nana's Spaghetti Sauce

2 - 8 oz. cans tomato sauce
1 - 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 small onion
1 or 2 garlic cloves
Olive oil
Pork sausage (Optional. Either sausage links or loose sausage is fine).
1 pound Ground beef
Italian herbs of your choice*
Mushrooms (optional)
Salt (optional)

   In a food processor, process the onion and the garlic. Heat the oil in a pan and add the onion and garlic. When onion is soft, turn heat down or off and add tomato paste. Stir well to combine. Add the 2 cans of tomato sauce, then, add 2 cans of water to the sauce mixture. Meanwhile, cook the ground beef and sausage. Add the herbs to the sauce mixture and when meat is browned, add the meat to the sauce mixture as well. Slice mushrooms up if using and saute them and add them to the sauce mixture. Cook on low heat for a couple of hours. Keep watch on pot occasionally to make sure mixture isn't evaporating. Add salt to taste, if desired.
*Note: Some herbs to use are: Basil, Oregano, Anise Seed, 1 Bay leaf, Parsley or any premixed Italian herb mixture. You can add mint as well.

Homemade Pasta

1 1/3 cups semolina flour
1 egg
1 TBS. Olive oil
Water

Combine flour, egg, olive oil, and a little water (3 TBS.) in a mixer. Mix until the dough forms a ball and doesn't stick to the sides of the bowl. Add more water as necessary. Put the dough through an extruder or pasta machine. Cook finished pasta in boiling water, for 3-5 minutes or until done.

Bucatini pasta homemade with semolina flour, and Nana's Spaghetti Sauce