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My favorite kitchen tool for eating great and managing my 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:
- Hot + Cold Chicken with 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 and 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.”
My biggest challenge is organizing things and cooking so that everything is ready at the same time.
My biggest problem is not feeling like cooking at the end of the day. That’s why your slow cooker recipes are really helping me. They are recipes using normal food. I so appreciate that!
My biggest cooking challenge is meal planning. i work 3 days a week and do a lot of work in my off hours for Lions Club International. I use my crock-pot a lot, but every so often I want something else. When I get home from work, I really don’t feel like preparing a meal. I’m a widow–and cooking for one is a real challenge. I try to cook things and freeze them for later meals, but that doesn’t always work either. Just have to keep trying different ways to use my time to the best advantage.
My biggest challenge is how to adapt recipes that originally fed a family of four to feeding two people without having to eat the same dish all week.
My biggest cooking challenge is cooking fish. I’ve just never gotten completely comfortable cooking fish.
My biggest challenge is not getting into a rut where I fix the same things over and over, then get bored and grab quick, not healthy things out of boredom.
My biggest cooking challenge is finding healthier options in Indian cuisine and reducing the amount of time in cooking these dishes.
My hardest thing in the kitchen is getting everything timed properly so all is ready close to the same time. I usually don’t use minute type rice, I prefer all different types of rice. Never have tried a rice cooker, but would love to try one.
My biggest challenge is having picky eaters in my family. It is so difficult to make something that everyone will eat. I typically have to make modifications to our meals to accommodate their tastes.
My biggest challenge is what to fix at last minute. I try to plan ahead, but sometimes forget to take out of freezer.