Week 5 - Rice

The week 5 challenge theme, rice, was actually one of the more difficult ones for me as far as choosing a recipe to try. We eat a fair amount of rice at home, but how could I make rice the central ingredient instead of just an accompaniment? Risotto was the first thing that came to mind, but considering I'm currently in physical therapy so that I can figure out how to stand longer without pain, something where I needed to be standing at the stove for an extended period of time was just not a great option. I looked and looked until I found a recipe that sounded delicious and where rice seemed to be a main part of the dish instead of the side, and I ended up deciding on cheesy Italian rice with sausage from Delish. It wasn't an especially complicated dish, but it sounded like it would work for us.

The ingredients for the rice dish, as adapted from the Delish original, were:

- 2 cups brown rice (measured before cooking) ($2)
- olive oil for sautéing and drizzling ($0.20)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.79)
- 2 spoonfuls of minced garlic ($0.25)
- 14 oz mild Italian chicken sausage ($5.99)
- 2 zucchini ($1.47)
- a few handfuls of cremini mushrooms ($2.19)
- 1/3 batch of parsley ($0.50)
- shredded parmesan cheese ($2)
- lemon juice to taste ($0.15)
- freshly ground black pepper ($0.05)

We made some modifications from the original, like opting for zucchini and mushrooms instead of spinach since those were easier for B to eat, choosing parmesan over mozzarella and cheddar because it was better for my lactose intolerance issues, using more sausage, and adding parsley. The total cost of our recipe was $15.59. Not cheap, but not bad at all for dinner for three hungry people with enough leftovers for one lunch.


The steps for making the rice were:

1. Make the rice in the rice cooker. [Note: We made two cups of rice in our rice cooker, but didn't end up using 100% of it. We kept a little bit on the side in case B didn't like this and wanted some plain rice, but at the end of the meal, it was still in the rice cooker so we just finished it. We could have added all of it though, so I'm counting it all.]

2. Heat olive oil in large pot. Add onion and garlic, and cook until soft.

3. Add sausage, crumble while cooking it, and cook until fully cooked through.


4. Add zucchini and mushrooms, and cook until both are soft enough to eat.

5. Add cooked rice into the pot along with the cheese. Stir well. Add parsley, stir, and remove from heat.

6. Season with olive oil, lemon juice, and black pepper to taste.


Overall, we really liked this one. It was our first time using the 365 brand mild Italian chicken sausage, and despite the fact that it contained over 3000 milligrams of sodium according to the package, the dish was somehow not incredibly salty. I didn't add any extra salt because of the sausage's sodium content, but it wasn't really that salty at all. It was also probably a little less cheesy than the original, since we used parmesan instead of super-melty cheddar and mozzarella, but we were okay with that.


As far as the challenge, the rice was definitely the center of attention, mostly because there was so much rice. This probably could be made with less rice to let the other ingredients shine more, but considering we were hungry that night, it was probably good that we used as much as we did. Making the dish was fairly simple and easy, and if you already had cooked rice (and didn't have to wait two hours for it to be ready in the rice cooker), it could be a good, quick work night meal. We would make this again.