Welcome to the New Year. Another new beginning! Sure to be the start of something wonderful.
Did the sunrise look different this morning? Was your day a little brighter? I bet you looked good.
I woke up, threw my sunglasses on, and put my hair in a messy ponytail. I worked out and it felt phenomenal. I chowed down on veggie stir fry for lunch then came home and made a pineapple upside down gingerbread pumpkin cake. I listened to Florence and the Machine and danced like a mad woman while mixing it all together. Seriously caramelized pineapple, pumpkin, and gingerbread. Let’s be real… that cake could make anyone fall in love.
I served it warm, topped it with real whip cream and gave it to someone special. At least I hope they felt special because damn that cake was incredible.
Simply put, I’m smiling as I’ve never smiled before. I’m quite ready for an extraordinary 2012, how about you?
Serious though. Can we say goodbye to the things that don’t matter? Adios to the people who don’t treat us right and hello to a newfound appreciation for those who do?
2012 is all about new. Like pancakes for dinner and pizza for breakfast! Awesome right? I mean these years, months, weeks, and even days seem to go by too fast not to be doing things like that.
Find a way to make time unforgettable. Opportunities are always in the future waiting for the right moment. So let’s not make any promises or big resolutions with deadlines. Let’s just try to live a little bit better than the last year.
Let’s try to be patient. Good things come to those who wait.
Let’s try to take it day by day. Don’t get too busy to smile.
Let’s try to laugh more in 2012!
Let’s find our passion too! What makes your heart beat loud and clear?
And for heaven’s sake… Can try we eat a little better?
Anything is entirely possible. Especially when you have Coconut Brown Rice Pudding for breakfast.
It’s got those whole grains. I’m all over that! Walnuts, raisins, cinnamon, and a bit of brown sugar make it perfectly acceptable to enjoy rice for breakfast.
Plus, if you haven’t tried coconut milk yet, now is your chance. It’s just creamy goodness.
Coconut Brown Rice Pudding
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup short-grain brown rice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk, divided
- 1/2 cup raisins (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
- 1/4 cup toasted almonds
Instructions
- Place the water, salt, and cinnamon stick in a medium pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to low and add brown rice; cover and simmer about 30 minutes. Add 3/4 cup coconut milk, stir, and cover again for another 15-20 minutes or the liquid is almost all absorbed.
- Add vanilla, cinnamon and brown sugar. Fold the raisins into the into the rice, and add remaining 3/4 cup of coconut milk. Stir occasionally for about 10 more minutes or until raisins begin to plump. Serve warm immediately.
- Top each serving with about 2 teaspoons toasted almonds.
- Serves 4
Hi Monique, I would love to make this recipe but I’m just wondering what would I do differently so this could be successful made in my slow cooker. Thank you so much.
Hi! Great question – I haven’t made this one in MANY years and have yet to try it in the slow cooker. I *think* you should be able to combine all of the ingredients in your slow cooker (except the raisins and almonds) and cook on low for 2-3 hours. Stir in the raisins last and let them plump up. Let me know if you give it a try!
Hi Monique, I made it today for the first time in my Westinghouse 3.5 L slow cooker. With just a couple of small variations, for example, I substituted with low-fat coconut milk, coconut sugar and increased the raisins to one cup. I kept the slow cooker on the low setting for the entire time as you suggested and it was ready six hours later. Every hour I kept on testing the brown rice grains to see if they were ready and finally six hours later, i had the most delicious bowl of rice pudding. 1 L of water was required with the extra cooking time and the brown rice that I had used. I’m assuming it was medium grain, brown rice and that’s why it took much longer, and required more liquid ,it did not stipulate if it was short grain. But I could tell by comparing it to the other brown rice on the shelf at the local supermarket. It definitely was not long grain. After having done some research on the Internet I noticed that other websites were estimating between five and seven hours on the low setting for this amount of rice. So at least I know in future to allow for six hours. Looking forward to making it again. Greetings from Sydney Australia😊
Thank you so much for the follow up! I was worried that too many hours on a low setting might cause the rice to stick, but very good to know that it requires that full 6 hours. Glad it turned out well!!
That’s some good looking comfort food! I have a sweet treat linky party going on at my blog till Monday night and I’d love it if you’d come by and link your rice pudding up. http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/2012/01/sweets-for-saturday-51.html