Rice Recipes Rich In Nutritious Flavor

(NAPSI)-Preparing meals that are budget and family friendly, healthy, fast and delicious is much easier when you start with a nutritious ingredient, such as rice, that can be used in a variety of recipes.

Rice absorbs the flavor of other ingredients and certain types of rice are easy to make and cook quickly. To save time, rice can be prepared in advance and later used in quick recipes like the ones below.

Take Minute Rice, for example. Minute Brown Rice was recently named one of the best packaged foods by Women's Health magazine because it takes only 10 minutes to cook yet it has the same nutritional value as long-cooking brown rice.

Brown and white rice are both complex carbohydrates that are trans fat-free, sodium-free and gluten-free, which makes rice healthy for the whole family. Additionally, brown rice is a 100 percent whole grain product, and research has shown that a diet rich in whole grains reduces the risk of heart disease, certain cancers and type 2 diabetes. Here are a variety of quick, easy, healthy and delicious tips the whole family will love:

Breakfast Tips

• Sprinkle cinnamon and brown sugar over hot cooked rice. You can also add dried fruit, milk and nuts to make breakfast even better.

• Fold cooked white or brown rice into your favorite fruit yogurt. Add granola and fresh fruit. Top with honey.

• Enhance the nuttiness of brown rice by adding cashews, peanuts or sunflower seeds. Stir in dried cranberries, cherries or blueberries for a nutritious snack.

Quick Meals

• For a delicious farmer's scramble, add scrambled eggs, cooked sausage, cheese and green onions to hot cooked rice. Salsa makes a great topping.

• For an easy Waldorf salad, add chopped apples, celery, raisins, pecans and vanilla yogurt to cooked and cooled brown rice.

• For an easy pilaf, add sautéed onions, mushrooms and green peppers to rice cooked with chicken broth. Top with toasted pine nuts.

Sweet Treats

• Make a quick raspberry rice pudding by mixing cooled rice, fresh raspberries, honey and vanilla yogurt. Top with lemon zest.

• For an easy apple cobbler, add sliced apples, cinnamon, brown sugar, chopped nuts and vanilla yogurt to hot cooked white or brown rice.

To reheat leftover rice, add two tablespoons of water for each cup of cooked rice and microwave on HIGH about 1 minute per cup or cover and heat in a pan about 5 minutes. Leftover cooked Minute Rice may be stored in a covered container in the refrigerator up to three days.

For more information, including nutritional tips, recipes and recipe videos, visit www.MinuteRice.com.

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Cabbage Roll Up

My mouth was watering as I read the recipe for the Onion Pie. It would be delicious using our very own Vidalia onions! I'm most definitely going to try the Corn and Shrimp Soup, too. I have a recipe for Confetti Soup which has a lot of the same ingredients but no shrimp. I may have to toss some seafood into the Confetti Soup to see what that would taste like. I'll share that recipe later since we already have one corn soup in County Cuisine for now.

Here's another idea for a side item to go with the Onion Pie:

Cabbage Roll Ups

1/4 stick butter (or margarine)
1 cup cooked rice (brown rice works well as does regular white rice)
1 large head cabbage
1 1/2 lb. ground round steak
2 Tbsp. minced fresh onion (I usually increase the amount of onions)
1 can tomato sauce OR 1 can tomatoes
garlic salt to taste

Cut around the core of the cabbage and remove. Put head of cabbage into boiling water. As leaves soften, remove and drain. Add cooked rice to raw meat in separate bowl. Saute onions in the butter. Add onions to meat and rice mixture. Mix well by hand; if the mixture feels too dry, add a little bit of the canned tomatoes or sauce.

Holding a cabbage leaf in hand, put a scoop of the meat mixture into center and fold the leaf around it.

Layer in foil lined baking dish. Cover with any remaining cabbage leaves. Pour tomato sauce or tomatoes over the top. Cover tightly with foil and bake at 275 degrees for approximately 2 hours. You'll need to watch it closely as the cabbage will burn. I usually end up adding more tomato sauce.

As a variation you might want to try some of the excellent canned tomato mixes (Italian, Mexican and others).

Putting a little sausage in the mixture (best to cook it just a bit first, although not completely) adds a nice bite.

Happy New Year!
Claire