Culinary yoU: Homemade Rice-A-Roni

As my wife and I have really started living on a budget and paying attention to where our food dollars go I have really been surprised at the amount of money we used to waste on convenience foods. Having worked in restaurants for more than 18 years, I learned to make most things form scratch. It is far cheaper to make your own soups, sauces, skillet dinners, and casseroles that it is to buy the pre-made at the local grocery store. The downside to such is that it does take a small amount of planning and time to cook from scratch as opposed to using convenience foods. If you are struggling to make ends meet and feed your family, learning to make some of those convenience or comfort foods at home can really help you to stretch your food dollar.

Last week my wife and I were doing our shopping at our local supermarket when I noticed a young woman who had three kids that were on the rice and beans isle looking at the vast variety of per-packaged box dinners. I was on the isle to grab a 20lb bag of rice when I watched her start loading her shopping cart with a variety of selections of Rice-A-Roni, Hamburger Helper, and Zatarain's rice and pasta dinners. As I stood there with my 20lb bag of rice that cost me $8.98, I watched as she put 22 boxes of these dinners in her cart and moved onto the next isle. After I found my wife and put the 20lbs of rice in our cart, I went back to the boxed dinner isle to look at the prices of these items, because well...I am nosy. Anyway, the current prices (8/4/2015) for some of the items she had in her cart are as follows: Rice-a-Roni 6.4 ounce box all varieties $1,00, Hamburger Helper 5.1 ounce box all varieties $1.25, and Zatarain's 8 ounce box all varieties $2.36. Lets just say that she had an equal amount of each of these pre-packaged box dinner dinners her total estimated cost of this purchase = $33.66 just for a little rice, pasta and some dried spices.

Now, I am not lambasting her in anyway, I do not know anything about this young lady, but I really felt compelled to help her. The thing is, I did not know if she would have even been interested in my help and I definitely did not want to embarrass her in anyway, so I let her walk away. On the inside, I dying to ask her what she would think if I could show her away to purchase all those items she just picked up for half the price. Maybe I couldn't help her, but if you are reading this article, I can definitely help you!

Cost Analysis

I have already listed the prices of the various boxed dinners earlier. In this article I am going to focus on the rice based boxed dinners, and will do another article on how to make your own hamburger helper style dinners at a later date. Most of the Rice-A-Roni brand packages contain rice, vermicelli, dried spices, and occasionally dehydrated vegetables, while the Zatarain's do not have any vermicelli, rather they are all rice based. All of which you can purchase separately, if you cannot find dehydrated vegetables you can substitute fresh vegetables. To make it easier to see the potential savings your could reap, I am going to break the cost of each of these items into the basic unit of ounces.

Rice-A-Roni ($1.00 per 6.4oz box) costs 15.6 cents per ounce, while Zatarain's ($2.36 per 8oz box) costs 29.5 cents per ounce. Plain long grain rice cost 3.1 cents per ounce when purchased in a 5lb bag or larger, at my local Walmart. Vermicelli costs $1.27 per pound or 7.8 cents per ounce. So to make our own recipe of Rice-A-Roni, we will use by weight 4oz long grain rice (4 x 3.1 = 12.4 cents) and 3oz of vermicelli by weight (7.8 x 3 = 23.4 cents) combined with the dry spices. Now the amount and therefore the cost of the dry spices used are so small that the cost is less than 10 cents per recipe. So to make a homemade recipe of Rice-A-Roni, plain chicken or beef flavor would be 45.8 cents (12.4 + 23.4 + 10 = 45.8 cents). I allocated 10 cents for the dried spices, but the cost is actually lower.

So we see that our homemade Rice-A-Roni costs 54.2% less than the name brand (45.8 cents versus $1.00). That is a huge cost savings! Thin pastas such as angel hair, or thin spaghetti can be substituted for the vermicelli reducing the cost even more. In my area, several times a year dried pastas can be purchased on sale for as low 88 cents for a 16oz box (5.5 cents per ounce) reducing the cost by another 31%.

So I ask you, would you rather make your own Rice-A-Roni for 38.9 cents (when pasta bought on sale for 88 cents a box) to 45.8 cents per meal or spend $1.00 if it took you the same time to prepare it? So if you want to reduce your food budget by at least 50%, then lets get started!

The Ingredients

While saving you money on your food budget is one of the goals of this blog, helping you to make more informed and healthy choices for your family is another. As always we want to look at the list of ingredients of recipes in which we are creating as opposed to the commercial versions. The following is a list of the most popular commercially prepared rice box dinners (Chicken and Beef) as well as our homemade version. Most of the time, the homemade version is not only a healthier alternative, but is cheaper as well, but this is not always the case.

Rice-A-Roni Chicken Flavor – Rice, durum wheat semolina, salt, sugar, autolyzed yeast extract, hydrolyzed soy protein, onions, monosodium glutamate, natural flavor, parsley, garlic, chicken broth*, chicken fat, turmeric spice (for color), hydrolyzed corn gluten, niacin, disodium guanylate, disodium inosate, ferric orthophosphate, ferrous sulfate, thiamin mononitrate, turmeric extract, folic acid, riboflavin.

Rice-A-Roni Beef Flavor – Rice, durum wheat semolina, salt, sugar, autolyzed yeast extract, hydrolyzed protein (corn, soy, and wheat), potassium chloride, maltodextrin, salt, monosodium glutamate, sugar, carrots, caramel color, beef broth*, garlic, hydrolyzed gluten (wheat and corn), niacin, disodium guanylate, disodium inosate, ferric orthophosphate, ferrous sulfate, milk, thiamin mononitrate, turmeric extract, folic acid, riboflavin.

Homemade Rice-A-Roni – Rice, vermicelli noodles (durum semolina, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), onions, garlic powder, parsley, turmeric (for color), butter, sugar, and powdered chicken bouillon*.

*Chicken and Beef bouillon contain quite a few additives including monosodium glutamate (MSG). For further reading on the ingredients of powdered bouillons, see my previous article: 'Restaurants Use Them, So Should You?' http://culinaryyou.blogspot.com/search/label/Bullion.

If you are concerned about the amount of additives in the homemade version of these rice box dinners, you can reduce the number by using canned or homemade chicken broth. Of course using a commercially prepared broth increases the cost of the meal significantly. In fact, using a canned broth actually makes if cost more to prepare your Rice-A-Roni from scratch, however you must weigh the costs of the meal versus any health concerns you have regarding the ingredients.

Prepackaging Your Ingredients

Once you have bought your pasta and rice, the first this you have to do is take your pasta (vermicelli, angel hair or thin spaghetti) and break it into ½ to 1-inch pieces. I do this by hand, you do not have to be super accurate with this but one cup of pasta should way about 3 ounces. Make the pieces large if you wish, it just increases the cost a small amount. Once you have all of your pasta broken into small pieces, it is time combine it with your rice and spices and make your Rice-A-Roni mixes. The easy or quick way is to combine the rice, pasta and dry ingredients into zip lock sandwich bags. The original way is to separate your rice and noodles from the dried spices and flavorings and add the dried spices and flavorings after sauteing the rice and pasta. To cook either version of your homemade Rice-A-Roni, simply follow the directions as listed below.

In the 'Original Version' the spices are placed in separate plastic bag and placed in the bag with the rice and pasta.

Chicken Flavor (Package Mix)

¾ cup long grain rice

1 cup vermicelli pasta

1 tablespoon chicken bouillon

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/8 teaspoon turmeric

1/8 teaspoon sugar (optional)

Beef Flavor (Dry Package Mix)

¾ cup long grain rice

1 cup vermicelli pasta

1 tablespoon beef bouillon

1 teaspoon dried carrots

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon dried parsley

1/8 teaspoon sugar (optional)

Mexican Style (Dry Package Mix)

¾ cup long grain rice

1 cup vermicelli pasta

1 tablespoon chicken bouillon

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried bell pepper

1 teaspoon dried parsley

¼ teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon turmeric

1/8 teaspoon sugar (optional)

Cajun Style (Dry Package Mix)

¾ cup long grain rice

1 cup vermicelli pasta

1 tablespoon chicken bouillon

2 teaspoons creole seasoning

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/8 teaspoon turmeric

1/8 teaspoon sugar (optional)

Asian Style (Dry Package Mix)

¾ cup long grain rice

1 cup vermicelli pasta

1 tablespoon chicken bouillon

1 teaspoon dried carrots

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried parsley

½ teaspoon sesame seeds

1/8 teaspoon turmeric

1/8 teaspoon brown sugar

Now, there are a vast quantity of different flavors offered by McCormick who owns the Rice-A-Roni brand of rice and pasta dishes on your grocers shelves. I have only listed the most popular ones and the varities that my family likes best, but I have a few other recipes I make such as 'Chicken Briyani',and 'Dirty Rice-A-Roni'. These homemade mixes are easily customizable and can be made to suit you and your families individual tastes and preferences, so experiment and have fun with them.

Homemade Rice-A-Roni (Easy Version)

1 package dry Rice-A-Roni mix

2 cups water

½ onion, minced

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon soy sauce (Only for Asian Style Flavor)

Saute the onion in the butter over low heat just until it starts to become translucent, add the dry mixture to the pan with the two cups of water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover and cook for approximately 20 minutes or until the rice is cooked. Remove from the heat and fluff with a fork and serve.

Homemade Rice-A-Roni (Original Version)

1 package dry Rice-A-Roni mix

2 cups water

½ onion, minced

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon soy sauce (Only for Asian Style Flavor)

Saute the onion in the butter over low heat just until it starts to become translucent, add the pasta and rice to the pan and saute, stirring often, until the vermicelli is golden brown. Then add the water and bring to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for approximately 20 minutes or until the rice is cooked. Remove from the heat and fluff with a fork and serve.

From Side Dish to Complete Meal

Originally developed as side dish, your homemade Rice-A-Roni can become a complete meal by adding cooked meats to the dish after sauteing the vegetable and pasta just before adding the water. Diced or cubed chicken and ground beef are some of the most common additions. A small portion of leftover steak or pork chop diced or cubed is another great addition to these rice and pasta mixes and an excellent way to stretch your food dollar.

Because we have a large extended family, ground beef is a staple in our household. We purchase it only when on sale and in significant quantities. We then cook, rinse, drain and and bag in 1lb packages and freeze for future use. When we need it, we simply take out of the freezer and thaw in the microwave for a quick complete healthy meal. For more information regarding the nutrition and health implications of ground beef in your families diet, check my blog article on 'Can Ground Beef Be healthy? You Bet!' http://culinaryyou.blogspot.com/search/label/Healthy%20Beef

Conclusion

If your family enjoys Rice-A-Roni style pasta mixes you can save a significant amount of money (50% or more) by making your own mixes. Making your own mixes is not only quick and easy, the best part is you have total control regarding which ingredients you wish to use. I hope you have enjoyed this article although it is quite long, and I hope it inspires you to make your own rice and pasta mixes from scratch. Thanks again for visiting our blog, and if you like this article please feel free to share it with your friends. Btw, you can actually find some good recipe suggestions for using your homemade Rice-A-Roni on the official Rice-A-Roni website, so if you need some help, check it out (see link below).