I think we’ve all got one of those go-to recipes – the kind where you always have all the ingredients on hand, doesn’t take long to cook and doesn’t take a lot of effort to put together. Not counting boxed dinners (hellooooo tacos!), this is mine. I literally don’t have a recipe for it, and it doesn’t really need one…but I wrote one up anyway! Next time you’ve got some odds and ends kicking around in the vegetable drawer, grab some rice and some ground beef – you’ve got dinner!
the lineup
Here’s what you need – change it up however you like! Grab your favourite veggies and spices, anything goes in this recipe.
chop it up
Chop the veggies in a pretty small dice. I just got a new knife, I’m getting better…haha.
start your rice
Depending on how far you want to stretch your dinner, make 1 to 2 cups of rice. I think 1 cup works the best, and it should give you about 4 servings.
fry time
Once the rice is on, start frying up your beef. Don’t be like me and forget to add your spices…yeah. I generally like to add them after the meat just starts to brown up a bit, but do what you like. This time I forgot them until the very end, which kind of sucked. 
throw the veggies in
After the meat is about halfway browned, add your veggies. You might want to add the onion and garlic first to soften it up, and add the rest later to keep them crisp. Personally, I like everything to be about the same consistency on this one, so I just add everything at once. See? I said this recipe was super flexible!
almost there
Once your rice is done, take it off the heat and let it stand for a few minutes, while the beef cooks the rest of the way. I don’t screw around with ground beef – cook it well, every time! Oh – and hopefully you manage your rice better than I do…mine boiled over more than once, haha. Once everything’s ready, throw the beef mixture into the pot with the rice, and mix well!
yeah, you probably don't want to serve this when company's coming over
That’s it! If you’ve got some parsley, chop it up and throw it on to try and make this look a little fancier. So it doesn’t look all that exciting, but trust me – it tastes good, it’s pretty healthy, and it reheats perfectly when you take it to work for lunch. Not bad! By the way – a little soy sauce is great on it too!
Want the recipe?
1 tbsp olive oil
1lb lean ground beef
1-2 cups chopped veggies, such as onion, peppers, broccoli, carrots, etc.
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 cup rice (uncooked)
Italian seasoning (1-2 tsp or to taste)
seasoning salt (1 tsp or to taste)
crushed red pepper flakes (1/2 tsp or to taste)
fresh parsley, for garnish1. Cook rice according to package directions.
2. While rice is cooking, heat olive oil in frying pan, and cook ground beef for about 3 minutes.
3. Add chopped vegetables, garlic, and spices to beef. Stir often and continue cooking until beef is fully browned and cooked through.
4. When rice is cooked, remove from heat and add beef and vegetable mixture to the pot and mix thoroughly.
5. Sprinkle with parsley and soy sauce to serve.
You can also expect to see most of these recipes as upcoming blog posts. Unless I make Hamburger Helper…and I might do that this week, haha (it was on sale, okay?!).
