Homemade Spanish Rice

I made a recipe for Spanish Rice out of my Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book, Limited Edition "Pink Plaid" cookbook. The recipe called for sauteing onions, garlic, and green bell pepper in oil, then adding uncooked long grain rice, diced tomatoes, chopped green chilis, chili powder, Tabasco, pepper, and water and cooking for awhile. It wasn't bad, but it never seems as good as what my grandmother made growing up. My sister said that my grandmother made stuffed peppers using her spanish rice (Gram's spanish rice had ground beef in it). That doesn't sound like a bad idea. But for now, I am sick of spanish rice, because it just never comes out that good.