Spanish Rice, two varieties

Forget the Rice-a-Roni. These two wonder oven made rice dishes are just as easy to make and taste a whole lot better! Left overs freeze well so you can even enjoy it later when it’s needed for a fast meal. In using with your food storage plan, serve this with Creamy Chicken Enchiladas, Shredded Beef Taquitos, Tacos, Tamales or any other fiesta minded main dish.

Traditional Spanish Rice
Ingredients: 

1 medium onion (or 1/2 cup freeze dried onion flakes, re-hydrated)
1 tsp. garlic (or 1/2 tsp. garlic powder)
2 TBS olive oil
2 cups rice
1 tsp. salt
1/4 – 1/2 tsp. white pepper (recipe calls for 1/2 tsp. but my family prefers 1/4)
1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1/2 cup salsa, any kind

Instructions:
Heat the oil in a sauce pan over medium low heat. Add the onion and garlic. Cook for 2 minutes.

Add the raw rice, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally until rice turns a golden color, about 5 minutes. Add to the rice the can of chicken broth, tomato sauce and salsa and stir together. Bring to a boil with the lid on (the lid should be hot) and transfer pot to wonder oven. Allow to cook in wonder oven for at least 45 minutes. Fluff with a spoon and serve.  Serves 8

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Tomatillo Pilaf
This is a nice alternative to traditional spanish rice.
Ingredients:
1 medium onion (or 1/2 cup freeze dried onion flakes, rehydrated)
1 tsp. garlic (or 1/2 tsp. garlic powder)
2 TBS olive oil
2 cups rice
1 tsp. salt
1/4 – 1/2 tsp. white pepper (recipe calls for 1/2 tsp. but my family prefers 1/4)
1 (14.5 oz.) can chicken broth
1/2 cup water
1 (8 oz.) can salsa verde
1/8 cup lime juice

Instructions:
Heat the oil in a sauce pan over medium low heat. Add the onion and garlic. Cook for 2 minutes.

Add the raw rice, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally until rice turns a golden color, about 5 minutes. Add to the rice the can of chicken broth, 1/2 cup water, can of salsa verde and lime juice and stir together. Bring to a boil with the lid on (the lid should be hot) and transfer pot to wonder oven. Allow to cook in wonder oven for atleast 45 minutes. Fluff with a spoon and serve.  Serves 8

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Serve either rice dish (or both, freezing the leftovers) with your favorite Mexican entree. Tonight we paired it with red enchiladas. Yum!

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Notes:
When cooking rice in a wonder oven you’ll want to decrease the water just a little since the water doesn’t evaporate away. To 2 cups white rice you should add 3 1/2 cups liquid, in cooking 2 cups of brown rice add 4 cups liquid.

http://myfoodstoragecookbook.com/2012/04/26/spanish-rice-two-varieties/

Rice Pudding

Rice Pudding

Make for dessert one night, eat for breakfast the next day, and put it in lunch bags as a treat for lunch. It’s easy to make in the wonder oven, includes simple ingredients and even though the recipe doesn’t call for eggs it’s still thick and creamy. Yum!

Ingredients:
1 cup rice
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk
sugar and cinnamon for sprinkling

Instructions:

Cook 1 cup rice (normally) using 2 cups water and 1/2 tsp salt. If you already have 3 cups of cooked left over rice you can skip ahead.

In a pot, combine 3 cups cooked rice with evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, raisins and vanilla. Bring to a boil, with the lid on until hot, and transfer to wonder oven to cook. Allow to cook for about and hour and a half (minimum) to two hours until liquid is absorbed (*see notes for stove top cooking instructions). If left longer it’ll be fine, you’ll just need to add some milk to cream it up again. Serve warm.  Makes 6-8 servings

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Sprinkled with cinnamon and ready to serve!

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Notes:
To cook on the stove top you don’t need to bring the mixture to a boil, instead cover and cook on low setting 3-4 hours until liquid is absorbed. Stir pudding occasionally.

http://myfoodstoragecookbook.com/2012/04/26/rice-pudding/#more-3249

Wonder Oven Lasagna

This is so easy that a simple step by step with pictures is all it needs here on the blog for explanation … Enjoy!

Make your favorite lasagna sauce (with meat if desired) and add 2 cups water (maybe a little less if you want it thick) to the sauce. Bring it to boil and then remove 3/4 of the sauce to another container.

With a layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan, lay dry lasagna noodles, 

a thin layer of sauce and a layer of ricotta cheese.

Repeat layering, being sure to layer sauce under and over noodles, until pan is filled.

End layering with a final layer of sauce, cover pan with a lid and heat to bubbling. 

 Add mozzarella cheese to top…

Cover pan with it’s lid until the lid is hot and place the skillet into Wonder Oven.

Allow to cook for 4 hours and pull out to serve…

Yum. So good yet so easy!

Courtesy of http://myfoodstoragecookbook.com/2012/03/10/wonder-oven-lasagna/

Cooking Meat in Your Wonder Oven

What you’ll need:

Either a Ziploc steamer bag –or– a breakfast cereal bag.

Instructions:

Start a pot of water to boil on the stove with it’s lid on. In a skillet, brown seasoned meat. Transfer browned meat to either a Ziploc steamer bag or a breakfast cereal bag and add to the boiling pot of water. Cover pot with it’s lid. If you are using a breakfast cereal bag, allow some of the bag to hang over the side of the pot and place the lid over top of the bag. Place pot into the Wonder Oven, cover with top pillow and container lid and “cook” a minimum of 30 minutes to 1 hour for small amounts of meat. For larger amounts of meat (a pot roast for example) cook atleast 2 hours.

Cooking Meat Using a Ziploc Steamer Bag

Season and brown the meat.

Transfer meat into Ziploc Steamer Bag

Place bag in boiling pot of water

Replace pot lid

Put pot into Wonder Oven, cover with top pillow and container lid.

One hour later, removing the bag from the pot, the meat is cooked and ready to serve.

Cooking Meat Using a Cereal Bag

Place browned seasoned meat in plastic cereal bag and add to boiling pot of water.

Replace pot lid with cereal bag overhanging between the lid and pot. Put pot into Wonder Oven, cover with top pillow and container lid.

One hour later, removing the bag from the pot, the meat is cooked and ready to serve.

The finished product. Tender delicious meat and plenty of broth to use in whatever meal I’m making.

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Notes:

With bigger pieces of meat (pot roast for example) it’s best to cut the meat into manageable pieces before browning and cooking it to shorten cooking time. It will cook as a whole, if you have 3-4 hours to leave it, it just depends on how long you have to let it cook.

Adding raw small red potatoes, onions and carrots to the bag before placing into the Wonder Oven is also a great idea. The vegetables cook together with the meat’s juices (…heavenly!) and once cooked everything is ready to serve at once.

You can use multiple bags in a pot at a time. If using more than one bag I would personally use the Ziploc bags rather than the cereal bags to skip having to hang part of the bag over the side of the pot.

The most important thing to make sure of (for any type of Wonder Oven cooking) is that you’re using the smallest pot necessary for the amount of food you are cooking. You don’t want a big pot with only a small amount of food being cooked in it or you’ll risk losing heat and it won’t cook as effectively.

Courtesy of http://myfoodstoragecookbook.com/2011/09/16/wonder-oven-101-cooking-meat/