Baked Pizza Rice

6 hungry mouths to feed. Limited time. Limited ingredients.

This was the dilemna that I was faced with last Saturday (6 Oct). We had all woken up early and my lovely wife had made Waffles for breakfast. It was such a lovely day to just laze around that we didn't even go to the market to do our usual weekly grocery shopping.

I was chilling, waiting for the Focaccia dough to proof while the kids and the wife went out to play at the nearby park. The kids were extra hungry after their run around in the park and then my wife's niece and nephew came over as well for us to 'babysit' them for a while.

"What are we doing for lunch?" I asked my lovely wife.

"Can you whip up some pasta? There's some sausages and chicken breast. And you still have some cream."

"There's some bacon too." I reminded her.

"Or why don't you make a casserole."

Rummaging around in the fridge, I realised there were no vegetables either except for two carrots and some tomatoes (tomatoes qualify as a fruit and not a vegetable but I shan't go into that now....!). Peering into the pantry, I found a can of stewed tomatoes and a light bulb went off in my head.

Chicken, sausages, bacon, carrots, tomatoes, cheese. Sounds like the ingredients for Pizza! Add in some rice, treat it like a casserole and I've got Baked Pizza Rice. And that's exactly what I did! I contemplated going out for mushrooms but I was just too darned lazy.....

Ingredients:
2 cups rice
2 chicken breasts
4-5 sausages
8 slices back bacon
2 large carrots
4 cloves garlic
4 large tomatoes
1 can stewed tomatoes
2 onions
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Basil
Black Pepper
Salt
3 slices cheddar cheese


Method
Wash and cook the rice. Meanwhile, cut the chicken into cubes. Season with salt and pepper. Slice the sausages into rounds, cut bacon into small pieces and dice carrots. Chop garlic and slice onions. Heat some olive oil and sautee the garlic and onion with some black pepper, oregano and basil (about a tsp each or according to taste). Add in the sausages and cook well then add in bacon and chicken. Mix well until cooked. Add in sliced tomatoes and continue to cook until tomatoes are tender. Add in stewed tomatoes and let simmer until mixture thickens. Season with Salt. Add in rice a little at a time and mix well. You can reduce the amount of rice depending on how much liquid is in your mixture.
Spoon rice mix into a casserole dish and press down until firm. Sprinkle with freshly chopped dill. Cover with cheddar cheese strips or grated cheese and bake in a preheated 190C oven for about 20 mins.




The kids really loved this dish and I must admit it turned out rather delicious.

In my house, I know that I've hit on a winner when my son rubs his tummy and goes "Mmmmmm". This time he went one step further and did an impersonation of a Television advert. Dont ask me where he learnt it but it went something like this (said in a muffled, gruff voice)

"Look at this picture. New! Pizza Rice. Very yummy and good for your health"

That's my son - a riot all by himself! But I can't complain or say anything coz we all know where he gets his craziness from - his Daddy......