spanish rice

No one here is surprised to know that Kroger is my favorite place to be, but after perusing my recent transactions I realized that I go to the grocery store multiple times per week — sometimes per day — and that is just ridiculous. Our fridge, freezer, and cabinets are stocked with all sorts of things either half-used or never opened, so I challenged myself to come up with something using what I had on hand. Like a good little researcher, I made a list first:

So many leftovers, so many possibilities.

Then, I decided to check out the CrockPot recipe book to see if anything stood out, and found a recipe for Spanish rice. Perfect! I could use the ground turkey instead of ground beef, peas and carrots (I forgot to write those down) instead of green peppers, and some fancy-shmancy tomato soup we had on hand instead of tomato sauce. I got to work cooking the turkey — we have tons of it after a $.99 sale at Kroger — and dicing onions and garlic, when this little gem caught my eye:

Garlic sprout!

So I asked The Husband to plant it in a pot of dirt to see what happens, then returned to chopping up carrots and throwing fistfuls of peas into the CrockPot to give my Spanish rice some color. A blop of Worchestershire sauce here, a shake of cayenne pepper there, and it was ready to go! I let it simmer in the CrockPot until “The Amazing Race,” when we decided to pop off the lid.

Bat barf!

People, it was gross. It looked gross and it smelled gross, so I reached for a dish of oatmeal instead. But The Husband, brave and true, let me scoop some onto his plate.

Plating is not my strong suit. Those are tortilla chips, which I hoped would make the dog vomit Spanish rice go down easier.

After dousing it with sour cream and salsa, The Husband pronounced it NABNT — not awesome but not terrible. I think his tastebuds must have gone into hiding when they saw what he was trying to shovel into his mouth. We both agreed that real tomato sauce instead of the fancy soup I used would have made a world of difference, but I don’t know for sure how bad it was because I couldn’t bring myself to taste it. I dared myself to try some while transferring it to Tupperware, then chickened out. I guess they can’t all be winners.

I’m watching Guy Fieri bop around the stage on “Ultimate Recipe Showdown” now, hoping to get some inspiration for next week. It doesn’t have to be fancy, gourmet, or even impressive. At this point, I’ll settle for palatable and call it a win.