Chickpea, Ham, Tomato Casserole

I was searching for a quick casserole to make the other night. As I scoured the Allrecipe site (http://allrecipes.com/) which I love, I became inspired by this recipe I found: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/zesty-rice-n-bean-casserole/detail.aspx. I didn't have all of the ingredients but it gave me an idea for a variation on this recipe. Here is what I came up with:

Ingredients
2 cups of instant brown rice
1 large can of diced tomatoes
2 tsp of minced garlic (I use the bottle of minced garlic)
1 tsp of chili spice
1 can of mushrooms
1 can of chickpeas drained and rinsed (you can use kidney beans if you want, I only had a small can of chickpeas)
1 can of ham
1/3 of paneer (I was using it up in my fridge - this is optional)
1.5 cups of shredded cheese - I used the taco flavoured cheese because I had bought some on special
1 tbsp of cajun spice
1 tbsp of roasted red pepper and garlic spice
Note: use whatever spice you want to make it flavourful. We like it on the hotter side. One suggestion is to use flavoured diced tomatoes.

Directions:
Prepare the instant rice according to instructions

In a large frying pan, cook the garlic and mushrooms for about 5 to 7 minutes is some olive oil.
Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, chili spice and let simmer until the rice is down.

Once the rice is done, add it it the mixture along with the ham. I like to mash up the ham with a fork and pre - season it with the roasted red pepper spice.

Add half of the cheese, cover and simmer on the stove for about 10 minutes. I mainly did this because I wanted the paneer to soak into the juices. If you are not using the paneer you can take it straight to the stove if you want.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Pour the contents in a 3 quart container. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and cook for 15 to 20 minutes in the stove.

I have managed to get three meals out of this (6 servings). These were large servings so you may be able to get 8 servings out of it but you will want to have a good side dish.

Bread Tomato Soup - Comfort Food for the Cold Weather

I had an extra loaf of bread this past weekend and I was interested in how I could use it up. The majority of recipes suggested French Toast. I had tried that before with wonderful results but it really isn't something you want to eat for dinner. I came across a reference for bread soup which intrigued me. This supposedly was created in Italy to use up old bread. I found the following recipe below:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/tomato-and-bread-soup/detail.aspx

This is a great website if you haven't tried it before. I only wanted to do 4 servings and it adjusts the recipe accordingly.

I have made this soup twice, each slightly different ways. The first followed the original recipe. The second I was going by memory so I forgot a few things. It still tasted the same way. Here is my version:

1 can of diced Chili tomatoes by Alymers - they are on sale for $0.99 right now at Price Chopper

1 tsp of minced garlic

1/2 loaf of french bread

1 1/2 chicken bouillon cubes

3 cups of water

4 to 8 tbsp of olive oil (see instructions below)

Slice the bread up into 1/2 inch slices - if you are using day old bread you can do this. I used week old bread today and I needed to microwave it first to cut it. I then tore it up into small pieces. The older the bread, the harder it is to do this. It still tastes good if you have large pieces of bread.

You will need a large stock pot - something you would cook pasta in or something that will hold 3 cups of water and the can of tomatoes.

I heated the pot and put the bread in it. The original recipe called for 4 tbsp of olive oil but I found this did not cover the bread so I added olive oil until the bread was covered. I then heated the bread until it was lightly toasted. I added a tsp of minced garlic and the can of tomatoes. I simmered for 8 minutes.

I then made three cups of chicken broth using the bouillon and added it to the soup. Simmer for 10 minutes.

This made four servings. If there are 2 of you, three servings if you like seconds.

If you want to make it vegetarian, use the vegetable broth.

You can add chili flakes but with the seasoned tomatoes you don't really need any spice.