[kaebea]

what about rice? what does everyone think of rice?
have you heard the new fangled word that rice eaters are thinner?

I find i feel better when i eat rice, i.e. stir frys with vegies and a bit of soy sauce over white rice.

I like brown and wild, but I like white too.
anyone include rice as a large part of their diet?

Also, anyone interested in asian cuisine?

[CountingDown]

Yes! I love rice and stir fry and Asian cuisine I try to eat mostly brown and wild rice however, though I might include some Jasmine in a pilaf. DIL makes wonderful sushi (with the kit we got her for Christmas). As a vegetarian rice and beans are main staples in our diet. And I agree with you, I feel great when I eat rice. It is filling, gives me energy and helps me say POP.

[WaterRat]

Nothing wrong with rice! I like it a lot. Mostly we eat brown, though I'll go for a basmati or jasmine with some ethnic foods. Wild rice is not actually rice, but a wild grass. Still very good though.

[mandalinn82]

My favorite - Lundberg Family Brown and Wild Rice. It is SO delicious and nutty, and the wild rice makes it slightly lower calorie per cooked cup than straight up brown rice. It's so tasty...we had a lovely veggie and tofu stirfry tonight over the rice, and it was good. Really good.

Tomorrow I'm planning on experimenting with rice pudding for dessert, made with arborio rice, cinnamon, vanilla bean, a little fat free half and half, and some sugar substitute...maybe some dried blueberries in there?

[baffled111]

I love rice and I'm in a distinct minority because I refuse to eat brown. Basmati is my favorite but we also eat a fair bit of jasmine rice. I just never eat more than 1/2 a cup; that's my rule. I'm not a fan of wild rice though. I always feel as though I'm chomping my way through a pile of sticks. (Although I did make a chicken and wild rice soup for our lunches one week. That was quite good.)

Arborio rice pudding sounds really good, Amanda! That would be a very substantial dessert.

[LindaT]

I love rice. I've recently found a brown basmati rice and a brown jasmine rice so that makes me very happy. The only white rice I still eat is when I make sushi rolls. The sticky short grained white just fits best! There are so many varieties of rice to try. Have you ever watched Alton brown on Good Eats? He's done a show about rice and all the varieties.. fascinating!

[kaebea]

Cool!
mandalinn the rice pudding sounds yummy!
the only thing i have to say is friends don't let friends use sugar substitute!
I think it would be good with honey?

I was at the Chinese grocery the other day(talk about an interesting place to go, its like visiting another country without leaving the nieghborhood)
and in the back they have all these different kinds of rice! I didn't even know there were so many kinds! One was totally black, and i'm thinking i might try it one day.

I was also wondering if the reason for the difference i feel when i eat rice is that maybe i don't digest wheat well? i often feel weighted down after eating wheat.

[mandalinn82]

Use of sugar substitutes is obviously a personal choice. You could certainly use honey or any other sweetener you chose (agave nectar, maybe?).

[kaebea]

yes, i know it is all up to the individual. And i am guilty of the diet soda on occasion.

[zenor77]

I love rice! I think I use my rice cooker more then any other appliance. It comes out at least twice a week, usually more.

Our everyday rice is short grain brown, but DH and I also like brown basmati and black japonica. I only use white rice when I make sushi (although you can use brown too) or when I'm making a dish that requires glutinous rice. I don't think you can get glutinous rice in brown form.

kabea~ I make a lot of Japanese and Korean inspired dishes. I have a great Japanese cookbook called The Japanese Kitchen. I also make my own kimchi.

[tamaralynn]

I love rice. Brown rice is good for stubstituting in stir frys

Sometimes if I don't want something heavy for lunch, I'll cook up a little 10 minute brown rice (Uncle Ben's is the best) and add some soya sauce, and a little bit of pepper. If I have any hardboiled eggs, I'll smash one in. If I have any leftover veggies I'll throw that in as well. Very nice.

[kaebea]

zeror77,
what is glutinous rice? I read about it alot in asian cook books and stuff, but i'm not sure what it is.
I also read about it in my tcm books, but i don't know what it is so i just use regular rice.

and tamaralynn, that is almost exactly what i like, except oddly for breakfast. white rice with a bit of soy sauce (trader joes!) and maybe some veggies or a piece of fruit, like a half grapefruit.


Speaking of which, i haven't seen any thing of the sort on 3fc, but is anyone into alternative healing, including healing/rebalancing for wieght reduction?

I have this book i just got off the internet about TCM and qigong miridian therapy.
and so far i like it. I'm hoping it will be something i will stick with, I guess its really too soon to sing it's praises until after i loose some wieght.

I'm also interested in herbs and stress reduction!!
anyone else?

[zenor77]

TCM is fascinating! I especially like it in terms of womens health. Although I've only read up on it a little and I've never really implemented anything. I do need to research it more.

Glutinous rice is also sometimes marked as sweet rice. It's VERY sticky when cooked and has a chewier texture. Have you ever had mochi ice cream? Or those Japanese red bean and mochi cakes? That is made with glutinous rice that's been pounded into a dough. Or have you ever had sticky rice and mango at a Thai restaurant? Same thing. It's cooked differently as well. It needs to be soaked (much like beans) and ideally should be steamed, but I've had good luck in my rice cooker too.

[kaebea]

no, if i've had glutinous rice, i probably didn't know what i was eating .
my interest in tcm is more recent, in about the past year.
I was having some health issues, possibly(probably) played down side effects of a certain birth control medication that i had been on for 5 years.
Needless to say, now i am somewhat skeptical and wary of western medical practices. Definitely is easy for me now to work up a conspiracy theory about the medical and pharmaceutical companies at large after all that happened.

I've always had sort of a purist outlook, i never wanted to even start that pill, but i decided to trust my Dr. and she told me how it was a natural chemical that my body produces anyway. Which is not true in my outlook, though it may be true enough for some people...

I like the view of alternative and tcm that you treat with lifestyle changes first. It reminds me of how unhealthy our entire culture is by all the health problems so many people in our culture have.

well, I'm glad to say that i'm off that medication and am currently medication free, but i have started to implement some herbs (loose leaf for the purist in me) into my daily routine.

Back to the rice though, in a book about japanese diet that i have i got a recipe for of all things, plain white rice. I've tried in for several different varieties and it makes all the difference with a few little tricks.
first of all, rinse the rice through and strain off the water 3 or 4 times until the water is clear. Then let the rice sit in the cooking amount of water for 10-15 minute prior to turning on the burners.
for white rice, it is 2 cups rice to 2 1/2 cups water and cook for about 10 minutes.
brown is 2 cups brown rice to 3 cups of water. cook longer for brown rice.
Cooks up nice and fluffy! yum.

[nelie]

If you eat rice, I highly recommend a good rice cooker. I would always have mixed results with rice until I bought a rice cooker. Now it comes out perfect every time.