My favorite kitchen tool for eating great and losing weight is the slow cooker.
If I had to choose a first-runner up, it would be a rice cooker, so today I'm giving one away. You'll find all the details at the end of the post.
As Nigella Lawson persuasively explains in her wonderful cookbook, Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home (affiliate link), "...It isn't a coincidence that all rice-eating cultures have a version: these things, which range from basic to luxury, really do work. I cannot tell you now much easier it makes your life when you can come home, pour rice and water into the cooker, flick on a switch and just walk away without having to think about it again. And this makes a difference across the board: from feeding children to giving dinner parties..."
The Best Way to Cook Rice
Google, "The Best Way to Cook Rice" and be prepared to be overwhelmed by all the different theories and approaches, from simple to complex, on the best way to cook rice. Just reading some of these recipes made my head hurt. No wonder people get overwhelmed in the kitchen.
My approach to life and cooking is to keep things as simple as possible. Because if things are simple enough, we might actually do them!
The best way to cook rice is with a rice cooker (affiliate link).
Author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, J. Kenji López-Alt agrees: "There's no easier, more foolproof way to cook rice and other grains that in a rice cooker. Sure you can cook rice in a pot, carefully monitoring the flame, hoping that you've added just the right amount of water and that your rice isn't burning on the bottom, and taking it off the heat at just the right moment, but if you're anything like me, you've burned one too many batches to fuss with that method any more. With a rice cooker, you just add your rice and water, shut the lid, flip the switch, and go, with the added advantage that it'll keep the cooked rice (or there grain) hot for hours."
If you don't have a rice cooker, two other easy options are to:
Some of my favorite easy healthy Weight Watchers friendly rice recipes include:
- Skinny Hot & Cold Chicken & Brown Rice Bowl
- Brown Rice Tomato Basil Salad
- Weight Watchers Easy Arroz Con Pollo (Chicken with Rice)
- Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken & Rice Casserole
- Savory Slow Cooker Brown Rice & Lentils
- Slow Cooker Rice
- Slow Cooker Turkey & Wild Rice Casserole
- Crock Pot Wild Rice
- Fried Rice with Vegetables & Ham
- Creamy Slow Cooker Rice Pudding
The Best Way to Cook Rice Cooker Giveaway Details
TO ENTER
1. Leave a comment below answering the question, "What is your biggest kitchen/cooking challenge?"
A winner will be selected at random and announced next Sunday.
Good luck!
3/26/17: This giveaway is now over.
The winner is Carole Cushman who commented, "My biggest challenge is planning and then sticking to it!"
Congratulations Carole! Please contact us at support@simple-nourished-living.com to claim your prize.
And thanks so much to everyone who took the time to participate by sharing your biggest kitchen challenge. I loved reading all your comments and learning more about you.
Notes from The SweetHome review site on the best rice cooker (affiliate link)" After more than 100 hours of research and testing, cooking more than 200 pounds of rice, and talking with rice experts specializing in Japanese, Thai, and Chinese cuisine, we recommend the Hamilton Beach 37549 2-to-14-cup Digital Simplicity Rice Cooker and Steamer for most people.
It's an outstanding value that's well-suited to most households that want the ease and convenience of no-fuss, no-burning cooked rice.
It makes delicious short-grain and medium-grain white rice—the variety most commonly made in a cooker—faster and better tasting than models 10 times the price.
It offers features you tend not to see on rice cookers at this price, most notably a delay-start mode, stay-warm functions, an insulated lid to hold in steam, large capacity, and a heavy, quality cooking pot.
It's by far the best low-priced cooker we've found."
This post contains affiliate links to products I like. When you buy something through one of my Amazon links or other (affiliate links), I receive a small commission that helps support this site. Thank you for your purchase!
This giveaway is sponsored by Simple Nourished Living. Awarded prize may differ slightly (color, design, etc.) from images that appear here - based on availability. Giveaway prizes may be forfeited if not claimed within 90 days.
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jennifer finn
Making food that tastes good and is good for me
Peggy Frease
Cooking healthy meals for one person is my biggest challenge.
Nikki Fahey
Fighting with my head thinking I shouldn't eat this or that, nothing being "healthy" enough !
Laura
Meal planning is my Achilles heel!
rachel grover
my biggest cooking challenge has to be pleasing everyone,
I have a big family and we all have different taste also me and my son are vegetarian so
sometimes it gets difficult to cook for picky eaters.
jeremy mclaughlin
Biggest challenge is being creative with dinners.
Danielle Priser
Our biggest challenge in the kitchen right now is only cooking enough rice for the kids as hubs and I are too carb sensitive to eat it very often!
Mary Beth Elderton
My biggest cooking challenge is making whole food meals that are satisfying.
Nancy
My biggest cooking/ kitchen challenge is planning, prepping, and preparing healthy entrees and sides for the coming week.
Katie Bellamy
My biggest challenge in the kitchen is finding meals that ALL my family will eat!!
angie w
My biggest challenge is planning and prepping meals for the week!
Ashley C
My biggest challenge is having time to cook!
Lauren
My biggest challenge is planning what to make each night.
Audra
I can never get hard boiled eggs to peel easily
Kayla Klontz
My biggest cooking challenge is making something my whole family likes. Everyone's taste buds are so different so ive been trying as many new recipes as I can.
karen
My biggest challenge is time, I was think it is going to take a little quicker time to cook something.
Sherri Jackson
My biggest challenge is small counter space to spread out and prep & cook.
Annmarie W.
My biggest challenge is finding the motivation to find something that ALL of us will like. I have 2 fairly picky teens. My hubby not so much, but there are certain basic foods that he will not eat. And me, too! (We all like rice, though!)
Tasha Wilkerson
My biggest challenge is trying to "throw something together" I really must have a recipe for anything to turn out decent!
Dana Marie Germain
Time management is my biggest challenge