Recipe: Mexican Rice (Clean Eating)

If you follow me on Instagram (@besidebeth), you've probably noticed that my posts have been trending towards working out and eating healthy.  Hopefully you're not sick of me already because I'll be continuing with those types of posts as I follow my journey towards losing weight and getting healthier.  

You might be asking yourself, "Didn't she just do one of those programs a few months ago?  What ever happened to that one?"  And yes, it's true.  I have started and stopped a number of different programs in the past.  Like most people, weight loss has been a challenge for me for a long time.  So of course I've tried everything I can do to make it work.  

What's different this time around is that I'm also starting to work on becoming a happier, healthier person on the inside.  I'm working on personal development every day in hopes that I can get one step closer each day to being happy, healthy, and confident.  It's not going to happen overnight, but I am going to stick to it and try my very best to share my experience along the way.

My plan is to use this blog as a way to share healthy recipes, weight loss tips & tricks, and lots of personal development ideas.  I'll be continuing on with my Something For Yourself series so that you can learn something new about how to take care of your own wellbeing, whether that be spiritual, physical, or any other way you take care of yourself.

So now that you've heard about my plan, I'll share a healthy recipe with you that I just tried for the first time.  I was skeptical about making a recipe with brown rice because I've never liked it in the past, but amazingly I loved this recipe.  I don't know if it's the type of rice I bought (which was Safeway brand long grain brown rice) or if it was the other ingredients, but whatever it was, I loved it!

No surprise, I found this recipe on Pinterest, just like most of the other recipes I make, but it's originally from a site called Skinny Ms.  Check out their site for the original post.

Mexican Rice
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Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small sweet onion, diced 
• 1 cup long grain brown rice (recommend Uncle Ben's Long Grain Brown Rice - not the quick or instant kind)
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• Kosher or sea salt to taste
• 1/2 cup freshly chopped cilantro
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can petit diced tomatoes
• 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles (optional)
• 2 cups vegetable broth, low sodium (optional, chicken broth)

​Directions
In a large skillet or sauce pan add oil, turn to medium-low heat and saute onion until tender, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and continue to saute one additional minute. Add remaining ingredients, cover, reduce heat and simmer on low for approximately 45 minutes or until rice has soaked up the liquid and is tender. 

NOTE: The time it takes to cook the rice will depend on the brand. Some brands take 35 minutes, while others take up to an hour. We prefer Uncle Ben's Long Grain Rice because it is tender in approximately 35-45 minutes. 
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Remove from heat, leave covered and allow to set 10 minutes before serving.

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I hope you make this recipe and tell me if you like it in the comments!