Solution to the Brown Rice Dilemma

Inasmuch as I was raised eating white rice, it is becoming imperative for us to incorporate more fiber in our diet. I know a lot of people have not come to terms with eating brown rice but I think I have made a happy compromise - the White Rice-Brown Rice Mix. Try it once.

1 cup white rice
1/2 cup brown rice
1 3/4 c (almost 2 cups) of water based on your rice cooker

Cook until ready.

I paired the starch-fiber combo with pork adobo and bok choy in oyster sauce. Not bad!

Shopping for Shrimp

Everytime we are in Chinatown, I always go home with at least a pound of shrimp. It's value for money all the way. Here I am shopping at my favorite "shrimp store" at the corner of Canal Street and Baxter Street.

Comfort Food: Chicken-Brown Rice Soup

I hate wasting food.
I always try to find creative ways to "recycle" food. Left-over roast chicken breasts always seem to haunt me. And I decided I need to take a stand and find a way to make something out of nothing.

Below is my version of Chicken-Brown Rice Soup. I did not have the vegetables while I prepared this dish and used only what was readily available in the pantry. The key ingredients: left-over chicken breast, brown rice, chicken soup stock and an onion is a good start. I figured I would buy the fresh vegetables, i.e., carrots, celery and leeks, later.

1 Left-over chicken breast (with a little chicken meat and breast bone)
2 cup Chicken soup stock (powder, one tsp = 1 cup stock)
Small Red onion, chopped
1/8 tsp thyme
1/4 cup brown rice

1. Place the soup stock in the slow cooker. Cook on HIGH
2. When the soup is clear, add the brown rice, onion and chicken.
3. Place the left-over chicken
4. Put a dash of thyme

Cook until ready.

You might also like to try THIS.

Brown Rice

Last night, I entrusted my habib to prepare dinner, a simple fare of vegetable frittata and some toast. But he outdid himself and prepared a healthy meal of brown rice and mixed vegetables with chopped scrambled egg.

I was hesitant to eat brown rice. But having had wild rice before and quonoa, I realized brown rice is not bad at all. I can get used to this. The only challenge I will face is pairing it with the right entree.

And so the next evening, I prepared pork adobo. Let's see if this will work.

Something about Brown Rice:
"...whole grains -- such as brown rice -- may help reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers, and may even contribute to maintaining a healthy weight.

Brown rice takes longer to cook than regular white rice (about 45 minutes vs. 15 or 20 minutes). However, it's easy to cook a larger batch and enjoy more than one meal for your effort."

Photo credit: www.thedailygreen.com

Test Lab for Memorial Day: Home-made Sushi

Photo credit: New York Times

Something very interesting for me to try on the Memorial Day weekend. Mark will need to take me to the Japanese Grocery store in the Lower East Side to get all the ingredients.

Click HERE for the full article.

About the rice, click HERE.

Slow Cook Chicken Cacciatore

Dedicated to all the women who played a role in and influenced my life.
Happy Mother's Day!

1 lb. chicken breasts, bone-in
2 tsp. seasoned salt
1/4 c. oil
1 pkg. sundried tomato + basil or any sphagetti sauce mix of your choice
tomatoes
1/4 c. dry white wine

Sprinkle chicken with salt. Heat oil and brown chicken. Put chicken in cooker and pour off oil from skillet. Combine remaining ingredients in the skillet. Cook and stir until hot. Pour over chicken. Cook low 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Serve over spaghetti or rice.

Optional: I placed lots of parsley, onions and julienned carrots to my slow cooker.

For the original recipe, please click HERE.

Spyder's Fresh Tomato Salsa

My sister forwards me recipes ever so often and I don't know what gets to me, but I end up looking at them and trying one or two. This is the second recipe I tried from her email recipes. I modified it a little bit to suit my taste.

Fresh Tomato Salsa dedicated to Spyder

3 tomatoes,chopped
1/2 cup finely sliced or diced red onion
2 Serrano chiles, finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 T salt
2 t lime juice

In a medium bowl, stir together all the ingredients. Chill for one hour before serving. Eat with multi-grain tortilla chips.

My habib and I are a little more decadent, so we had this with avocado on the side. I am not really in favor of mixing the avocado into the salsa. You can, because the salsa coats the avocado quite nicely. In fact, I tried it for the first go around, as you can see in the picture of my masterpiece above.

For the original recipe, click Here.