Puttin' By - Home Made Rice-A-Roni

Mix in the Jar

Lily's Dinner

I am a big fan of provident living or, as I call it, puttin' by. I believe that preserving part of the harvest and planning for lean times in advance is just wise living. I poke around the web frequently for recipes to help with variety in my pantry. I came across Lynn's Kitchen Adventures where Lynn had experimented with different recipes to make your own "Rice-A-Roni" like side dish.

Loving Dinner!

I mixed up a batch, but only had half the amount of chicken bouillon that the recipe called for, so I added half beef builion to it. I cooked it up tonight when we had Bunless Onion Burgers and Pasta Salad. My granddaughter could not get enough! I have to say, it was very good. It only takes 1 cup of the mix to make side dishes for 4. I made enough of the mix to make two full quart canning jars. I vacuumed out the oxygen from one of the jars and (dropped an oxygen absorber in there too) and kept the other unsealed to use it first.


Here is the recipe:

Homemade Rice-A-Roni

• 1 cup of spaghetti, broken into small pieces (or vermicelli)
• 2 cups rice, uncooked
• 1/4 cup dried parsley flakes
• 6 tablespoons instant chicken or beef bouillon powder
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme ( I leave this out of the beef version)

Mix all ingredients together and store in an airtight container.

To use, place 1 cup mix, 2 tablespoons of butter, and 2 cups of water into a saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until rice is tender.

*Lynn suggested heating the rice mix with the butter until the butter is melted and the rice and pasta are just slightly browned before I add the water.

Puttin' by allows us to buy when things are on sale and eat well every night (too well as my waist shows) regardless of the economy this week. Now if only I could find a way to get more economical gas for my car!

You can find Lynn's original post plus many more great recipes at http://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/2008/11/homemade-rice-a-roni-mix.html