"LEFT OVER" DELISH- CHEESE RICE FILLED TOMATOES

 "LEFT OVER" DELISH- CHEESE RICE FILLED TOMATOES

I found myself on a Sunday afternoon with an almost empty fridge ....one of those crazy weeks made crazier by the weather, health troubles, maid woes not to mention looming deadlines and therefore, the usual round of grocery shopping had just been skipped...All I had was a bowl full of left over rice, tomatoes, parmesan and capsicum in the refrigerator. The usual dal rice menu was met with a dull "oh no" from my two brats...feeling too lazy to step out and shop, getting no consensus on what to order in… I donned my chef hat and decided on recycling the left overs :-)

I took the larger tomatoes, cut off the tops and put them aside-scooped out the pulp to make cups. In a pan, added some olive oil, a few cloves of garlic, added in the rice, capsicum (chopped finely), the tomato pulp and salt and pepper- let the mixture cook for just about 4 minutes and added in the parmesan (I think any other cheese would work just as well). Luckily had some dry basil leaves that I sprinkled on the mixture and then, I had the kids spoon in this mixture into the tomato cups-then we closed them with their respective ‘caps’. We arranged these filled tomato cups on a grill tray (you can also place them in a baking dish), added a dash of olive oil on top and placed them inside the pre heated oven at about 150C for 25-30mins and viola….our cheese rice filled tomatoes were ready. The left over mixture of the left over rice-tomato pulp-cheesy mix was quite yummy by itself-and we decided not to let it be a left over anymore ;).