Jungle Rice

1 chicken breasts, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 cup basmati rice
2 tsp olive oil
2 cloves fresh garlic
1 1/2 tsp fresh ginger root, finely minced
1 cup water
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 Tbsp fresh basil, minced
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, minced
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup raw unsalted cashews
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in oven safe skillet and cook chicken breast with garlic, ginger, salt, and pepper, just until chicken starts to get some color. Add rice and stir until evenly coated with oil. Toast rice about 2 minutes. Add all other ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. When at full boil, cover rice with fitted lid and transfer to oven. Bake 15 minutes, stir, then bake another 5-10 minutes.

Lime Cilantro Shredded Chicken Tacos

1 (16 oz) jar salsa- I used a green tomatillo salsa
1 package taco seasoning
1 lime, juiced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

3 lbs skinless boneless chicken breast halves
Place the salsa, taco seasoning, lime juice, and cilantro into a slow cooker, and stir to combine. Add the chicken breasts, and stir to coat with the salsa mixture. Cover the cooker, set to High, and cook until the chicken is very tender, about 4 hours. If desired, set cooker to Low and cook 6 to 8 hours. Shred chicken with 2 forks to serve.
I also made lime cilantro rice with this. In my rice maker I melted 2 tbsp butter, added 1 tsp pepper, 2 tbsp cilantro and 3 tbsp lime juice. I stirred in 2 cups uncooked rice and made sure it was all coated thoroughly in the mixture. Add 3.5c water and cook. Tasted just like qudoba rice :-)

Rice Cream

1 cup white rice (not instant)

½ tsp. salt

1 qt. milk

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. almond extract

½ chopped almonds and 1 whole blanched almond

2 cups heavy cream, whipped with 1 tsp almond extract and sweetened to taste

Cook rice, salt, and milk in double boiler until rice is soft and mixture is thick, about ½ hour.  Add sugar and almond extract.  Chill.  Add chopped almonds and whole almond.  Stir in whipped cream.  Spoon into dishes and serve with red fruit sauce.  The person who gets the whole almond gets a gift and gets to help hand out the Christmas presents.  

Rice Pilaf

This is a GREAT side dish, more flavor than plain white rice, and almost as easy to make.  Vermicelli is a pasta, available at grocery stores, that looks like thin spaghetti.  Vermicelli is available in either straight form or coils.  If you can’t find coils, use straight.  If you can’t find vermicelli at all, you can use spaghetti noodles, broken into inches approximately ½ inch long.

½ cube butter or margarine

1 coil vermicelli (a thin pasta that comes in a coil)

1 tsp. each salt and pepper

2 cups rice

2 ½ cups hot water

Melt butter in pot large enough to cook rice.  Break up one coil of vermicelli into melted butter and cook on a fairly high heat till pasta is browned.  Add salt and pepper and rice.  Cook for a few more moments to give rice a slightly browned look.  Add hot water, stir well.  Bring mixture to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low or simmer.  Cook for 20-25 minutes.  As with most rice dishes, do not lift lid or stir until rice is done.  However, this rice will not be as sticky as regular rice.  If you can't find coiled vermicelli, you can use angel hair pasta.  About an ounce, broken into small pieces (about an inch long.)  You can also make this in a rice maker.  Kick the water up another notch on the pan to account for the vermicelli.