Skillet Spanish Rice Lunch ~or~ Football Snack Dip

Does anyone remember the blog Mennonite Girls Can Cook? Boy I miss their weekly posts. As soon as I saw this Skillet Spanish Rice I thought it would make a great hearty munchie for watching football on Sunday. And yes it did:@) Ideally, this snack dip would be served with the large 'dipper' Fritos corn chips. Here, north of Philly this weekend, I couldn't find a bag??? So I served mine with tortilla chips, still very good, but in a perfect world the Fritos... The beauty of this recipe is, it's easily cut in half, or you could serve some for the game and save some for lunches during the week. And while I haven't tried it yet, I'm guessing this freezes pretty well too. 

Don't hesitate to give this a try folks, there's a bit of wiggle room with the recipe... I couldn't get a green zucchini at my Walmart, subbed a grated yellow squash. And the green peppers were pretty sad looking, so I subbed jalapeno. MGCC added some shredded cheese to the top of theirs too.

Skillet Spanish Rice -from Mennonite Girls Can Cook

1 lb ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 C uncooked long grain rice

28 oz can diced tomatoes with juice-I used petite diced

8 oz tomato sauce

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp thyme

S&P to taste-it does need salt folks

1 C shredded zucchini

1. Brown ground beef, breaking up as it cooks, pour off fat.
2. Add everything except zucchini, cover with lid and simmer on low for 20 minutes.
3. Stir, add zucchini and cover again. 
4. Cook until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. Note: I had to add a little extra water to help my rice thoroughly cook.
5. Sprinkle with cheese if desired, and serve with corn chips.

Eat well, any way you serve it, and have a happy day:@)

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