Cheeseburger Rice Quick Summer Meal
On hot summer mornings I rise early with the sun. This is my time alone, with my family dreaming peacefully and everything quiet on the home front.
I sit out on my front porch steps to read the morning paper, then put on running shoes to head out through my neighborhood for a brisk walk. Other people are enjoying their exercise, too, riding bicycles, jogging or walking their dogs.
It’s a great start to a promising day.
There are those who wish they could burn calories by exercising their mind while on the job. It’s not quite that simple, but here’s a tongue-in-cheek list of activities and the supposed number of calories they burn per hour. This is from “Joke Of The Day,” which popped up on my e-mail the other day at home (to get on the mailing list, visit www.joker.org):
Beating around the bush: 75.
Jumping to conclusions: 100.
Climbing the walls: 150.
Swallowing your pride: 50.
Passing the buck: 25.
Dragging your heels: 100.
Pushing your luck: 250.
Wading through paperwork: 300.
Bending over backwards: 75.
Jumping on the bandwagon: 200.
Balancing the books: 25.
Running around in circles: 350.
Eating crow: 225.
Tooting your own horn: 25.
Pulling out the stops: 75.
Adding fuel to the fire: 160.
Here’s a quick meal to fix before you go outdoors to work in the garden, play a game of tennis or practice softball with the team.
Cheeseburger Rice
From “No-Oven Summer Sensations” (Kraft Foods, 1998).
1 pound extra-lean ground beef
2 cups water
2/3 cup catsup
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
2 cups instant rice, uncooked
1 cup shredded fat-free Cheddar cheese
Brown meat in large skillet over medium-high heat; drain. Add water, ketchup and mustard. Bring to a boil. Stir in rice. Sprinkle with cheese; cover. Reduce heat to low and cook for 6-7 minutes.
Yield: 4 servings.
Nutrition information per serving: 461 calories, 11 grams fat (21 percent fat calories), 52 grams carbohydrate, 37 grams protein, 44 milligrams cholesterol, 1 gram dietary fiber, 865 milligrams sodium.