Mellow Sunday

 Half the leaves on the dogwood are gone. They started a few at a time about two weeks ago. Today, when I went out at 6pm, the air was very humid, neither warm nor cold, just spongy feeling. 

Whatever I was feeling yesterday is gone today. I actually feel very well. My head is trying to get stuffy again, but the Hall's keeps that at bay. 

The only 'work' or 'decluttering' I accomplished was keeping the clutter at bay and retaining the state the cleaner and I accomplished. I call that a big win. 

We went out and tried to get three refunds. Only one was accomplished. I finally found the Ben' Brown Rice, parboiled, 5 lb for $7.53--$1.50/lb. The word parboiled was on the back and hard to see. I wonder now if the people I asked on the phone who said it was not parboiled actually looked all over the package. I am thrilled to get that. I will make two small casseroles for us-rice, chicken, soup, broccoli for Tommy. I will put mushrooms and cheese and pimiento in mine, too. I use cooked chicken, so I don't need to cook for a long time for rice. And, cheese is best not cooked forever. In the past I have cooked a huge casserole with raw chicken breasts cooked in the casserole, too. This way is much faster and just as tasty. He hates cheese, mushrooms, and pimientos. 

The Halloween display in Big Box was magnificent! I had to zoom up and down all the aisles and see the pretties. Now, I am in the mood! My goal is to only buy one decoration. I have many fake pumpkins for inside, one large and many tiny. I do want candy corn, but I may forego it entirely. One year, I bought a bag of Halloween candy, asked the children and parents behind me if they wanted some. I got out a handful and gave them the whole bag. Another year, I did the same thing but gave them the receipt so there would be no problems. Both years the checker heard it all, so no one would get into trouble. 

I need to get out my Halloween jewelry--one huge spider ring. I buy this kind of things well after Halloween on deep clearance.

I found a summer nightgown on sale for $9.90, 1/2 price of ones I have, and identical one that I wore last night. I hate to say it, but i wear these in the day because they are so comfortable. I have plenty of pants and tops for everyday wear, but only one dress. I need more dresses, but few of those are comfortable. 

Now, he has a shower soap and shampoo holder so he won't put his shampoo and soap in the window that he is allowing to rot. The whole wall is probably lost. We halved a Reese's cup. It was nasty with gooey chocolate on the bottom. Nasty, I say! Chef BoyArdee pizza sauce caught my eye, so got some for Tommy. At home, he said that the Prego was okay, and I should not have bought the pizza sauce...sigh. He will eat it and love it. We bought little.

We had left at six and left to come home about 7:30. It was almost dark and drizzling, so double whammy on Tommy not being able to drive. We made it with no trouble. I must say that the lines are faded on the roads. 

So, nothing much happened, but it was all good, not overshadowed by feeling so awful. Writing this has made me hungry for dinner tomorrow night! 

Do you store and eat brown rice? I like it better than white rice. 

Are you having cooler days and nights now? 

Whole Grain Brown Rice for Longterm Storage: Healthier Alternative

two-pound bag of parboiled, whole grain, brown rice

one-pound box, parboiled, whole grain, brown rice

 

Both these packages of rice are whole grain parboiled brown rice. Both will store as long as white rice and have 80% of the food value of brown rice that is not parboiled and much more than white rice. Neither  poses a health risk like white rice by causing you to develop diabetes or by hastening the onset of diabetes or raising the blood sugar to dangerous levels.    

 

Once, I accidentally had acquired 24 pounds of brown rice in boxes and 36 pounds of brown rice in bags. I could not find the packages in the pictures above and ordered some.  Twice. After two or three years of rice sitting in their original packages in my sewing room, a room not heated in winter or cooled in the summer except sporadically, I decided to put them in the freezer. It took me five or six years to eat all that rice! It never spoiled.

 

People who store food for long- or short-term could be choosing a better, healthier rice to store than white rice. All preppers I read recommend storing white rice because the brown rice spoils in six months. Not so. At least, not this rice.

 

I will wait right here while you read from All About Rice , at a food service site:

 

"Milled rice (white, parboiled or pre-cooked) will keep almost indefinitely on the pantry shelf. Once opened, rice should be stored in a tightly-closed container that keeps out dust, moisture and other contaminants."

 

And, again at the All About Rice site above, scroll down to the Par Excellence , the last rice on the page to see information about storage. This site sells rice in 25-, 50-, and 100-pound bags.

 

Parboiled brown rice is more expensive, but so is diabetes and beriberi.  You now the ravages of diabetes: heart disease, blindness, amputation, dementia. Read this Wikipedia article  on beriberi. It is interesting that beriberi was common in Asia.

 

For the thousands of preppers storing white rice instead of brown parboiled rice, this important information could mean the difference in illness and health. A vitamin a day will not be as good as obtaining nutrients eating as real food. But, if a vitamin a day gives a person all the nutrition missing in white rice, there is still the issue of rising blood sugar after eating white rice.

 

Both the pictured packages of rice are brown rice. But, the ingredient list is: parboiled brown rice. If you shop by pictures, make sure it says "whole grain brown rice" on the front and "whole grain parboiled brown rice" in the ingredient list. That should be the only ingredient! Yes, some days, I shop by the picture. We all do. But, if this is your first time looking for parboiled brown rice, read the ingredient list, too.

 

Does anyone already eat parboiled rice? I have the two-pound bag in a quart jar and a pint jar in the freezer where both will reside for 48 hours. Then, it will sit for 24. After that, I open the jars, put them in the oven and turn the oven on 350 degrees. In order not to overheat the oven and the rice, I stand there for two minutes and then turn off the oven. After several hours, I will put the lids onto the jars.  I don't want to overheat the rice, just make sure all moisture is driven off after its rest in the freezer. Since I have canning/freezing lids tightened on each jar, I doubt any moisture is in the jar. The slightly warm oven is just a precaution. After that, I will store it in the cabinet and use from the jars. Am I being overly-cautious?

 

If you have other food storage methods you prefer, use those methods to store your rice. I don't have five-gallon buckets or oxygen absorbers. I do have several sizes of Ball canning jars, so this method works for me for right now. I don't have mylar bags, gamma seals, five-gallon buckets, or oxygen absorbers.

 

Right now, there is a $1 off coupon on the two-gallon bag, so it cost me $2.72, $1.36/pound. Brown rice "sticks with you" longer. Plus, there is no high blood-sugar spike caused by white rice.  If you can afford to get whole grain, parboiled, brown rice in bulk, GREAT! Today, I am going back to purchase while the coupons are present!

 

Check this site for information on the benefits of parboiled brown rice over white rice. The article is written by someone not fluent in English, so if the syntax sounds off, it is. But, I believe the information is correct.

Choose your favorite site from this web search to find the same information. Skip the ad section at the top and go to web results

 

How I Use Parboiled Brown Rice

 

*throw 1/4 cup uncooked rice in a pot of soup when there is only 30 minutes left to cook

*make enough to store in portions in the freezer

*add sugar, vanilla, and butter to hot rice for a little dessert or treat.

*rice pudding

*cook rice and beans

 

Isn't that about the same way you use white rice? The recipe below is a very loose recipe. You can adapt it to your tastes.

 

Recipe

I make 12 servings according to the recipe (+ 1/2 cup water) on the bag, using the microwave. You can use any heat source you want.

 

Add 1/2 cup more of water than called for in the directions on the package.

 

About ten minutes before it is due to be done, cook a diced onion in an iron skillet in a little oil until the onion goes from clear to wanting to turn darker.

Add tbsp butter when the onion is clear, starting to darken. Pull the skillet from the heat but make sure it is piping hot when you add rice..

 

Make sure this is all piping hot but not burned when the rice is done.

Pour the cooked rice with  extra water into the skillet.

Stir in order to infuse the rice with the onion flavor and allow extra water to evaporate.. Extra water helps the process of infusing the flavor into the rice. This will take about three minutes after dumping the rice into the hot skillet of onions and butter.

 

Add a few sprinkles of chicken bouillon according to your taste. (Or, cook rice in broth.)

 

Add all or any of these: red, green, yellow peppers or bottoms of green onions.

 

Stir continually until the extra water is gone and any onions or flavor on the bottom of the pan is now in the rice. Remove from the heat and leave the lid on.

Add chopped green onion tops at this time, if you have them. This way, they stay green instead of turning black.

 

Most important element--extra water in the rice in the skillet to cook/infuse the flavor into the rice. If your rice cooked perfectly with no extra water, throw in 1/4 cup of water after the rice is added to cooked onions.

 

While I had the abundance of rice, I was going to school without an abundance of money. I took this rice dish to potluck dinners for about three years. The Corning Ware dish was always empty. Everyone ate it, and complimented the flavor, even when they did not know I made it...in other words, no sympathy compliments for the woman who could only afford rice. Vegans and vegetarians ate it in spite of the chicken bouillon.

 

Make this recipe your own by changing it to suit your taste. It is a great side dish. If you are using dehydrated vegetables, put those in the rice while it cooks. If I don't have anything for color, I just make this with onions! Usually, I put only a quarter cup of chopped bell peppers because I don't have lots.  You can throw more vegetables or meat in this rice dish. Do it your way.

 

This post is featured  on the Prepper Website on September 11, 2012.

 

Your turn

Are you a fan of parboiled brown rice like I am? Are you storing white rice in long-term storage or even short term storage because of advice that brown rice spoils too quickly?