How to Make Perfect Rice and a Winner!

I have been in my house 24 years and I too have an ugly light fixture. I would love to change but have never taken the time, had the money, etc. That is what I would spend the gift card on.

P.S. Glad Tony is doing well. Keep up the blog, I love it…..

Congratulations Carol!  Send me an email at mybizzykitchen.com and I’ll give you the info on how to redeem the gift card – congrats!

Now onto some more fun news.  I had my weigh in on Saturday at Weight Watchers:

I earned 34 activity points last week, so that helped me enjoy some wine and pizza too!  😀  Tony is still not eating big meals, so I enjoyed pizza both Friday and Saturday night.  I’ve said how much I love my no rise pizza dough – I made some Friday night and then used the second half Saturday night – the dough on Saturday was so much better so I think I’ll make my dough the night before from now on.  I just pulled it from the fridge about an hour before using it.

We have an electric stove, which has proved very difficult to make perfect rice.  I normally would have to keep one burner on low after the water came to a boil, put the lid on and then would move it to that burner.  But there were mixed results – either the rice on the bottom would be cooked and the top wasn’t – or the rice would still be crunchy all the way around.

Then I bought a cheap $7 rice cooker at Walgreen’s of all places.  Worked like a charm!  Any grain would work – quinoa, red beans and rice, etc.  But we’ve had it for years and the last couple times I’ve used it the rice is still crunchy – I am thinking the heating element is just shot.

So here is how to make perfect rice – I made it with both brown and white rice, both to perfect results.

Perfect Baked Rice (from Alton Brown)

• 1 1/2 cups rice
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Boil the water, butter and salt.  Put the rice in an 8×8 glass dish.  Pour the boiling water over rice, stir to combine.  Put foil tightly on the top and bake at 375 for one hour.  Remove and fluff with a fork.

Last week I saw both Marisa and Nicole make protein pancakes – I decided to make them as well, just adding lemon zest to the batter and 1/2 cup of blueberries to the pancakes before flipping them.  What’s great about these is that for me it made THREE HUGE pancakes that kept me full for hours.   The pancakes come in at 7 points – 8 points all together with 1/4 cup sugar free pancake syrup.

Protein Pancakes

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup 2% cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup egg beaters
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/2 cup blueberries

Add all the ingredients except for blueberries in a blender.  Mix well and let the batter sit for at least 5 minutes.  Heat a non-stick skillet – I decided to make three large pancakes – I poured the batter straight from my blender container – then hand placed the blueberries in the pancake – cook about 2-3 minutes per side.  Serve with additional blueberries and 1/4 cup sugar free pancake syrup.

They are almost the size of a dinner plate! 😀  This will definitely be a once a week treat – I think next time I’ll saute apples and put that in the batter.

Long time readers will know that I have a twin sister Jennifer.  Growing up we were always put in separate classes, otherwise I am sure we would have just been content being friends with each other and never would need to meet new people.  It was in third grade that my Mom dropped me off at my class, then took my sister to her class.  I noticed a new girl.  Minutes later my mom pulled me out of my class, pointed at the new girl in my room, took me to my sisters room and pointed me to the new girl in that class.  What?!  Another set of twins?!

Before that, we had never known any other twins.  By 8th grade we had four sets of twins in a graduating class of 90 kids, and in high school we had ten sets of twins in my graduating class of 1000 kids!

So we have been friends with D & D for 35 years.  We try to get together at least four times a year and yesterday was our first get together of 2011.  Tony loves to call these get togethers “TwinFest!”

The best part about TwinFest is that since we’ve known each other for so long, I can show up at the host house wearing pajamas, sweats, maybe a shirt with a stain on it, no contacts or makeup – which is why you will not see any pictures of us from yesterday!

We always order pizza – this time deep dish.  My guess is this piece of deep dish sausage comes in at 13 points.  I also brought my baja fresh salsa (first time I used the grill and it was COLD on Saturday) – so 7 points for chips and salsa – lunch comes in at 20 points.

And since Jenn and I have a birthday this Saturday – they sang to us with a cupcake 😀

And check out the birthday loot!

And speaking of loot – check out this amazing package I got from Rachel over the weekend!

She wrote Tony and I the nicest card – she said:

Your humor through all this has been inspiring.  I’m so happy the cancer is gone and I hope it stays gone for good!  Hugs!

The front of the card was the best!

And this magnet is now sticking proudly on our fridge!

Thank you so much for thinking of us Rachel!

Check out the recap of last weeks BSI – proscuitto here.

Renee of My Kitchen Adventures is next weeks host – check back to her site later today for this weeks Secret Ingredient.

Time to get ready for work – looking forward to the extra light tonight after work!  Happy Monday!