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Rice is one of our preferred side dishes. One reason is that rice goes well with beans and we sure do eat alot of beans! 😉

We usually have soaked brown rice but sometimes we have regular old white rice. I know that brown rice is a better choice nutritionally but Kiki and Lulu love white rice so we do have it once in a while. Also, from a food storage stand point, white rice does have a longer shelf life than brown rice. If we were ever in a situation of needing to rely on our food storage, we would eat the brown rice first and then move on to the white rice.

When we are having rice we always make a double batch. We use a rice cooker to make the rice and it takes only a few minutes longer for a double batch to cook compared to a single batch. I love having rice available for quick and easy use in the fridge or freezer. The girls often make themselves a quick snack of fried rice, rice cereal or garlic rice. It is nice to have something quick and easy available for them. While rice itself isn’t very nutrient dense that additions really up the nutritional value. Fried rice with eggs (from our free range chickens) and coconut oil is a ‘snack’ I feel good about the kids eating.

Sometimes the extra rice will be part of the dinner the next night or in a couple of days. If you look at my menu plans you will see examples of this ‘leftover’ rice. Such as this week we had rice on Sunday night (creamed tuna over rice) and again on Tuesday night (Sloppy Joe’s in a Bowl). Tuesday nights rice was reheated on the stove top with a little bit of water added in. It only takes a couple of minutes and once again we have nice fluffy rice. A few other rice ideas;

Breakfast

  • Hot Rice with Milk and Honey (heat the rice up in a little milk or water then top like oats)

 

  • Rice Pancakes (mix rice, buttermilk and flour- let set overnight adding remaining ingredients in the morning)

 

Lunches/Dinners or Snack

  • Fried Rice

 

  • Add to burritos, taco’s or taco salad to stretch the meat and/or beans

 

 

  • Garlic Rice (recipe below)

 

  • Your ideas listed in the comments…

 

 

Garlic Rice

This is a super quick lunch or snack that we enjoy.

Leftover rice (about 1 cup per person)
Butter (about 1 teaspoon per person)
garlic powder (scant 1/4 teaspoon or more if you really like garlic)
salt and pepper to taste
Nutritional Yeast (about 1 Tablespoon per person)
Milk (1 tablespoon per person)

Heat the rice with a little bit of water on the stove top. Add the butter, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Stir well. Top with the Nutritional Yeast and milk then stir again. Yum!

Do you have favorite uses for rice? Be sure to add them to the comments

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