MMMmmmexican Rice

Josh and I took a snow day yesterday and went to Whitetail to hit the slopes. It was the first time snowboarding in about a year, so we were both happily sore, exhausted and starving by the time we made it home. I'd been formulating the perfect "no fuss" dinner on the ride home, and I had the perfect tool for the job: my new rice cooker.

I'd been thinking about buying one of these gadgets for a while, and when I spotted one on sale the other day I decided now's the time. They are quite simple to use but I still managed to mess it up the first time around (but that's a story for another day). This would be my second attempt and I was determined to make it a good one. The plan was to get home, throw a bunch of stuff in the cooker, hop in the shower, then come downstairs where dinner would be waiting. And it worked!

I love the rice cooker, it is like a crockpot on steroids. I've never been patient enough to get a lot of use out of my crockpot; in theory it's great, but I'm not good enough at predicting what I will want to eat 8 hours in advance, or at having all my ingredients ready the day before in order to throw them all in the pot in the morning so they'll be ready when I get home from work. I'm more of an "in the moment" kind of cook. How Zen.

But the rice cooker - that only takes 30 minutes! Perfect for a last-minute "we're exhausted and starving" type of dinner. I'd already stocked up on rice earlier in the week, the better to make use of my new toy.

So with about 5 minutes of prep, and 30-ish minutes of cooking, we had a delicious, satisfying dinner at the end of a long, fun day!

Here's what I used:
1 carrot, sliced
4-5 sliced white mushrooms, broken into bits
1 small can corn (no salt)
1 small can black beans
2 c. brown rice
1 can Ro-Tel (diced tomatoes and chiles)
1 c. water
Some Butter (about 2 Tbsp? I'm not good with exact measurements ...)

Here's what I did: Threw it all in the rice cooker, stirred it up, turned it on and walked away!

Condiments:
Shredded cheddar cheese
Sour cream
Hot Mexican Chili Powder
Tomato basil wraps (we were out of normal flour tortillas - scandalous!)

It was a little bland right out of the pot, so if I made this again I would add the chili powder at the beginning ... but adding it at the end was just fine.

Ole!