Recipe(tried): Spanish Beef and Rice (my dinner tonight!) (serves 1 or 2)

Ok, since I've found so much value in this site, I decided to give back and post a recipe I made tonight. Actually, I saw something similar being prepared on one of those big cable food television networks over the weekend, which reminded me of it. I love making this, and it's really easy to work up! The recipe that follows will give you enough for 2 (maybe even three) servings. I freeze the leftovers though, and reheat them later when I don't have time to make a real meal. I usually accompany this with a tossed salad of some sort.

Spanish Beef and Rice
Modified from original for 1-2 servings

For Rice:
1 Bag boil-in-bag rice (1 bag is usually about 1 cup of rice, I use the cheap store-brand, Kroger in my case)
1 Can beef broth
2-3 cups water (enough to fill sauce pan in conjunction with broth to cook boil-in-bag rice)
1 tablespoon butter (optional)

For Beef:
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound ground sirloin (those one-pound "tubes" work well)
Salt and pepper
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped (or 2-3 teaspoons of the "pre-chopped" kind in a jar)
3/4 medium or average green bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped (I coarsely chop it, then use the rest in a mixed green salad)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (or more to taste, I LOVE WORCESTERSHIRE)
1 can tomato sauce
Goya brand Adobo w/cummin to taste (I love this stuff too, so I tend to use a lot of it, try finding it it in the international foods aisle at the gorcery store)
Dried parsley to taste (3-4+ teaspoons for me)

Heat beef broth, water and butter to a full boil. Add bag of rice. Make according to box instructions, but most boil for 10 minutes. If the rice finishes before you're done with the beef, it's ok to just turn off the heat and let the rice sit in the broth/water while you finish the beef.

Heat a large, deep skillet over medium high heat. Add olive oil and beef and season with salt and pepper. Easy on the salt because most canned tomato sauce has salt in it, you can add more later if needed. Brown meat, 2 or 3 minutes or until it's about done browning. Add onion, garlic (go crazy with the garlic if you want, never enough garlic by my standards)(did I mention I'm single, and that's probably why?), bell pepper, Worcestershire (same as the garlic, did I mention I LOVE worcestershire?). Cook together 5 to 7 minutes, until veggies are just tender and beef is fully cooked. You can strain the mixture at this point if you want. Since I'm not "fat conscious", I don't (no, I don't weigh 500+ pounds either). I like the added flavor the fat provides. Add tomato sauce, cloves, cumin and parsley. Bring mixture up to a bubble and reduce heat to low. The longer you simmer the mix, the more water will cook off from the canned tomato sauce. I try to get it down until the bulk of the "gloss" in the pan is being provided by the beef fat, not water from the tomato sauce. Taste the beef mixture at this point. If more salt/pepper is needed, go for it.

Combine cooked rice with meat mixture. I use a slotted spoon to do this to help get rid of some of the extra fat here. Honestly, I go ahead and mix them together in one of those "disposable" tupper-ware-wanna-be containers that you can buy now, then serve my plate from it. When I'm done with dinner, I just throw a lid on the plastic box and throw it in the fridge. I'm a guy!!

Leftovers freeze nicely, and you can use them to stuff peppers later also.

Hope you enjoy!