When life gives you extra rice.

So somehow, no matter what we seem to do, whenever Sam and I order thai food, we always have extra rice.

I really hate throwing food away. But I also don't really want to get fat-tastic. So instead of maybe other leftover-rice options (fried rice being the main culprit), I tried to make something that would be tasty and delicious, but not ridiculously diet-killing. 

So, I give you:


Leftover Low-fat/Low-sugar Brown Rice Pudding

What You Need:

2 cups brown/white rice (if you have less or more, you can adjust the recipe to the amount of rice you have)

3 cups milk (almond, coconut, whichever. I used 1% because that's what I had around)

5 Splenda packets (or if you're not down with splenda, use about 1/4 cup sugar)

1 tsp brown sugar (just to get that maple-y taste)

1 Tbsp cinnamon (or less/more to taste)

1 pinch of salt

1 tsp Vanilla extract (or I used half of a vanilla bean)

1 pinch of Pumpkin Pie spice (or a mix of nutmeg and ground cloves)

OPTIONAL: 1/4 cup or so of dried raisins/tiny fruit (I had a mix bag of cherries, raisins, blueberries, and golden raisins, so I sut used that)

Saucepan

Stir object.

STEP 1: Take your 2 cups of rice, 5 Splenda packets/Sugar, Brown sugar, Salt, and your 3 cups of milk, and put into a saucepan on high heat, stirring every once in a while to avoid the milk burning on the bottom. Heat until the milk starts to boil.

STEP 2: Once the milk starts to boil, lower the flame/temperature down to a low simmer. At this point, add the vanilla or vanilla bean, and the raisins/dried fruit bits. If you have a vanilla bean, scrape out the vanilla from inside the bean into the mixture, and throw in the bean itself in there too.

STEP 3: Let the mixture simmer for about 20-30 minutes, checking up on it every 5 to give it a quick stir. Cook until the milk has evaporated and you're left with a fairly thick rice mixture.

STEP 4: Once everything has boiled down, add the rest of your spices. 

STEP 5: Once you've stirred in your spices, let it cook for another 30 seconds or so, just to cook in the spices. Once you've done this, you can either let it cool down and serve warm, or throw it in the fridge, like I did and either reheat it later or eat cold.

And there ya go. Eat it for a quick breakfast, a fast snack, or a nice dessert. It's actually really good if you like rice pudding. I think I accidentally ate a serving last night just by continually tasting it.

PS: Make sure to take out the Vanilla Bean pod, if you put it in earlier, when you're serving it! You don't want to actually eat the pod, but try to leave it in the rice to add flavor. 

Enjoy, y'all. :)