Monday Menu ~ Red Gold review, giveaway, & recipe!

When I was contacted to try out a couple of the new culinary classics from Red Gold tomatoes one of the things that surprised me most was that they’re grown right here in Michigan, as well as in Ohio and Indiana. All this time I’ve been buying locally grown product and I never knew it. What makes it even better is that this new line is being sold locally at Meijer stores in the Detroit area!

red gold culinary classicsWhen I first received the tomatoes I couldn’t decide what to do with them… there were so many choices! It was the diced tomatoes with chipotle that stood out though and I finally decided to make a Spanish rice casserole with them. Now, I’ll be the first to tell you that this recipe is more of the fly by the seat of your pants type thing and you can change it up anyway you want.

Ingredients

1 – 1 lbs of hamburger (you could also use ground turkey, ground chicken, cut up chicken, or leave the meat out)

1 medium onion diced

1 tsp garlic (add more or leave it out)

1 carton of broth (chicken, beef, or vegetable)

Rice (white or brown – I used brown Minute Rice)

1 28 oz can of Red Gold diced tomatoes with chipotle

2 cups of Shredded cheese (you can add more if you’d like or leave it out)

Optional seasoning

cumin

salt

pepper

Note: I left out the amounts of rice & broth on purpose. You can make as much or as little as you like for this casserole depending on how many you need to feed or how much meat to rice ratio you like. I made about 3 cups of cooked rice.

Directions

Brown the meat in a pan and once it’s almost done add in the onions and garlic. Cook until the onions are almost translucent and then add the tomatoes and spices. While the meat is browning cook the rice until it is partially done and set aside.

saute meat

Once the meat is done mix the rice into and let it simmer for 5 – 10  minutes.

mixing in the rice

Stir in about half of the cheese and pour into a baking dish and top with the rest of the cheese.

topped with cheese

Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 15 – 20 minutes. Really all you want is for the cheese to get all melty & bubbly.

Spanish Rice - ready to eat

And you’re ready for dinner! Serve with tortillas or alone. You can add pretty much any kind of toppings that you can think of with this. For me avocado’s and black beans would be perfect!

Just a note…. this is a bit on the spicy side but with sour cream or guacamole you can cool it off if you don’t like the heat.

Are you interested in trying out the new Culinary Classics from Red Gold?

You can win a prize pack from them and all you have to do is leave a comment telling me how you would use one of the two varieties of Red Gold tomatoes I have pictured above. That’s it!

Now, if you would like extra entries you can do any of the following but be sure to leave a comment for each

1. “Like” With Just a Bit of Magic on Facebook

2. “Like” Red Gold on Facebook

3. Add With Just a Bit of Magic to your circle on Google Plus

4. Follow me on Twitter & Tweet about the giveaway (leave the link to your tweet)

The giveaway ends on Friday, January 20th at midnight. A winner will be selected via random. org and notified via email (make sure your email is visible so I can contact you) and the  winner will have 24 hours to respond before another will be selected.

I received Red Gold tomatoes to review, but all thoughts and opinions are mine.

And because the DSLR wasn’t handy I used my favorite piece of technology ever to the awesome pics for this post… my iPhone! Because of that I’m linking up with the incredible Liz & KLZ for #iPPP!

iPhone Photo Phun

#iPPP ~ Just Dance

Over the weekend the kids wanted to rent Just Dance 3 for the Wii because I’m a mean mom and haven’t bought it for them yet (or any other Just Dance game… maybe for the holidays). Our big plans for the night were to hang out together and play video games.

This was the first time that I can remember both of my older girls setting the phones down, walking away from the computers, and really spending some quality time together. I really enjoyed it and I think that they did too!

Now, to protect myself from the laughter that would be heard around the world I won’t post any pictures of myself playing the game. It’s to scary and I deleted them and the video that my lovely children took of me. Honestly…. I can’t afford the therapy you’d all need either.

Just Dance 3 Party

All the kids joined in!

Andrew thought that it was a lot of fun to stand in front of where his sisters were playing and dance! He spent a lot of the evening dancing away.

Just Dance 3 Party

See the pic on the right... that's what happens when I don't pay attention.

Except for the time while I was playing and he decided to climb on the table. I guess it’s easier to play with trains that way.

So here’s the thing…. Just Dance is a serious work out and if you have no rhythm it’s even harder! It just looks like you’re flaying about! But it was a lot of fun and I think that if I were to keep playing I might actually lose weight and look good doing it! Then maybe… just maybe there’d be a picture of me playing the game (don’t hold your breath though).

I think we need to make it a regular family event… maybe even make it into a contest or something fun.

Have you played any of the Just Dance games yet? What do you think of them?
I’m linking up with Liz & KLZ for iPhone Photo Phun because well…. my iPhone is awesome and I take about a million pics a week on it! May as well share them!

iPhone Photo Phun