Rejoicing in Recipes: Skillet Spanish Rice with Ground Beef

I had 2 pounds of ground chuck in the fridge from yesterday's shopping, so I decided to use a pound of it tonight and freeze the other pound. I am making Skillet Rice with Ground Beef  (Go HERE for the site/recipe).

Here it is:

• 3 slices bacon
• 1 pound extra-lean or lean ground beef
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/3 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1 clove garlic, finely minced
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 3/4 cup long grain rice, uncooked
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or more, as needed
• dash black pepper
• shredded Mexican blend, Monterey Jack, or Cheddar cheese, for garnish, optional

Preparation:

In a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp; remove to paper towels to drain. Leaving about 1 teaspoon of bacon grease in the pan, brown the ground beef, stirring and breaking up as it cooks. Add onion and green pepper and cook until onion is softened. Add garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, water, ketchup, rice, chili powder, sugar, and Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and a dash of pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for about 30 minutes, or until rice is tender. Top with crumbled bacon and shredded cheese, if desired.
Serves 4. (although, this serves all 5 of us for dinner and most of us for lunch the next day, too)

Tonight, I grabbed a can of  Mexican Fiesta Tomatoes, with lime juice and cilantro in them. We'll see how that changes the flavor....hopefully not too much. Also, I used up the rest of the bottle of ketchup I had and it didn't quite equal 1/2 cup. So, mine will be slightly different this evening. Oh well. It's fairly easy and tasty, so I'll be happy with it regardless, I think.

I also had about 6 small yellow onions that were starting to get soft, so after chopping (in my Ninja!) one for this meal, I chopped the rest and separated into 2 freezer baggies with 1/2 cup onion each. Yay for remembering to freeze almost expired veggies! :)