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Cooking with a Rice Cooker

May 18, 2014 | By Heidi | Filed Under: health, home, noms | Leave a Comment

*This is not a paid ad, however, does contain links to Amazon Smile with a donation going to my favorite charity*

cookricecooker

A couple weeks ago I made enough brown rice for a week in my brand new Aroma rice cooker. I wanted a rice cooker that was electric so I could set it and forget it.

The first batch I made was disastrous. Too much liquid = a mess all over and really mushy brown rice. I’ve never had it turn out that way before.

My favorite brand of brown rice is Nishiki and it just was not right.

So I decided to try again today and see if it was a fluke the first time or honestly, I wasn’t sure if that is how brown rice was when made properly.

It turned out perfectly!! So I now have brown rice made for the week.

Tomorrow I am having a teriyaki bowl with chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, and brown rice. Yum!

After the brown rice, I decided to try to make steel cut oats in the rice cooker.

Again, I made a mess. The water to oats ratio was off a bit. Or it could be that oats bubble up more than rice. I did read online that may happen.

What I did:

I used 1 ½ cup of steel cut oats. (I used Quaker brand). I rinsed them a little bit and then added water to the 3 line. I think it’s 3 cups. Probably not enough water really because per the instructions on the oats you need 4 cups of water for 1 cup of oats. I cooked them using the brown rice setting and I did open the cooker a few times and stir the oats.

Like I said, it made a mess.

But I will still eat them (I think) and will maybe try again next week.

Not sure what the perfect ratio would be. Maybe I need to follow the directions with the 1 cup of oats to 4 cups of water. That seems a little too much though. I don’t know.

I am just glad to have the oats ready to go for the next few days!!

I need to plan ahead more so I am not spending an hour every night scrambling to make lunch and breakfast for the next day while I’m at work.

So as of right now, I have 3 lunches ready and enough oatmeal for at least 4 days.

Feels good to be starting the week ahead of the game!

What do you do to prepare for the week ahead? Or do you have any lunch or breakfast planning tips you’d like to share in the comments?

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Zero Point Weight Watchers Soup

April 12, 2014 | By Heidi | Filed Under: health, home, Weighing In | Leave a Comment

Zero Point WW Cabbage Soup

Yesterday I wrote about wanting to make this zero point WW soup that is posted on Food.com.

So today, after I cleaned up the kitchen I got to chopping veggies for the soup.

I have never…in life…made soup. I’ve made chili once but never soup.

I tweaked the original recipe. Here’s what I used:

1 32oz beef broth (recipe calls for 3 cups broth)
1 32oz beef broth – 50% less sodium
4 garlic cloves, minced (recipe calls for 2)
1 small can Italian seasoned tomato paste (recipe calls for 1 tablespoon tomato paste)
1/2 yellow sweet onion (recipe didn’t say sweet but I don’t like onions)
6 smallish carrots, chopped (recipe calls for 1/2 cup)
1 bag frozen whole steamer green beans, chopped (recipe calls for 1/2 cup)
1/2 head cabbage, chopped (recipe calls for 2 cups)
1/2 head cauliflower, chopped
1 teaspoon basil (recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 package frozen spinach

I followed the recipe directions and used salt and pepper to taste while I cooked the carrots, onion, and garlic. It took me an hour to chop everything and get it going in a big pot to cook.

I omitted the zucchini because I don’t like it and I didn’t add any more onion because I don’t like onions.

It. Is. Delicious!

I’m going to freeze some in containers to take to work and keep a container in the fridge.

What would I do differently next time? (because there definitely WILL be a next time!!)

I would add less spinach and use fresh herbs. I may also add broccoli. I think I may also put some hot sauce in a couple of the containers I freeze for work. And actually, it doesn’t seem to have THAT much cabbage in it…I almost added the whole head of cabbage. Maybe next time I’ll switch it up and add red cabbage.

It would be good with some brown rice and ground turkey thrown in. That would be a whole meal. I have a feeling that will appear in my lunch one day next week.

I’m glad it was a success. Not all my cooking ventures are.

Have you tried this soup? What tweaks did you make to the original recipe? Or, do you have any WW tips to share? Leave a comment!

Till next time…

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I Want To Be Organized

April 2, 2014 | By Heidi | Filed Under: home, life | 1 Comment

organized

I want to be more organized.

I really do. I swear.

I want to be one of those people who has a planner in their purse and writes down important dates and times and to do lists.

I use apps on my phone for some list type organization with OneNote and the main iPhone Notes app being used the most. I just really started using Evernote also, liking that taking photos of sticky-notes is an option.

I guess that was always an option using the phone’s camera though.

And I’ll be honest and say that maybe I haven’t given the apps on my phone enough time and worked at using them on a regular basis.

Someone needs to wave a magic wand over me so I can instantly become an organizing genius.

Poof!

Because I do like making lists and having a physical grocery list or looking at an actual calendar…and because I have a habit of jumping in head first when I go about doing something, I bought a planner type thing to keep in my purse.

Of course, I needed new pens to go with it.

Yeah, I know I have a problem. I like office supplies. My husband likes hats and t-shirts.

And that’s pretty much how I justify it here to keep the peace. “Yeah, I have 300 pens…but honey, you have 40 t-shirts!!”

A review will be coming soon… and I WILL be working on getting my ass organized.

Till next time…

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Welcome! My name is Heidi. I live in the mitten state. I blog about my animals, my journey to a healthier me, motivational things, and just life in general. I keep it as real as possible.
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