Wild Rice with Tomatoes and Chard

I have actually turned over a new leaf, as it were (lettuce?), and am going to post here even if I have to be boring and show you my mistakes, my leftovers, and my days when I don't eat as well as I should. This next meal was a bit heavy in grain, but it had lots and lots of greens in it and I just adore yellow vegetables so . . . .



WILD RICE WITH TOMATOES AND CHARD

We love wild rice, and we mix it half and half with brown long-grain rice and have it with almost anything we would use rice for - not all the time, but often. A couple of days or so ago I had some leftover 'wild' rice (well, wild and brown) - plus half a bunch of chard in the crisper, half a can or plum tomatoes with juice - guess where I'm going with this!

Reminder: We cook for two. (Hence the leftovers too.)

1 onion, chopped
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced
Half a large can of Italian plum tomatoes (around 12 or 14 ounces), roughly chopped
1 tsp oregano
good pinch of crushed dried chilies
1 Tbsp low-sodium soy
half a bunch of chard, chopped (stems thinly sliced)
1-1/2 cups or so (I didn't really measure it) of pre-cooked rice - half wild rice and half brown long-grain rice

Soften the onion and garlic in a little water or stock in a large skillet or with the sliced chard stems. Add the tomatoes, oregano and chilies and simmer for a little while until it all starts to look a little less than raw. Add the rice and keep stirring until all is coated in the mixture. Add the chard leaves and keep turning them to wilt them. Make sure the rice is hot and that the chard is dispersed throughout the rice and tomato mix. Taste for seasoning and serve.

We hadn't finished the menu yet, however - we had some with the Sweet Potato and Carrot Stew 'Pie' of my last post (Blogger is giving me a problem today, as you might have realized, hence separate posts). And of course we preceded with a salad -



Gotta show you our salads - no matter how mundane - because it helps me to be pleased that I'm eating my raw greens (I used to hate salads!).

And oh yes, we finished up with some fresh fruit as usual. Who'd want to eat pastries when there's fresh fruit in the house!!!

See ya later!

THREE-GRAIN CASSEROLE

This was our lunch today.

This recipe is adapted from one in Betty Crocker's _Slow Cooker Cook Book_ 1999 (not veggie, btw, although there is a section on veggie meals and some of the others are veggie too.) I imagine one could cook it on top of the stove without incident, altering liquid amounts and cooking time, for those who know about converting these things. (I haven't yet tried
this with other grains, but I do a variation that includes lentils and different seasonings.)

THREE-GRAIN CASSEROLE

2/3 c. Uncooked Wheat Berries
1/2 cup uncooked wild rice
1/2 cup pot barley
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 Tbsp grated lemon zest
6 green onions, very thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic
4 cups vegetable stock (homemade if possible)
1/4 cup finely chopped rehydrated sundried tomatoes (or a little more if you like)
*ground cayenne pepper (strictly optional) to add towards the end of cooking, to taste.

Mix all in the crockpot (except not the cayenne just yet), cook on low 4 to 6 hours or until liquid is absorbed - OR on High for 2 1/2 hrs (I did).
Serve with vegetables and salad - and garnish with more parsley and a slice of lemon.



Excellent - and good the next day too. I always freeze some of the rest.

This is said to serve six. We find it is goood for eight, but we are light eaters.

We had it with a tossed green salad and roasted sweet potato slices.

Enjoy!