Cheesy Rice Hominy and Chicken Casserole Recipe

Hola Amigos! Happy Weekend! It's been a while since we have a quicky  Friday. In case you have forgotten quicky Fridays are all about recipes you can make for the whole family in less than an hour!
This one is pretty simple and of all places I found it on the  back of a can of soup.
I usually do not keep or have can soups in the house, not that there's nothing wrong with them, but for some reason every time I have one I end up chewing on a couple of anti-acids! Yeah I know..yucks...so to avoid that I don't have any. This time it seemed to me that due to the other ingredients it wouldn't be too bad so I gave it a try. This is my version of the canned soup recipe...I changed it a little to fit my taste but it's basically the same thing!

Cheesy Rice Hominy and Chicken Casserole

1 Pound Chicken Thighs

1 Cup White Rice

1 Can (15,5 oz) Hominy

1 Can (10 oz 3/4)  Cheddar Cheese Soup

1 Can Chicken Broth

1/3 of the Hominy Water

1 Cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese

 Heat up your oven at  375 F. The next step is totally optional, I like my chicken browned. So instead of just putting the chicken in the baking dish, I've previously seasoned it and browned it. This again is totally optional and the results I'm pretty sure are the same without this step. 

In a baking dish distribute the cup of rice, Place your chicken on top, Add the hominy. 

In a separate mixing bowl, mix soup, chicken broth and hominy water. Pour this mix on top of the chicken rice and hominy baking dish preparation. 

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 50 minutes or until the rice is soft and chicken is thoroughly cooked. 

Remove from the oven and sprinkle the cup of cheese. Let it settle for 10 minutes and enjoy!

Serves 4
Listo

It is good, cheesy (the best part) and a meal in one, just the way I like it!

I love the earthy taste of the hominy, such an unappreciated grain! Not anymore!

You can add all can of veggies to make it fit your family's taste, and why not Bake 2 and Freeze 1!!! This recipe freezes well!

Thank You for stopping by today! Wishing you all a fun weekend...just keep in mind always my friends,
than everything tastes better, with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,
Lizy

Sharing my cheese casserole at these Fabulous Parties:

This and That, In The Kitchen with Jenny, Cheerios and Lattes, What's Cooking with Ruthie, Serenity You, Lovely Crafty Home, Too Much Time, Angels Homestead, Life on Lakeshore Drive, Spatulas on Parade, Frugal Foodie Mama, Ms.enPlace, Under the Table and Dreaming, Judy H-J's Thoughts, The Princess and Her Cowboys, Cooking for the Seven Dwarfs, A pinch of Joy, The Plaid and Paisley Kitchen,
Jam Hands, Boogie Board Cottage, Mad in Crafts, Making the World Cuter, Feeding Big, Hun, What's for Dinner, Love Grows Wild, The Blackberry Bush, Pint Sized Baker, Coastal Charm, Sugar Bee Crafts, Today's Creative Blog, My Mixing Spoon, I Gotta Try That, Love Bakes Good Cakes, Cozy Little House, Smart School House, Thank You Honey, Daisy Cottage Designs, Ducks'n a Row, Ginger Snap Crafts, Twin Dragonfly Designs, Worthing Court, Life with the Crust Cut Off. Real Coake.com, 52 Mantels, Lady Behind the Curtain

SPAM Loco Moco, Grandma's Recipe

Hola Amigos! It's still raining cats and dogs here and it will be for the rest of the weekend, not complaining, just saying...you all know how I feel about the white stuff so I prefer Rain to Snow anytime!
My creativity levels are down in the dumps and I'm hoping to play with my glue gun soon..till then I'm just cooking up little recipes here and there that make me happy!

For dinner tonight and leftover breakfast tomorrow I'm preparing my Grandma's Loco Moco! Oh yeah baby...nothing more comforting on a rainy afternoon than SPAM!!!...I know...the mystery meat..but once in a while it doesn't hurt! My grandma and my mom use to make this for us once in a while as a treat and it was so good...I could have eaten the whole thing by myself! Exactly what I'm doing today...

This is a house divided though, the hubs is a purist and he likes his Spam just fried, the kids on the other hand go either way, oh and another fact...there is a rule when it comes to SPAM, "you use a can, you replace a can", see, my hubs firmly believes that SPAM is the #1 Survival Food for Doomsday! We will be able to survive for months on Spam and water alone, LOL...I guess It could be worse, right? Anaywhooo...

Here is the super easy, super fast recipe for the tastiest treat ever!

Grandma's Loco Moco with SPAM

1 Can of your favorite SPAM
Half a Large Onion sliced
Half of a Bell Pepper, any color, diced
2 TBSP Tomato Paste
6 oz Diced Tomatoes. I used Rotel with Lime and Cilantro. It's spicy so if you don't like it spicy feel free to  use a different brand.
1 Cup Chicken Broth
Pinch of Sugar, salt, pepper and Red Pepper Flakes (optional)

Cut your spam in stripes and fried in pan until golden outside. Set Aside
In a separate saucepan, with a little bit of oil saute the onions and bell peppers until the onions are transparent. Add the tomato paste, diced tomatoes and chicken broth. Cook for 5 minutes. Add sugar, salt, pepper and pepper flakes if you choose and cook for another 15 minutes until the sauce begins to thickens.
Add the previously fried Spam to the sauce until is heated up thoroughly.
To serve
1  Cup Jasmine Rice
1 Can Coconut Milk
Salt
Cook your Jazmin rice according to instructions, just replace the amount of water that you usually will used for the coconut milk with salt to taste.
1 Egg, Cooked or Fried
Grilled Pineapple Slices
Listo!

This is so good, salty, spicy and sweet at the same time.

With a cooked egg or fried it's delicious, it's just a matter of how you like them!

You can always serve it with more sauce or like we call it "Sofrito" on the side!

The Jasmine Rice brings the dish together and makes it a satisfying meal for adults and kids!
Thank You for stopping my friends and for sharing a taste of my  homeland comfort food with me today.

 Remember everything tastes better with a Pinch of Love!
Besitos,
Lizy

Wishing a Happy Weekend to folks at these Fabulous Parties:
This and That
The Best Blog Recipes
Savvy Southern Style
Mom's Test Kitchen
With a Blast
The Tumbleweed Contessa
The Dedicated House
A Pinch of Joy
Hun...What's for Dinner
Couponing and Cooking
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Diana Rambles
Sew-licious Home
Your Homebased Mom
Spatulas on Parade
Will Cook for Smiles
The Domestic Fringe
Like on Lakeshore Drive
Frugal Foodie Mama
Judy H-J's Thoughts
Under the Table and Dreaming

Spring Clay Pots with a Surprise (Dirt Cake)

Rapidito en Viernes=Quicky Fridays

Hola amigos! Hope you all had a great, healthy and productive week! Today I'm bringing you a little treat perfect for Spring, Easter, Birthday party..the sky is the limit when you are using your imagination.
It all started with a trip to the dollar store where I purchased everything I needed for this dessert. 1 bag of candy turned into 2, 3 ...well they kept multiplying,...and believe me when I tell you guys, I just went in for a big bottle of Iced Tea...oh well...since I can't bake or use fondant just create pretty things with icing...I figured, why not use what is already there to treat my guys with something festive for spring.
Here is how you make the Spring Clay Pots with a Surprise:

1 box of chocolate cupcake mix

4 little containers of chocolate pudding ($1 for 4 at the dollar store)

1 envelope of unflavored gelatin

1 cup of boiling water

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsps vanilla butter food flavoring

transparent tumbler cups

non toxic brown paint

 Assorted Candies...don't forget to include gummy worms

First bake your cupcakes according to instructions. Even though I used cupcake  mix I baked mine in a 9 inch baking pan. 

While your cake is baking. Prepare the tumblers by painting the outside of them in brown paint. Let them dry.

See little helper...he was working hard on hid clay pot!

Some of them I only painted half (for the surprise)...there is a method to my madness folks!

Prepare your unflavored gelatin. By adding the boiling water to a container with the gelatin and sugar. The gelatin should dissolve in 5 minutes. Add the vanilla butter flavoring. 

Distribute evenly in 4 tumblers. Put a couple of gummy worms inside. Place in the refrigerator to chill and set.

Once the gelatin mix has set, take some pudding and add it to each tumbler, as much or little as you want, I used 1 full pudding cup per tumbler, but that's just me.

Take a slice of your chocolate cake, crumble it and fill up the tumblers to the top with it!

Listo, it's time to use your imagination to decorate your clay pots!

Worms coming out of wet dirt (the wet effect is chocolate syrup)

A bunny and it's carrots in a field of greens...happy as he could be!

A little nest with twigs dusted on early snow...so sweet!

And a bouquet of flowers ready to be picked from your personal clay pot..

and oh, it you were wondering about the surprise...here

My little one was thrilled to find "critters" coming in and out, and swimming underneath all that dirt in his clay pot, oh and they refrigerate well too!

Hope you like what I've brought you tonight. May all of you have a wonderful and blessed weekend.

Remember everything tastes better, with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,

Lizy

Sharing some spring blooms at these Fabulous Parties:
Rate the Plate Utah
One Artsy Mama
The Frugal Girls
The Taylor House
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Setting for Four
The Mandatory Mooch
Primp
From my Front Porch to Yours
Handy Man, Crafty Woman
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Mom;s Test Kitchen
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Kathe With an E
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LollyJane (The Scoop edition)
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The Tablescaper
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Flamingo Toes

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Dear Creatives
Sincerely, Paula
Funky Junk Interiors
Townsend House

Rapidito en Viernes=Quicky Fridays

Lasagna de Platano Maduro=Plantain Lasagna

Hola Amigos and Welcome Friday! Hope you all had a healthy and productive first week of March! Big change this weekend...Spring Forward, yeah we loose 1 hour of sleep but on the positive side, we are gaining 1 hour of daylight to have more fun outdoors working and playing with family and friends.
I'm closing my week with a Latin twist on an Italian classic, Lasagna. It's basically your favorite lasagna recipe but instead of using noodles you will use ripe plantains!

I love Plantains...they are super versatile and you can use them in every single stage, green, yellow, spotted with black dots and black! They are delicious. A few Sundays ago I had the honor of being guest blogger at my friend Cynthia's blog  Fedding Big and More, there I wrote a post just about plantains and how to cook them in all these stages I mentioned before as part of her fantastic series Around The World in 80 Sundays focusing on Panamanian Cuisine. I encourage you my dear friends to visit her blog and this post to learn more about Plantains.
Here is our recipe

Lasagna de Platano Maduro-Plantain Lasagna

Meat Sauce

1 Pound Ground Sirloin

1 Pound Ground Pork

1 Large onion chopped

2 Garlic chopped

1 can (6oz) Tomato paste

1 Large can Fire Roasted Tomatoes

1 bottle of your favorite Spaghetti Sauce

2 Dried Bay leaves

1 Teaspoon sugar

1 TPBS Italian Seasoning 

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Red Pepper Flakes to Taste

On the biggest pot you have, on medium heat, brown sirloin, pork, onion and garlic. Once browned, add tomato paste, roasted tomatoes spaghetti sauce, sugar, italian seasoning, salt and pepper, bay leaves and pepper flakes. Cover and Simmer for 45 minutes.

Bechamel Sauce

1 Stick of butter

4 TBSP flour

4 Cups Milk

1 Tsps Salt

1/2 Tsps freshly grated Nutmeg

1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese.

On a saucepan on low-medium heat your basic roux adding the flour to the melted butter until the mix turns to a golden color . Little by little add the milk one cup at the time, whisking it so it won't stick to the bottom of your saucepan, add the cheese and keep whisking until it thickens, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and grated nutmeg.

Cheese Mix

1 16oz Container of Cottage Cheese

1 pound Mozzarella Cheese + 1 cup

2 CupsSpinach Leaves washed and rinsed

1 egg

salt and pepper to taste

Add the cheeses to a bowl, stir in the egg. Mix until the egg is incorporated to the cheese mix. Add Spinach and salt and pepper to taste.

6-8 Black Spotted or all Black Plantains

 The plantains peel very easily as I'm showing you here, cut them in an angle so you have like little diamond shaped thin slices as you can also see in the pictures.

Assemble your lasagna as you would a regular one, a little bit of meat sauce, in this case plantains instead of noodles, more meat sauce, bechamel sauce and cheese mix. Another layer of plantains, meat sauce, bechamel and cheese mix. Top it with the extra cup of mozzarella cheese.

Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees covered for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 25 minutes. Let it cool before cutting and serving.

Listo,

Serve it with a green salad or a slice or your favorite garlic bread.

I know this is not your typical quick fixing recipe...but you can enjoy it all weekend long with plenty leftover for any other day of the week. 

The amount ingredients given in this recipe will make a regular 9x13 lasagna baking pan. I divided mine in two small ones so I can freeze one and use at a later day!

As you can see...it slices just like your regular lasagna, and believe me folks it's delicious!

I hope you enjoy my little treat today and maybe make this recipe for your family and friends one of these weekends, they would love it, even more because as you know everything tastes better with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,

Lizy

Bringing a touch of the tropics to these Fabulous Parties:
Under the Table and Dreaming
Spatulas on Parade
My Turn (for Us)
Sassy Little Lady
Dear Creatives
Your Homebased Mom
Couponing and Cooking
The Plaid and Paisley Kitchen

Rapidito en Viernes=Quicky Fridays

Smurf Pasta

Hola Amigos! Happy Friday and Happy March 1st!!! yeah!!! Spring is almost here! That is a great reason to celebrate this entire weekend, starting today!
Leave it to my kids to come with "smart remarks" about what I choose to cook.."Mom...what is that?..oh, whatever it is, it was good!? ~ That is my teen speaking, always hungry, he will pretty much eat anything he could put in a bowl. Momma, I'm hungry....can I have a marshmallow with my mc'n cheese?~ and that is my tot speaking...marshmallows and mc'n cheese?..oh well...as long as he eats I keep telling myself. But with today's meal they were quite puzzled. One said...I was wondering what was that, is it ready yet? and the little one...Momma, you made "Smurf Pasta"!

I don't know why I really bought this pasta...must have been the pretty color, who can resist that pretty turquoise paired with jet black, a classic! but I don't tend to buy food with colorants...we don't even have fruit loops in this house, that is a once in a while special treat. Needless to say, this would be one of those too. So here it goes my friends my quick but tasty, Smurf Pasta on Creamy Crab Sauce.

 Pasta on Creamy Crab Sauce

8 oz Smurf bow tie pasta or any other pasta Hulk or Barney it's ok too!

4 TBSP butter

1 TBSP oil

1 onion chopped

1 garlic clove chopped

1 1/2 cup Spinach

8 oz Baby Bella Mushrooms sliced

2 6 oz each cans crab meat

1.7 oz Heavy Cream

1/2 Cup white wine

Salt, pepper to taste. 

 Prepare pasta according to instructions.

In a saucepan, add oil and butter. When the butter starts to melt, add onions and garlic. Stirring constantly for the garlic not to burn, once the onion is transparent, add mushrooms, Stir for 3-5  minutes until mushrooms are tender.

I love Mushrooms!

Add  heavy cream, crab meat, wine, salt and pepper. Simmer for at least 5 minutes until everything is evenly heated up and sauce starts to thicken. Add Spinach and cook for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and serve with your pasta.

Listo!

I love the creaminess of the sauce with the texture of the pasta! Pasta no matter the color is my #1 comfort food in a cold winter's day.

I personally do not add cheese to any pasta dish with seafood on it, but the kids love Parmesan Cheese on theirs so add some cheese if you want, cheese is always good!

Thank You for visiting today my friends! I hope you had a good work week and are looking forward to a relaxed and fun weekend among family and friends! Remember our motto, everything tastes better with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,

Lizy

Bringing some Smurf Love of Food to these Fabulous Parties:
Weekend Kitchen Creations
The Tumbleweed Contessa
Atkinson Drive
Spatulas on Parade
Rattlebridge Farm
Your Homebased Mom
Couponing and Cooking
This Gal Cooks
The Plaid and Paisley Kitchen
Under The Table and Dreaming
A Humble Creation
Parola di Laura
Sugar Bee Crafts
Memories by the Mile
The Real Thing with The Coake Family