Brown Rice: A Healthy Way to Stretch the Grocery Budget
Are you looking for a way to stretch out the food you have and feed your family
on less money? Then you need to look at the foods that are inexpensive in
quantity, filling, easy to work with but most of all they have to be healthy
alternatives your body can use. They must help to provide vitamins, minerals,
protein, fiber and other valuable nutrients.
One excellent food is rice. But not just any rice.. it has to be brown rice if
you are concerned about health. Rice is easy to cook, mild in flavor and adds
greatly to nutritional value. Brown rice is loaded with B vitamins, manganese,
phosphorus, iron, copper, selenium, fiber, essential fatty acids and a small
amount of protein as well. White rice on the other hand has had up to 90% of the
B vitamins removed along with most of the fiber, essential fatty acids and
minerals. What little is thrown back in to enrich does not equal anywhere near
what has been taken out. White rice is basically a filler food with practically
no nutritional value.
If you have never cooked brown rice you need to know a few things. It takes a
little longer to cook than white rice. If you want your rice to be more
nutritional and bit more tender then soak your rice in water with a little bit
of yogurt added before cooking. If you want more information about how and why
to soak brown rice you can find it
here
along with information on how to cook brown rice. Or you can find my basic brown
rice cooking instructions
here.
Ways to Use brown Rice
I use it to stretch a casserole dish out. You can use a small amount of meat
along with cooked brown rice and spices for flavor and have a delicious
nutritional meal for your family. One of my favorites is
Mexican Hamburger Rice Bake.
You can cook up a large pot of rice and store it in the fridge for several days.
It can be reheated easily. If you won’t eat up all the rice you cooked you can
freeze it in meal size portions. Rice freezes beautifully.
How I use leftover rice:
Scramble an egg, add a little extra butter and a small amount of cold cooked
rice. Fry until the rice is heated up and brown. Serve in a whole wheat tortilla
with salsa or on its own with a piece of whole wheat toast on the side. This
makes a yummy breakfast.
Heat up my cast iron frying pan with a little olive oil, add some brown rice and
fry. Add salsa and serve in a whole wheat tortilla with fresh veggies and a
dollop of yogurt and extra salsa.
You can do the same type of mixture and put it on half of a corn tortilla, fold
the tortilla in half and fry it on the stove to make quesadillas. Cheese is
optional.
Rice can also be used as a filling for enchiladas. Mix your leftover rice with a
little meat, cheese and some salsa. Roll it up in a tortilla and put them in a
pan to bake. Cover with
enchilada sauce
and a little cheese.
Use in soups. Chicken and rice, beef and rice, or bean and rice.. the options
are endless! If you need some assistance on making soup without a recipe you can
find that
here.
Stir Fry is a great use for leftover rice and fresh or frozen veggies. I usually
start by sautéing an onion in olive oil and then adding whatever veggies I may
have on hand, mushrooms, grated carrot (I grate it to cook quicker), peppers,
bits of broccoli, etc. Also frozen veggies can be added. When they are done
cooking I remove them from the frying pan and cook up my meat. The meat could be
bits of leftover chicken, pork or beef from the night before or you could go
meatless too. After this has cooked I add the meat to the cooked veggies.
Finally I add my cold cooked rice (being cold is important to make sure it does
not get sticky and gummy) to the frying pan. I sauté this in olive oil until
brown and add some soy sauce to taste. My family enjoys adding Yoshida’s sauce
too which can be found in most grocery stores. But it you don’t have that simply
adding soy sauce to taste will do the trick.
Rice patties are easy to make. They are a lot like bean patties or any meatless
type of patty. You can add tuna or salmon to them and serve them as a main
course or add the veggies and use them like you would a hamburger patty or serve
them as is with a little sour cream or yogurt and a nice garden salad.
Brown Rice Patties
3 cups leftover brown rice
1 cup grated carrots or zucchini
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 t minced garlic
1 t salt
½ t pepper
2 eggs
½ cup whole wheat flour
Olive oil for frying
Combine all ingredients except the olive oil. The mixture should not be too dry
or too wet. If the patties don’t hold together because they are too dry then add
another egg. If they are soupy add a little more flour.
Heat a frying pan or griddle until hot and add olive oil. Use a ¼ cup measuring
cup to scoop out the rice mixture and gently lay them on the frying pan. Use the
back side of the measuring cup to flatten out each patty.
If you want to turn them into salmon or tuna patties omit the grated veggies and
a can of salmon or tuna.
Brown rice combined with beans makes a protein, vitamin and mineral packed meal
that can’t be beat! Here are a few of my rice and bean combo recipes:
Brown rice can also be covered with many types of gravies or sauces such as: Chicken, beef or hamburger gravy You can
sub any type of meat for the chicken in this recipe Teriyaki Sauce
I hope that helps you with ideas on how to incorporate more brown rice into your
menu and help you stretch your grocery dollars during these financially
difficult times.
