This is the 16th installment of the Random Alphabet of SRH. Oh, I and I am sure it will be a doozy. The letter for today is the 15 th letter of the 26 letter English alphabet, O. O is one of those vowels that you never notice how much it is used until someone points it out. The reason no one recognizes the importance of O is because it is often paired up with other vowels or at the beginning of a list of rather short prepositions. Without further ado, I give you…

O: O is very useful. You use it when you say: “Oscar’s only ostrich oiled an orange owl today.”

I have always been surprised that Suess did not make that sentence “Oscar’s only ostrich often oils orange owls.” I think it is better alliteration, but who am I to question the Suess?

Anyway, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about when O graced my page. It really was rather simple when I even remotely thought about it. When I think O, I think Orange Rice.

Orange Rice has been a theme of Wifey and my life ever sine we made it for Little Man for the first time. I remember it pretty clearly because this little guy who couldn’t eat too many things really liked this meal the very first time we made it. It has been a weekly or bi-weekly staple ever since.

I get questions about Orange Rice all the time. “What exactly IS Orange Rice?” “Is it really any good?” “Why does Little Man like Orange Rice soooo much?” “Do you like Orange Rice?” “How many times have you made Orange Rice?” “What is the biggest amount of Orange Rice Little Man has eaten in one sitting?” “Does Little Man really like Orange Rice that much?” “Come on, I have a 3 year old, there is no frikkin way a 3 yr old can eat THAT much at one sitting. How much does he really eat?” There are others, but they are basically variations on the above theme.

I would answer all these questions today, but half of the questions are all about not believing me. I am going to ignore those. Sure I am given to hyperbole (it is the funniest form of humor afterall) and sometimes I exaggerate (like every second of every day), but really in matters dealing with Orange Rice I assure you there is no need for either.

What exactly IS Orange Rice?
Orange Rice is a casserole found in the Betty Crocker’s One-Dish Meals cookbook. It is on actually the Beef and Wild Rice Casserole found on page 118 of this cookbook. We started fixing this meal when Little Man was still allergic to soy, egg, dairy, peanuts, and tree nuts, so we had to “doctor it up” pretty significantly. Here is the recipe that is now emblazoned in my skull. I can make this stuff with my eyes closed now. Sure the kitchen would be a nasty mess if I did so, but who cares? I made it with my eyes closed. Beat that!

Anyway here are the ingredients to the version that we make currently.
1 box Uncle Ben’s Long Grain and Wild Rice Fast Cook Recipe
1 Can Campbell’s Condensed Tomato Soup
1 lb of Ground Meat (I switch it up between Beef, Turkey, and Chicken {Hey, I need more variety})
1 medium sized white onion
1 / 4 th cup soy-milk
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons of Penzey’s Italian Herb Mix
2 teaspoons of Penzey’s Granulated Garlic
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat the oven at 350 F

Prepare the rice according to the box directions except throw away their craptastic seasoning packet and add a pinch of salt, a couple shakes of pepper, 1 tsp of the Italian Herb Mix and 1 tsp of the Granulated Garlic.

In a separate dish,
Chop the onion into medium sized pieces. It doesn’t have to be diced, but if you want it diced, be my guest
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and cook the onion until it just starts to become translucent
While the onion is cooking season with salt and pepper
Brown the meat until cooked through
While browning the meat season with salt and pepper and add the remaining garlic when the meat is almost done
Add the condensed soup, rice, and soy-milk
Sprinkle remaining Italien Herb Mix on top of casserole
Bake for 30 minutes

Done.

We often eat this meal using tortilla chips as a scoop. Little Man is adamant that the tortilla chips be the Tostitos Natural Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips. He is a picky eater.

Anyway, that is what Orange Rice is.

As for how goods it actually is? Little Man really likes the stuff and I find it to be an “OK” meal. I could not eat it everyday like the boy can, but that is okay. We really have made this meal every week or every other week since the first time we made it. Little Man does not seem to tire of it in the least. There are some doctored versions that he has not been impressed with however. For example, one time I tried using Penzy’s Buttermilk Ranch Dressing base as the predominant seasoning. He didn’t like that so much.

Little Man has honestly eaten 3 full sized plates of this stuff in one sitting. It was a bit scary. I swear I could have bounced a quarter off his over full belly. Wow, was he full.

Anyway, that is the tale and construction of Orange Rice.

To recap:
Work was an absolute bear today
My apologies to Lord Pithy
He knows why
I was a bit unhappy about the email as well
I went from one fire drill to a second and then oddly enough to a third
Stupid fire drills
It doesn’t help that I am physically exhausted
Wifey, hurry back so I can sleep
Just kidding, Sweety
But not really
I had to wait until I was home and Little Man was asleep to post
Wifey gets home late Saturday night
It won’t be soon enough
I fear I shall be more insane by then
I am sure that next week’s posts will all be happy go lucky due to the return of Wifey
No really, next week will be all rainbows and unicorn farts
Have a great weekend everyone