Baked Brown Rice & Asparagus Side Dish

I made one of my favorite recipes for dinner tonight - Cheddar, Cranberry, Apple Turkey Meatballs in the Crock pot. They were the best ones I've ever done before. So, so good.

I paired it with Brown Rice and tried making it a little differently. I found this recipe that tells you how to BAKE the rice instead of cooking it on the stovetop. My rice usually comes out a little mushy or dry or something that's not quite right. I'd heard about this different method and wanted to try it. Alton Brown from The Food Network has this recipe that I used tonight. It was so easy and David and I loved it. The only thing I did differently was I used half beef broth and half water when they called for all water. SO YUMMY!!

Then, I made the asparagus that you see in the picture above. Here's the simple recipe for these. It was easy and had a ton of flavor. It was such a nice change from just steaming it or roasting it, which is what I normally do.

I hope you enjoy these. Let me know what you think!

Parents Review: I will start baking my rice like this forever and always. I also love the asparagus prepared this way. Will do it again.

Kids Review: Asked for seconds and thirds of the rice. They wanted nothing to do with the Asparagus this way, but they gobbled up some plain steamed asparagus.