Crockpot experiment

Last night Ethan discovered a pack of ground turkey in the refrigerator that I must have pulled from the freezer earlier in the week to thaw. It was a Cryovac package, had a use or freeze by date of Dec 31, and I had Marty double and tripe check it to make sure it was ok. Once he declared it safe, I figured it should be used right away so I browned it and made plans. Two cups will be mixed with some Penzy's Krakow Nights sausage seasoning (for a Polish sausage flavor) and added to my New Year's day blackeyed pea soup. The rest of it (between 3-4 cups, depending on how I measured it) went in to tonight's dinner.

One of our favorite quickie meals is the "Make your own rice-a-roni" from The Tightwad Gazette. Over the years I have modified the recipe quite a bit (brown rice instead of white, various seasonings, etc) but the spirit of the recipe is still there.

Today I decided to try the crockpot, mostly because I forgot that our cast iron Dutch oven is finally seasoned again (thanks Christian!) and figured that the crockpot was the only thing big enough. After a few minutes of searching for information about cooking brown rice in a crockpot, here is the recipe I came up with.

Crockpot Rice a Roni
4 cups water
2 1/2 cups brown rice
2 T. beef Better than Bouillon
3 cups cooked ground turkey
A heavy sprinkle Penzy's Greek seasoning

Cook on low 6-8 hours. Do not open the lid until 6 hours, or the rice might not cook right.

I may saute an onion and toss it in later, but for my first experiment I figured the less in there, the better.

I know it will taste good but my concern is the texture of the rice. I will let you know how it turns out.

How close it is to real rice a roni, I couldn't tell you. We never ate rice a roni before going gluten free (and we sure don't now) but the cheap TWG version has been a family favorite for years.

I am rereading some of my frugal inspirations and found a quote on one that I think really sums it up for me: "It [frugality] isn't glamorous. Sometimes its just about getting from point A to Point B with your wallet and good health intact."