Rebellion of the Rice Cooker

Last night I thought that I would like to have a healthy rice pudding for breakfast this morning.  However, rice and I are not friends.  I have NEVER been able to cook rice.  I can't even make Minute Rice turn out right.  I spent a year in a Caribbean third world country where all we ever ate was rice, and I STILL can't cook it.

A friend of mine gave me a rice cooker.  It's just a simple one, no programming or options.  You just put in the rice, the water, and hit the cook button.  That's hard to mess up, right?  I've even managed to make decent enough rice in it a couple of times, though mostly I use it to cook millet.

Well, since I can't make rice on the stove, I figured I probably couldn't make rice pudding there either, so I decided to put it all in the rice cooker.  I wasn't making real rice pudding anyway.  I just wanted to cook up some brown rice with a lot of liquid so it got a thick pudding like consistency.  Last night before bed I put one cup of brown rice and two cups of soy milk into the rice cooker.  I thought that soaking the rice would help break it down and make it thick and sticky when it was all cooked.  

Announcing

It was a long road, but we finally made it!

No, I Haven't Forgotten You!

Hello lovelies! It's been such a long time, I know. I haven't, however, forgotten you or my blog, and I haven't abandoned you either. I've had some medical issues that have kept me out of the kitchen for a few weeks. They are resolving now though, and I hope to be back in the kitchen soon, creating yummy vegetarian dishes for all of us to try!


Stick around for a bit and bear with me here, because I'll be back soon enough.

MIA

Wow.  I've been gone for a long time.  I apologize for the absence if anyone out there is even still reading.  I mentioned before that we were moving, but it happened so fast.  Once things started to move, they REALLY started to move--faster than we thought it was going to happen.

So here we are, in a new house, with a new kitchen where I can create many tasty things, but not quite yet.  We aren't completely settled and unpacked yet, so you're gonna have to give me a few more days.  I promise something yummy when things finally stop spinning.

What IF?

It's been an exceptionally busy week, so that's why you haven't seen very many blog posts from me.  Next week will be better, and I'll be back in the kitchen.  I apologize.  Sometimes life just happens.

I'm going to do something now that I promise I won't do very often; I'm going to post an entry that's not a food or healthy living entry, but this is important to me, and I'll advocate for this particular issue with my dying breath.   I briefly mentioned in my long "my story" post that I'm an IVF patient.  This week is National Infertility Awareness Week.  In order to spread awareness, and to give voice, Keiko Zoll made this amazing, wonderful, touching, and very very brave video.  I'm reposting it here.  It deserves to be seen by as many people as possible, and I am deeply grateful that she put her heart out there for the world to see.


What IF? A Portrait of Infertility from Keiko Zoll on Vimeo.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled food blog posts. 
Thanks for taking the time to watch this video.

Eating Healthfully when Exhaustion Wins

There are days when I'm so bone-weary that I don't have the energy to prepare and cook anything for lunch.  I think I've mentioned before that I've got stage IV endometriosis, so I'm not talking your general run of the mill tired here.  I'm talking about the kind of tired where it's an effort to move my eyes in their sockets!  It would be so easy to grab some pre-packaged convenience foods on days like that, but it's those days when it's most important to eat well.  Eating poorly only makes me more tired and sluggish, and it's obviously not at all good for my health.

Today is one of those days.  I'm clawing my way through the fog today, after a mostly sleepless night.  I walked into the kitchen and actually semi-seriously considered  eating a bag of pretzels for lunch.  It would have been so easy.  And I'm so tired.  Thankfully my good sense won out.

A meal doesn't have to be lavish, or require much preparation, or have multiple ingredients to be a healthy meal.  It can be quick and simple and relatively preparation free.  Lunch for me today was a banana with a smear of Nutella, a pear, a serving of whole grain crackers, and an ounce of Monterey Jack cheese.  No cooking.  No real prep.  Healthy.  And I can congratulate myself for nourishing my tired body instead of feeding it a bag of salt and carbs!