Skip to main content

Budget Cheesy Rice TV Dinners

This is a simple recipe to make simple yet delicious meals, on a budget, and in batches ready to heat up and serve for busy people -- whether you are single or preparing meals for the family they can just grab from the fridge and prepare themselves.

Here in slide 1 we see the "deluxe TV dinner" garnished with cheap extras of vegetables, pickles, and perogies. But the bare basics are rice and cheese (slides 2 and 3).


  1. Prepare rice.
    • I use a parboiled rice that recommends 2 cups of water to 1 cup of rice, but I found that you can get away with as little as 1 cup of water per cup of rice.
    • You can throw virtually anything in here to flavour it a bit and make it more interesting, such as diced potatoes and carrots which will cook while the rice is cooking.
    • In the worst case, if you are on a strict budget, just add some salt. 1 teaspoon of salt per 1 cup of raw rice is more than enough.
    • A useful product is Knorr Chicken Broth Mix, which you can use to make broth / soup of course but you can also add about 1 tablespoon per cup of raw rice to make somewhat flavourful rice. Look around for the bulk-sized 1 kilogram container for more savings instead of buying smaller quantities.
    • Specific to the InstantPot:
      • I found that 2 cups of rice was good for four bowls IF you have something else to eat with it (e.g., perogies -- see below). Otherwise you might want to double up on the rice.
      • I use the Rice setting at 12 minutes. After that it doesn't matter whether you quick-release the steam or just wait for the steam to naturally cool.
      • Once I remove the lid I do often let the rice cool a bit for easier handling. I use a long spatula/scraper to portion it into four (for four bowls) and scoop it out.
  2. Get some bowls and cut some cheese while the rice is cooking.
  3. Start with a layer of rice on the bottom of each bowl and add a layer of cheese (slide 2). You really don't need quite that much cheese, but if you want it super cheesy, go ahead and add more.
  4. Top with more rice.
  5. Top with something to go with the rice if you have it.
    • I found a cheap and filling accompaniment to be Great Value brand perogies from Walmart; they'll be cooked when I steam the rice bowl later.
    • Other cheap choices you can pick up from Walmart include:
      • A handful of frozen vegetables (e.g., from a family sized pack of frozen Great Value Mixed Vegetables).
        • These actually do not need to be cooked with the rice. You can add them frozen to the bowls you are preparing for storage in the fridge. When you steam the bowls at the time you are ready to eat them, even from-the-freezer frozen hard veggies will steam up nicely and not be melted and soggy.
      • A few pickles (e.g., Great Value Bread & Butter Sweet Pickles) which are harmless to add the bowl right away when preparing multiple dinners for the fridge as they aren't destroyed by steaming.
    • Or if you are really on a tight budget, just add some pepper. It'll go with any cheese or just about anything really.
  6. Put these "TV dinner" portions in the fridge for use later.
When you need a meal, you just steam it briefly to rehydrate the rice, melt the cheese, and heat up the meal. I use an InstantPot, so it's really easy and low-attention.
  • I set it to Steam with a 1 minute timer and without the Keep Warm setting.
  • Then when the steam has cooled enough for the lid to be safely opened (the red float valve drops down), everything is heated through. Probably very hot, in fact.
  • Or if I'm in the middle of something, I don't have to run over and turn it off because the residual hot air / steam inside the InstantPot will keep it hot for a good while until I'm ready to eat.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 3

A picture from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. I can't remember why I had this couple in the picture, but I do vaguely remember this to be in London, on the first official day of the tour group getting together. Their insistence on my helping them take a picture caused the three of us to be late getting back to the bus. The local tour guide had a "rule" about lateness, that we had to buy chocolate to share with everyone. As it turned out, later in the trip, on at least two occasions, we were stuck on the highway on either a long commute or a traffic jam, and I had chocolate and chocolate-covered marzipan to share. About the chocolate-covered marzipan -- Apparently we were in Austria just as they were celebrating Mozart's birthday with special marzipans wrapped in foil with the famous composer's picture. I'm pretty sure it was Mirabell Mozartkugeln . Anyway, there were enough to go around the en

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 10

The last of my pictures (at least the ones that survived the cheesy disposable cameras) from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. Below is the obligatory group photo. Not sure everyone's in it, actually. I'm pretty sure this one was taken by the tour director, Mike Scrimshire as I'm in the back row, on the right side.

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 9

More assorted couples on my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. An American couple who joked about being from "the land of the giants" -- and with good reason, because both of them were really tall! A cute Jewish mother-daughter pair who ducked out part-way to divert to Israel. I vaguely remember the issue of the daughter being an orthodox Jew was highlighted in France when, to make things easy, she just declared herself vegetarian for the wait staff. I also remember there was some logistics error in France because our party size was way underestimated or simply relayed incorrectly, and there was a shortage of food at dinner. Dessert came as an unopened can of yogurt. It did not seem like they tried to make it up to us later, either. Plus there was smoking every which way in France, and I had a helluva time with that. We were also in a hotel that seemed tucked away in the burbs, and not walking distance from anythin