[kathyv]

Here's something we like.

Rice.

Melt a tablespoon of butter or heat some oil in a big skillet, lightly brown however much rice your family will eat. Remove from heat and now you can get creative! We like this with browned ground beef or ground sausage, a package of enchilada powder seasoning mix, the juice of 1 lime and water to cover it all. Shove the whole thing, with a lid on it, in the oven and bake at 350 for about 20-25 min, Stir and see if it's done, if not add a bit more water, if it is dry and bake another 10 min. When it's done, squeeze another lime over it all and serve with a salad.

You can use chicken in it or leave the meat out if you like, it's good that way, too. Use as taco or burrito filling if you like.
Add stroganoff powder (and sour cream after it comes out of the oven) for a different flavor.
Use curry and an assortment of goodies like raisins, coconut, nuts, apples, shrimp for another kind of rice.

This basic white long grain rice is easy and pretty fast and tastes good enough to make you look really good in the kitchen!