Forgivable neglect?

I've been neglecting my blog for the past week or so; the reason being that I am currently taking those first shaky steps down the road to home ownership, so I have one or two other claims upon my time and sanity at present. I will do my best, but my blogging may well be a bit sporadic over the coming weeks.


That said, a girl still has to eat. And, considering I'll be needing every dollar I've got for lawyer's fees and the like, It seems only sensible to eat as cheaply as possible. Luckily, there are plenty of budget-friendly meals in the Edmonds book. From among these, I yesterday chose to make savoury brown rice casserole (p106).


It's one of those dishes that isn't clearly categorised as either a side or main dish. I guess it's whatever you want it to be. Since it suited my budgetary purposes to consider it a main, I chose to treat it as such.

It's a really easy recipe - a bit of a 'one-pot wonder' - as long as you have a little time up your sleeve. Brown rice, of course, is good for you but takes longer to cook than white. Anyway, into a casserole dish you put some brown rice, bacon, chopped onion and garlic, blanched and chopped tomatoes, half a green pepper and half a red pepper (also chopped), seasoning and some liquid chicken stock.

The casserole dish then goes into the oven for an hour and a half, during which the contents are stirred once only. At the end of the cooking time you stir in the rest of the chopped red and green pepper, along with a few chunks of butter. 

Ok, so it's a fairly basic dish, pretty much as the name describes: a savoury casserole which is made with brown rice. The rice and other ingredients go quite soft during the cooking time, so putting those raw chunks of pepper in at the end give it some much-needed crunch - otherwise the whole thing would be a bit on the mushy side. As it is, it's an unremarkable, but inoffensive rice dish, well suited to those of us with an eye on the budget.