Product Review: Knorr Mini Cubes

Product: Knorr Mini Cubes (in different varieties)
Price: around $1.14
Purchased at: Walmart/Kroger

These are my favorite spices to cook with! I originally found them at Kroger but I've also found them at Walmart. You'll find them on the Mexican aisle at both stores. What they are is little cubes of spices in a foil wrapper. They remind me a lot of the chicken bullion cubes my mom used to buy when I was a kid. I've found them in four varieties- onion, garlic, chipotle and cilantro.

I love Chipotle's cilantro-lime rice and I make it a lot. So in passing by these little boxes of awesome, I stopped to take a look and decided to give them a try. I tossed a cube of cilantro in with the boiling water/lime juice and cooked the rice as usual. Twenty minutes later, I had amazing (maybe better than Chipotle's) cilantro-lime rice! I've also used the chipotle flavor in rice. It's got a slight kick to it and it has great flavor!

Another way I like to use them, is to grind them up (The cubes are a little hard so I toss them into my Magic Bullet and let it get it down to a fine powder.) and use them with a little flour to coat chicken or fish for an easy pan-fried dinner.

The onion and garlic varieties add a wonderful flavor to soups.

It's always best to add them to a liquid (so they'll dissolve) unless you grind them up really well. Then they fare just fine in anything.

At $1.14 at Walmart, you just can't beat it. A jar of dried cilantro will run you between $3-4 easily so this is really a steal. Give them a try and let me know what you think!

A side note: for some strange reason, Knorr does not have these on their website. I can't imagine why because they're amazing. They DO have recipes on their website that use them as ingredients though. The only thing I can think of is that because it's considered a "Mexican" product, it is not listed on their regular website. I looked for an international site and was unable to find anything.

If you can't find them in your grocery store, you can find them for sale online easily by either using www.shopping.google.com or going straight to Amazon.com and searching for "Knorr minicubes."

Happy cooking!

Restaurant Review: The Red Cactus, Fort Worth

The Red Cactus

$- under $10 per entree

3005 South University Drive
Fort Worth, TX 76109-5608
(817) 927-2933

Open daily, 9a-9p

http://www.redcactusrestaurant.com/

Husband rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Wife rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Kid rating: 4 out of stars

The family and I went out to dinner tonight and we decided to try The Red Cactus. It's on University Drive just across from TCU. We've driven past several times and have wanted to try it so when Josh requested Mexican, we headed that way.

What We Ordered

Me- Shrimp fajitas on a bed of sauteed peppers and onions. Served with hot tortillas, rice, beans, sour cream, guacamole, and salsa.

Josh- Tacos Planchados, four grilled flour tortillas stuffed with shredded beef, refried beans, and Monterrey Jack and Cheddar. Served with rice and beans. 

Anna- Kids flautitas, crispy shredded beef taquitos. Served with queso, rice and beans.

Chips and salsa and two margaritas

What We Thought

There are two kinds of restaurants in the TCU area- hoity-toity, high priced dining and casual, student and family friendly dives. This place is definitely the latter. It's a cute place, with brightly colored walls (including a TCU purple wall) and modern art prints hung along the long wall. There's a cute little patio in the back that would be perfect for late night hang outs (although I think I'll wait till the weather is a lot cooler!) The atmosphere was really nice and we were greeted warmly when we walked in. 

My shrimp fajitas were pretty good. The shrimp was perfectly cooked and although they were tiny shrimp, there were plenty of them. They came on a bed of sauteed red onions and green bell peppers that were cooked just enough to be soft but with a little bit of crunch still left in them. The portion size was more than enough and at $8.99, I feel like I got my money's worth. That being said, it didn't have a lot of flavor. It tasted good but didn't leave anything memorable. 

Josh's tacos looked good. I really liked that they grilled the soft taco shells to give them a little crisp. But he reported them to be rather bland, supporting my opinion of my fajitas as well. Good, but not great.

Anna was done with her dinner before Josh and I hardly got started. She loved the cup of queso to dip her flautitas in and the bland flavors were perfect to not assault her kid pallet with spicy flavors. It's definitely a family friendly venue.

The margaritas were nothing to write home about. Initially they tasted pretty good, but there was so much salt on the rim (HUGE salt flakes!) that by the time we were less than half way through it pretty much tasted like salty water. 

The tastiest thing we had there tonight was by FAR the green chile sauce, nonchalantly served on the side of our dinners. It was mild but really yummy. It gave the tacos and the fajitas a little bit a life!

All in all, I think I'd be happy to eat there again. I want to try the Faji-Papa which is like a Mexican-style loaded baked potato. I don't think I'd go out of my way to eat there, but if we were in the area, I wouldn't turn it down.

Try it out and let me know what you think!

Foodie!

My Auntie Jan has always claimed she'd rather be fat and happy than thin and miserable. I never planned on adopting that mantra but it seems it's been imprinted in my attitude towards life. That being said, I LOVE FOOD! I love to cook food. I love to eat food. I love to watch people cook food. I have a passion for all things edible.

Enter the blog. I know there are a billion foodie blogs out there but I don't care. A lot of times, when I mention what I've made for dinner, many of my friends ask for the recipe. So when I stumble upon something tasty, you'll find it here. If I find an awesome product out there, I'll tell you what I think here. Also, if I find a restaurant somewhere with exceptional fare, you'll hear about it here. (You'll probably hear about the bad ones too!)

So tonight, here's a simple recipe that'll spice up your Mexican food night at home! I call it "Rice and Beans, Beans and Rice." It's a reference to Dave Ramsey's financial plan that tells new savers to live on beans and rice to save money. While I could never live only on beans and rice, this recipe is pretty good!

I'm also going to include what I'd like to call "The Husband Rating." My hubby likes to eat food as much as I do. He'll give the recipes/restaurants a one to five star rating. Hopefully, I'll score high! (P.S. You'll find my rating, as well as a rating from my six year old daughter there too!)

Rice and Beans, Beans and Rice
Husaband rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Wife rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Kid rating: 1 out of 5 stars (She doesn't like tomatoes!)

1 can diced tomatoes
1 can black beans
Approx. 1 1/2 cups water
salt to taste
1 cup of white long grain rice

Note: A typical rice recipe calls for two cups of water to one cup of rice. If you have a bigger crowd to feed, increase your measurements. Just be sure to keep the 2 to 1 ratio.

Open the can of tomatoes and empty the juice into a 4 cup measuring cup. It'll probably give you 1/4-1/2 cup of juice. You need a total of two cups of liquid so fill the rest of the way to two cups with water. (I like to fill the tomato can with water a few times, draining them each time, to get as much tomatoey goodness out of the can as I can.)

Pour the two cups of liquid into your favorite rice pot. Drain and rinse the black beans and add to the pot. Add the diced tomatoes. Salt to taste. (I like to use garlic salt to give it a little extra flavor, but regular salt is great too!)

Bring the pot to a boil. Once boiling, add 1 cup of white, long-grain rice. Let it come back up to a boil. Then cover, TURN TO LOW, and cook for twenty minutes.

After twenty minutes, fluff and mix rice and beans with a fork. Serve hot!

EXTRAS!

If you want to add a little extra flavor, in the Mexican aisle at the grocery store, you can get tomato consume. It's kind of like a bullion cube but with tomato flavor instead of chicken or beef. Break it up to help it dissolve and add it at the beginning when you add the salt.

Also, for a little spice, add some red pepper flakes when you add the salt. Beware! A little goes a long way!