Easy, Quick & Thrifty Main Dish

 

With the rising prices on groceries I've been thinking a lot about coming up with super thrifty meal ideas that just about anyone would probably enjoy.   Here is something we came up with recently and it uses the Knorr rice or pasta sides that come in a pouch.  You could also use Rica-a-roni or Pasta-roni or the store brand equivalent too.

 

This one with ground beef was really good
We are excited to try some other combinations

I took one of the pouches, half a pound of ground meat, a cup of cooked rice and two cups of water and created a meal that could easily feed four people.  This one I chose was the Spanish rice flavor.  I browned some ground beef, but you could also use ground pork, chicken or turkey and then drained away most of the fat.  Then I added in the two cups of water and the contents of the pouch stirring it all together.  I reduced the heat to medium low on my burner and once it began to bubble I put a lid on my pot and set the time for 7 minutes.  Once that was done I removed the pot from the burner and stirred in the cup of cooked rice, replaced the lid and let it sit an additional 5 minutes.  Then it was ready to serve.

 

I had a bit of leftover grated cheese to use as a topping

The nice thing about this dish is it comes together very quickly and it is super easy to prepare.  It is also very versatile.  If you don't want or don't have meat you can leave it out or you can use pretty much any canned meat you may have on hand.  Plus you can dress it up any way you like.  We topped this with some shredded cheese or sour cream would be nice as well.  Or just plain was fine too.  Normally I find these side dish pouches to be rather soupy and overly salty, but by adding the extra cup of rice it really balances out the saltiness plus it extends it nicely into a main dish instead of just a side plus it wasn't soupy, it was actually perfect.  We really enjoyed it.  My daughter really liked this and it is something she can easily make.

 

A simple salad of spinach, slice mushrooms & grape tomatoes

I'm noticing these pouches are staying at around a dollar each at the stores right now so price wise I think it is a really great bargain.  The store brand Rice-a-roni versions are slightly less.  Just a quick and thrifty meal idea you can put together with a green salad or a canned or frozen veggie on the side.  Or depending on which flavor you use you could even put the veggie in with the dish for a one pot meal.  We have decided to incorporate these into our meal planning on a semi regular basis.