Hello, new favorite! I think of this Cajun Sausage and Rice Skillet kind of like “jambalaya light”. It has similar flavors and ingredients as jambalaya, but it’s a slightly scaled back, simplified version, perfect...
Rice Recipes
As this unusual summer draws to a close, it’s time to start moving into new routines for fall. Having a routine dinnertime can be so helpful when the world feels like it has turned...
Ahhh, red beans and rice. This classic dish has been filling hungry bellies on a dime for centuries. It’s rich, flavorful, has a TON of fiber and protein, makes a ton of freezer-friendly leftovers,...
Taco bowls, burrito bowls, whatever you want to call them! I went with taco bowls this time because of the homemade taco seasoning used on the roasted cauliflower, plus the fresh toppings like tomatoes...
It’s almost Friday and it’s this part of the week when my cravings for comfort food really start kicking in. It doesn’t help that it’s been dark and rainy non-stop for like, the last...
Sometimes you just need something simple to flesh out your meal, to bulk it up without adding a lot of work, or without adding a lot of $$$. Rice is my favorite ingredient for...
I’m kind of obsessed with meatballs. They’re easy to make, filling, they pack well for lunches, are freezer-friendly, and can be paired with so many different flavors. Plus, I just kind of think meatballs...
Soup is such a great food. So easy, so filling (if you do it right!), a great way to use up leftover ingredients, and the flavor possibilities are endless. I recently discovered how delicious...
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a “one pot” recipe, but I’m really excited about this one. This One Pot Teriyaki Chicken and Rice is incredibly easy, requires very little chopping, and is one...
New day, new burrito bowl! Seriously though, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of burrito bowls, or run out of fun variations on the burrito bowl theme. This week I made my burrito...
I gave a little TLC to one of my older recipes this week, Spicy Tuna Guacamole Bowls! With many people avoiding meat for lent, I figured this was a good time to revisit this...
One of the first recipes that I wanted to try to make in my rice cooker is Spanish Chickpeas and Rice, and I finally got a chance to do so this week. This simple...
Rice cookers are a convenient and inexpensive way to cook food for those confined to small spaces or without access to conventional kitchens, so I’m going to develop a few recipes specifically for rice...
I can’t lie, guys. Sometimes I crave those cheap freezer burritos. They’re just so easy to buy and stash in your freezer for days when you don’t feel like cooking. But guess what? It...
My freezer is starting to overflow with leftover ingredients, so it’s time to take stock of what I have and find recipes to use it up! I had a half pound chorizo left over...
It’s time for another “sweep the kitchen” recipe! You know how I love these recipes. Food is not only expensive, but it’s also the number one contributor to landfills, so I always try to...
Hey guys! As I mentioned on Instagram earlier this week, I won’t be doing a meal prep post this Sunday because I wasn’t able to cook anything all week and I want to get...
I’ve been making a lot of soups lately and not being very diligent about chopping and freezing my leftover vegetables, so I found myself this week with a refrigerator full of vegetables and wondering...
Hey guys, I’ve got a “cheat” recipes for you today. This Easy Cheesy Broccoli rice is what I make when I’m too impatient to make a full blown Broccoli Cheddar Casserole. This is what...
Hey guys! It’s been a little quiet around the blog this week because of chaos elsewhere and the fact that I lost my internet connection for a couple of days (my worst nightmare). BUT...
OMG yum yum yum! This recipe is an instant new favorite! I’ve been all about the skillet and one-pot meals lately because I’m super busy, so today I made this Greek Turkey and Rice...
I’m declaring chimichurri the sauce of the summer. It’s so bright and vibrant, and as I’ve mentioned before it’s good on pretty much everything! This week I made this scrumptious one-pot Chimichurri Chicken and...
Y’all know how I am about leftovers. I try to use them whenever and wherever I can because food waste is one the the biggest areas where you can recapture some of your food budget. While...
I’m alllll about the casseroles in winter. They’re warm, filling, and comforting. This week I took my favorite Broccoli Cheddar Casserole and beefed it up a bit. …Er, chickened it up a bit. I...
You guys know that I love my bowl meals, right?? They have everything you need in one bowl, with more flavor, texture, and color than you can shake a stick at. But the more...
I’m not sure if it’s a good or bad thing when I make a recipe that is so good that I want to keep eating past the point of full. On one hand, if...
As I mentioned in my last post, I’m having fun exploring the new Trader Joe’s in New Orleans. I asked everyone on Instagram to share their favorite products with me so I could sample...
You know how I love my rice. It’s the perfect, inexpensive, blank canvas for any meal. I’ve been stuck on my favorite yellow jasmine rice for years, but sometimes I want my rice to...
I love taking concepts from old recipes and reinventing them into something new. For this Tomato Herb Rice with White Beans and Spinach I’ve taken my (not) Sun Dried Tomato Sauce and used it to...
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m just coming back from vacation and am totally craving “healthy” homemade food. So, I prepared these Chili Garlic Tofu Bowls to eat for lunch the rest of the week. They’re...
I really wanted to have this recipe ready for y’all yesterday, because it really is one of those “weekend day-cooking” sort of recipes, but I have been glued to social media since late last week,...
This post is a little different than my usual. Instead of a “recipe” this is more like an experiment. It’s no secret that I love salad bars, I even wrote a post about How...
Did you know that the Dragon Noodle sauce also makes a great stir fry sauce? Truth. So when I saw that I still had a half pound of shrimp left over from my last...
Confession time: I’ve been spending way too much on sushi lately. So, I decided to revisit one of my very first Budget Bytes recipes from way back in 2010, Sushi Bowls. For most people, making sushi at...
Okay, so I made this Pressure Cooker Chicken and Rice for myself the other day just as an experiment and not for the blog. Luckily, I decided to snap some photos of the process...
Y’all know I love my bowl meals! Everything you need in one easy to eat (and transport) bowl, no need to worry about what side dishes go with what. Plus, they’re easy for you...
This recipe started out as a craving for lettuce wraps and ended up as Hoisin Stir Fry Bowls with Spicy Peanut Sauce because, IMHO, it’s just a whole lot easier to eat things out...
Congee (or jook, depending on the language) is a rice porridge that I’ve wanted to make for quite some time. It’s a warm, comforting porridge made with rice, chicken, ginger, and sometimes other fun...
After finally figuring out how to cook tofu and actually have it taste good (see my Sesame Tofu with Broccoli), I couldn’t wait to make more. I used the same easy pan fry method,...
I had a huge triumph today. I finally successfully made tofu. I’ve tried cooking with tofu in the past and could never really get it to be the right flavor or texture. When I cooked...
This recipe was originally designed to be a balsamic vegetable kebab, served over seasoned rice, but at the last minute I thought, “Why bother with skewers?” Sure, they look pretty and making food look...
More often than not, I scrounge around in the fridge putting leftover ingredients together in a bowl to make random meals. I’ve discovered some of my favorite flavor combinations that way! This week I...
I love all things “one pot”. Cooking everything in one pot or skillet just makes my life so much easier, and when everything cooks together, all the flavor stays in the pot! This simple...
This Yellow Rice Chicken Skillet combines one of my favorite foods in the world, Yellow Jasmine Rice, with a couple of items that I found in the back of my freezer. I found some...
One of my favorite dinners from my childhood was a big bowl of rice, black beans, salsa, and cheese, or what I call “Poor Man’s Burrito Bowls.” Looking back I don’t know if that...
I’ll openly admit that I’ve tried to make paella on more than one occasion and failed miserably. It’s probably a combination of not having the right paella pan or not using the correct method,...
I’ve wanted to make a BBQ Chicken “bowl” meal for a couple weeks now. I love bowl meals because they are easy to prepare, hold up well in the fridge, and offer a great variety...
I discovered Mujaddara probably about ten years ago at this little Lebanese lunch spot in Baton Rouge, called Serop’s Express. I didn’t know what the brown crumbly mixture was, but I ordered on a...
I’ve been craving Broccoli Cheddar Casserole for quite some time, and I finally got around to making it for lunch today. Yay! This awesome homemade version contains NO “cream of” soups and, thanks to...
If there’s one thing I knew right away starting the SNAP Challenge, it was that I was going to have to bulk out my meals considerably with inexpensive beans and grains to stay under...
Stuffed bell peppers are awesome, but I always find them slightly awkward or difficult to eat. Can’t I just throw the ingredients in a bowl and eat it with a fork?! (I feel that...
I’m loving these one skillet meals not only because they’re so easy to make, but because they’re so easy to eat. Instead of filling my plate with a main dish and a couple of sides,...
So, you remember how much you love those Taco Chicken Bowls? And how they’re so easy because you just pour everything into the slow cooker and press go? Well guess what… You can do...
Jambalaya is one of the easiest, filling, and inexpensive dishes you can make. Just ask anyone from Louisiana—we live off the stuff. Flavorful sausage, savory aromatic vegetables, and rice all cook together in one...
If you don’t live in Louisiana, you might not know that we’ve got a big carnival going on right now. Parades, marching bands, crazy costumes, and (of course) beads are daily sightings for the...
Want to make your house smell seriously good? Just make this rice pilaf. The scent of jasmine rice alone makes my mouth water, but add a few spices and it’s absolutely intoxicating. This lightly...
I came up with this recipe because I had half of a flank steak in my freezer that I needed to use up. As usual, I bulked up the meat with beans, rice, and...
Rice is a poor man’s best friend. It’s inexpensive, filling, a blank slate for flavor, and can be added to almost any meal to bulk it out. But guess what? When I come home...
I was talking with a friend recently who was so excited to be finally getting stove in the house that he’s been remodeling and living in. So I asked, “What is the first thing...
Oh the mighty banh mi. It’s one of my favorite foods in the entire world. It’s truly the perfect sandwich. If you’re unfamiliar with banh mi (Vietnamese submarine sandwich), check out this excellent little...
I’m still all about these easy, one dish dinners. This one is very similar to the ultra popular Taco Chicken Bowls, but it’s made in the oven and takes about an hour, as opposed...
So, I broke down last week and bought a burrito from the hospital cafeteria for lunch. It was SO good, but at $5.50 for the least expensive option, I knew I could do better....
I love all things tropical. I love the weather, I love the music, I love the FOOD. I often day dream of a prince charming who owns a jet and insists on flying me...
Betcha didn’t think you could eat shrimp on a budget, did you? Well, if you use the basic Budget Byting principle of combining an expensive ingredient (like shrimp) with less expensive ingredients (like rice...
Okay, I’ll admit, this recipe is a re-post. Savory coconut rice is one of the first recipes I made for the blog and it has been a staple in my house ever since. I...
Believe it or not, in the 2.5 year history of this blog, I have never made a basic chicken noodle soup. Well, I almost made it this weekend until I went perusing through my...
Okay, this is a pretty big statement to make, but… This Yellow Jasmine Rice is the best rice I’ve ever had. Yep. The flavor is simply out of this world. The aroma as it...
This taco chicken bowls recipe is definitely “slow-cooker 101”. It’s probably one of the first recipes that most people learn to make in their slow-cooker. In fact, some version of Slow Cooker Taco Chicken...
I’m really not sure how authentic this recipe is but I’m calling it kung pao chicken because it’s spicy and it has peanuts. That’s good enough for me. Ha! Okay, aside from that, it’s...
Last year for Thanksgiving I made an apple walnut stuffing that was *out of this world* good, despite using a boxed mix. I was so happy with that recipe that I really didn’t plan...
What happens when you’re craving something sweet while watching Anthony Bourdain travel around India? You start googling saffron rice pudding recipes. I found a few recipes that I liked (this one) but since I’m still...
Why serve plain white rice with your meal when you can sneak in some veggies and a ton of flavor? I was originally going to make this dish a coconut (not) fried rice but...
I’m calling this one Vegetable NOT Fried Rice because it’s like fried rice but not (in case that wasn’t obvious). I love fried rice but it is usually so insanely oily and I’m just not...
One of my favorite things to order when I go to Mediterranean restaurants is Stuffed Grape Leaves or Dolmas. I’ve always shied away from making them at home because they seemed like they would...
I made this Cilantro Lime Rice as a side dish for the Shrimp Tacos that I made last weekend (my apologies for taking so long to post it). This rice is very simple and...
Whew, what a week… after having out of town visitors for the past four days, I am finally getting back into my routine (school, blog, sleep… school, blog, sleep… school, blog… well, you get...
These fun little Rice Pancakes were something my mom used to make when we were growing up. If there was leftover rice from the night before, instead of letting it go to waste, it...
