I loved sauces, smears, spreads of almost any kind. But a tablespoon or two??? You've got to be kidding! I had to learn to appreciate the real taste of real food. Alot of add-ons add mega calories with almost no nutritional value.

Robsia: I think she probably meant 2 cups of cooked rice, not dried.
I eat rice every day now, but just 2/3-3/4 of a cup.

I actually looked for some brown rice at the shops today and I couldn't see any. Lots of different kinds, like basmati, long grain, but none that said brown rice.

I do actually eat plenty of other whole grain stuff so a guess a couple of ounces of white rice on occasion won't hurt.

I'm almost afraid to admit it on this forum (hee, hee!), but the rice I eat daily is WHITE JASMINE RICE!!! I love the stuff!

I cook an individual portion daily on the stove, so I love the after-dinner treat of the crispy rice at the bottom of the pot! Yum! I kind of see it as dessert!

Well unfortunately right now it seems the "experts" are telling us that white rice, potatoes, white bread and white pasta are all bad for us and basically convert in our bodies to sugar!

So that is why everyone is doing the whole wheat this and the brown rice that.
Just wanted to let Robsia know cause she was asking why. So if I am going to be bad and have a treat it will be a brown and serve roll.

Oh and by the way I think it is really pathetic that people have been baking and eating bread for centuries and now all of a sudden it is bad for us! I think the main problem is the serious inactivity of us Americans!

What I do is replace the ground beef with the chicken breast, and I ask them to not include the taco shell so I'm not tempted to eat it. If you go to the Nutrition website, remove the beef, shell, sour cream (and those little lime strips, ick) and add two chicken portions from a chicken taco (that's what they use for the salads), you'll get the above 330 calories, etc.

Granted, this is not a regular addition to my diet, but it works. So does a grilled chicken caesar salad from McDonalds.... but modifications again. No dressing. I'd rather just eat at home!

Potatoes are not bad for you! Gosh how can a potato be bad for you? Who here has gotten fat eating plain baked potatoes? What they neglect to mention is that ALL carbs gets broken down into so-called "sugar"... this is not the white table sugar we sprinkle in our coffee but is actually glucose... which is what our body requires to power our cells. The body just takes longer to break down complex carbs into glucose than it takes for simple carbs. Simple carbs are an excellent source of quick energy but eaten alone they can spike your blood sugar levels (or glucose) too quickly and drop too suddenly, making you hungry too soon again. A healthy diet can include some simple carbs with a focus on complex carbs. Also, carbs like white rice, white bread, and white pasta are not as healthy of a choice because they are stripped of their fiber and nutrients and become a simple carb. People have been eating bread for centuries but it was with whole grains... refined, bleached white flour was only for the wealthy and royalty until the nineteenth century.

Oh and Robisa... a cup is equal to 8 ounces.

*goes to check bread ingredients*

No high fructose corn syrup or any other kind of sugar added to MY bread.

I think that must be an American thing. I never heard of just plain bread having sugar added.

Robsia - Lucky for You! it probably is an american thing...Jillybean is right it is sooo hard to find a bread without High Fructose Corn Suryp, I think its a conspiracy by the american food producers to make us fat Even the breads that are labeled Whole Grain and "healthy this or that" all have it...

anitagirl: I don't see any reason why you can't switch herbal for green tea. I drink at least 24 oz of green tea a day. From what I've read, teas are calorie-less unless you put mounds of sugar in it.

Tara D: What does Jasmine rice taste like? I'm kind of if-y on those kinds of rices. What brand do you recommend?

Athenac: It tastes normal to me, so it's hard for me to compare. The two types of rice I've eaten recently and as a kid were jasmine and basmati. The basmati grain is a little bit different; it's a little longer and skinnier, and it seems a little "lighter"/fluffier when cooked. Basmati rice is often found used with Indian food.

Jasmine rice is just the name of the type of rice. It's not jasmine-flavored or anything. You find it a lot in Asian stores, and can usually find it in regular grocery stores, too. I've never done Uncle Ben's rice so I can't compare it to that, and I'm not sure what type you're used to. I like jasmine because it's a long-grain rice that cooks well. The rice grains stick together a little bit when cooked with just water/salt, but it's not overly sticky by any means. It holds together nicely. I don't like rice with which the grains completely separate when cooked as much.

I searched the internet and found that people said it was flavorful, aromatic (it does smell really good when cooking), and better quality than some other rice varieties. It looks like it comes from Thailand. I also learned today that it may be available in a brown rice variety as well. The name comes from the wonderful aroma that it has when cooking.

I usually eat it with stir fried veggies with teriyaki sauce or under a chicken curry sauce, but it is a great accompaniment for any type of meal.

Recent brands I've purchased are Dynasty and Mahatma, but I've never had problems with different brands.

Re: bread - these are the ingredients on my plain old Warbutons sliced white toastie (cost 96p per 800g loaf):

Wheat flour, Water, yeast, salt, vegetable oil, soya flour, emulsifiers, preservative calcium proprionate (added to inhibit mould growth), flour treatment agents ascorbic acid (Vit C)

PER 100g
234 cals (111 cals per average 47.4g slice).
43.8 g carbohydrate (of which 2.2 g sugars)
9.9g protein
2g fat (of which 0.7g saturates)
2.6 g fibre
0.49g sodium

I'd be interested to know how US bread compares.

As to what you can do, you could always make your own. Get a breadmaker and it does it for you more or less.