Here's the basic recipe:healthy rice pudding
2 cups water
1 cup brown cooked rice
1/2 cup Splenda
1 tsp cinnamon
fruit - fresh or dried
1. boil the water.
2. lower heat and add rice (30-45 minutes stirring occasionally).
3. when water is mostly absorbed, add Splenda, cinnamon and fruit (cook another 10 minutes).
I like brown rice but you can also use white. If you don't have cooked rice, use uncooked and add a little more water.
That's it. For fruit I like cut up banana, pears or apples. For dried fruit everything works. Your typical raisins, cranberries, mixed diced fruit and apricots. And mixing them up is ok too, like bananas and cranberries. Note the longer you cook the dried fruit, the more the fruit expands back to its undried former state. This is ok, but if you're using cranberries this will eventually liquefy (like cranberry juice) and start to turn your rice pink. I know because this has happened.
To serve, I like to layer cool plain non-fat yogurt in between the warm rice pudding in a small glass goblet or wine glass. Then, I add a dollop of the yogurt and sprinkle a little granola, fruit or chocolate bits (I like white chocolate or yogurt) on top. And viola! A decadent masterpiece people will think you slaved over.
Ok, because people say I'm crazy (which they're right about), I also have a couple more variations I like that you may want to try.
roobius tea rice pudding
Add a few teabags to the water being boiled. When the water has been absorbed remove the teabags, before adding the fruit. This adds a hint of the tea to the rice pudding and gives it a nice rich color. I tried a vanilla roobius tea to give it an added hint of sweetness.
apple crumble rice pudding
Saute some apple slices with a bit of Splenda and cinnamon. Add the warm rice pudding on top (this is great when you have leftover rice pudding, just nuke it a few minutes first to warm it up). Then sprinkle on top granola.
carrot raisin rice pudding
Add shredded carrot while the rice cooked and golden raisins at the end. Add a little more water or milk at the end to make this creamier. Serve with vanilla yogurt. By the way, this is a great way to get your young'n to eat veggies.
peanut butter & jelly rice pudding
Add crushed peanuts to the end and layer the pudding in the glass with jam.
what's next?
seasonal variations - this spring/summer I'm planning to try strawberries, plums, pineapples and peaches. Hmmm, maybe strawberry/banana rice pudding.
espresso rice pudding - instead of tea substituting coffee. I think cinnamon and diced hazelnuts will play off the coffee flavor nicely.
banana nut rice pudding - adding chopped walnuts nuts to the bananas at the end.
zuccini nut rice pudding - adding shredded zuccini to chopped pecans at the end.
pumpkin spice rice pudding - with the cinnamon and raisins, add pumpkin spice. Top with vanilla yogurt.
pina colada rice pudding - mixed fruit like papaya, pineapple, raisins and cranberries and shredded cococut.
s'mores rice pudding - mix in some chocolate pieces so that the rice pudding gets good and chocolaty. I think dark chocolate might work the best. Mix in crumpled graham cracker pieces. Adding marshmallows may be even too wierd for me, so I'd probably try topping the pudding with a couple miniature ones first just to see.
