I hate it when my husband raves over a meal. OK, I don’t hate the raving, but I hate the meals he chooses to rave over. I can make the most delicious butternut squash ravioli, shrimp and scallop scampi with linguini, or the world’s best salmon (according to me, at least), but what does he think beats that? This. This stuff I am choosing to call “trash.”
OK, so it is good trash, but it kinda drives me crazy that he prefers things like this, that is just a bunch of stuff thrown together, rather than something beautiful and refined. MEN!
But he makes up for it with his sense of humor. When I asked him what I should call this meal, he said, without hesitation, “Mongolian Massacre.” (?!) When I asked why, he said, “Because it’s cool!”
Gotta love him.
Jambalaya Trash
Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture
1 (8 oz) box Jambalaya-style rice mix
1 lb. ground beef
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 green pepper, seeded and diced
1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes, drained well
1 (15.25 oz.) can corn, drained well
1 teaspoon Creole seasoning (like Tony Chachere’s), or to taste
Follow the package directions for the rice with only 1 tablespoon of oil and without adding any meat, but start it in at least a 3-quart pot so there’s room for the meat mixture later on.
After you’ve got the water heating to a boil for the rice, start on your beef mixture. Heat a skillet over medium heat and add the ground beef, onion, and green pepper. Cook, breaking up the meat, until meat it cooked through. Drain off all the juices and then stir in the tomatoes, corn, and a teaspoon of Creole seasoning. By this time you should already have your rice and seasoning packet in the water and it’s probably got another ten minutes or more of cooking time left. Go ahead and throw the beef mixture on top and stir it all up. Replace the lid and increase the heat if necessary to get it simmering again, then turn it down to finish cooking. When the timer for the rice goes off, stir and add additional seasoning to taste. This stuff comes out of the pot at a million degrees Farenheit so you might want to serve it on plates so that it cools faster because you’re going to want to inhale it, even if it is trash.
Serves 4-6
Per serving (1/6 of recipe): 354 calories; 9 g fat; 49 g carbohydrates; 5 g fiber; 22 g protein; 9 Points Plus.
Recipe by Veronica Miller, inspired by Natasha’s Kitchen
Veronica's Cornucopia 
LOL This looks really good to me too.
I have lots of things that could have massacre at the end and they wouldn’t look like this :)
I tend to call them disasters.
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Bwahahahaha! You are too much!
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Oh my gosh, that’s EXACTLY what my husband does!! I’ll make a fabulous perfectly cooked piece of fish, or a great stew or something, but he’ll rave over the ‘throw it together in a pan’ meals–most recently, my corn and bacon sauteed in a skillet and dumped over rice, and just the other night he was going wild over potatoes and sausage in a skillet. Wow. Maybe I need to just give in and cook these simpler things.
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I’m thinking the same thing. I still haven’t submitted to his desire for simpler meals more often, but he’s training me. I’ll get there eventually.
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Kind of looks like stuffed peppers turned inside out. If it’s tasty and simple, I guess I don’t care so much what it looks like, as long as it’s not so bad as to be unappetizing! Some casserole-type dishes are just not pretty. This looks good. I might try it. I’m not familiar with the rice mix, but many of those prepared rices are very high in sodium. In general, I try to steer clear of those and prefer cooking from scratch. Is there a way to substitute some plain rice plus spices for the mix?
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I was thinking about that after making it because I know many people prefer not to buy pre-packaged foods because of high sodium and MSG and all sorts of other scary ingredients. What I plan to do next time is use a cup of plain rice and cook it according to the directions and add in more of the Creole/Cajun seasoning. Now the premixed seasonings probably have the same sodium issue, but you can control how much you put in. And if you want, you can Google cajun spices to see what you can add individually to get a good taste.
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Yes, you’re right. The premixed seasonings are usually loaded with sodium too. Both my husband’s famiy and mine have a history of heart disease, so we really try to watch what we eat, especially the sodium.
I honestly hate experimenting with something unless I’m really familiar with the recipe, and I’m not one who usually uses cajun spices, so maybe I’ll have to forget about this one. I’d have no idea what to add, and/or how much to make it flavorful but not “hot”.
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Lol! John does the same thing!! He would rather have a grilled cheeseburger or simple quesadillas over the really good food! I don’t get it either. And yep, he’ll rave about those and I just look at him like he’s crazy. I made “fake” steak sandwiches last night (in a hurry), the kind with the steak-um meat, cheese and some marinara sauce…you would have thought I made a gourmet meal, if you heard him…lol!!
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Haha, yep, that would have got my goat too! And I now see we’re not the only ones! Feels good to have company in this frustrating situation. LOL! Oh well, we still love them, right? Our men are pretty darn amazing even if they do insist that simple food is best. I just need to learn to accommodate his taste preferences more often. :)
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I love meals like this! Love the name he picked out too!
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Haha Jake does the same thing! He’ll turn his nose up to perfectly grilled veggies and delicious things like that, but if I throw something together in a pot and hope for the best, he raves and raves!
I’m sure it was totally warranted for this dish, though, because it sounds great!
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Love the name of this one, Veronica! And like many other commentors, my hubby does the same thing? What is is about guys? ;)
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LOL the man loves his comfort food. What can you say? He’s a man. It’s the same with my dad and bro. :-)
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Veronica,
Well, that’s a man for ya! Lol. He is right, it’s a great dish. I like what he named it. He’s Silly :)
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This looks so delicuoys!! I love one bowl meals like that.
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too cute an anecdote. love it. at least he gave you a good name to give it. i like it!
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You are not alone, my dear – my husband won’t eat 80% of what I make! Chicken tikka masala? He says smells like ass so he won’t try it. Anything with quinoa, spaghetti squash or whole wheat he turns the other way too.
Oh well – that leaves more for us!
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Men. My dad and brother are the same way. I think their favorite thing that I’ve ever made was a chicken a la king casserole I made once that was filled with sour cream and cream of something soup. It was gross. They loved it.
This definitely looks WAY better than that, though! And it has a way cooler name.
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