Random facts for you about rice and a few of my ideas!
I'm sure most of you know that brown rice is more nutritious than white rice... but what about minute rice and parboiled rice. If you want a fast alternative to straight, but most nutritious, brown rice which seems to taked forever, parboiled rice is the better choice.
Parboiled rice is brown rice which has been cooked, but then had the hull removed from it, and then dried. By cooking it as brown rice, the leftover part (called the endosperm, which is white rice) of it was able to absorb some of the hull's nutrition making it more nutritious than plain white minute rice.
To use brown rice more often than the white or minute rice options, I like to boil a bunch of brown rice all at once when I've got time, then separate it into portions in ziplock bags labeled with the date, cool it, and store it in the freezer. This way, when i want to make something with rice I can just pull out the ziplock and microwave it, but still get the brown rice without all the extra time. It's also nice because I don't have to sit and watch it in a pot while I'm trying to make something else... Oh! AND the best part is that it's cheaper than the pre-cooked types of rice.
A recipe with rice!
approximately 4 C rice
1 can black beans (or pinto if you like pinto)
1 can corn (or equivalent in frozen)
approximately 10 oz. plain fat free yogurt (check sugar content on label)
1 jar of spicy salsa, or 1/2 cup onion + medium salsa (if you want a more tomato flavor, you can use some canned diced tomatoes as well)
your desired amount of ground turkey or beef with chili powder and pepper or a lower sodium taco seasoning.
approximately 8 oz shredded cheese
optional - wheat tortillas
preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
If you have the rice in your freezer, take out and defrost. If not, prepare the rice according to package directions. While the rice is cooking or defrosting, brown the meat over medium high heat in a skillet. Once the rice and meat are done, combine in a large bowl and add the canned ingredients and mix. Mix in the yogurt and add in salsa until it reaches the desired consistency. I usually end up using about 3/4 of a jar, but sometimes the whole thing. spread out in a 9x13 pan and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and slightly browned.
You can serve it in bowls as is, or put it in tortillas.
Mmmm, sounds delightful! Thanks for the tip:-)
ReplyDeleteI'd substitute the regular yogurt for Greek Yogurt. It has far less sugar and a LOT more protein! Other than that, great recipe and I love the idea of pre-cooking rice. I might have to do that from now on.
ReplyDeleteHow do you defrost/heat up the pre-frozen rice? Should I add a little water and then nuke it, and if so, how long?
I'm just thinking that if I were to pre-cook a lot of our rice we'd eat a lot more beans and rice. The kids love it and it's easy to prepare, but the rice part is always so messy, LOL
I just get the plain stuff with no added anything. Anything that's already flavored always has too much sugar added so I always check and make sure it's not a bazillion grams. It's not good plain if you want to eat yogurt for breakfast.. but I like cheaper things. :-) Also if I do want to use some of it plain for breakfast, I just add some vanilla, granola and frozen fruit to make it taste more... normal yogurty. Maybe a sprinkle of some sugar if it needs it..
ReplyDeleteWith the defrosting, I usually keep it in the ziplock and open it enough to steam it. I usually defrost it a little and then add some water and heat it up the rest of the way.
I also do the same with with dried beans too sometimes because dried are so much cheaper than canned but they aren't something you want to make up for a meal because they take so long too.