I wouldn't want to live without . . .

My rice cooker.

A couple weeks ago I dropped off a meal at a friend's house. It included rice cooked in our steamer. According to my friend, her children were absolutely raving about how good the rice was. I swear, if you don't have some sort of rice cooker, consider buying one. In fact, I actually bought a replica of the steamer we have at home for at the lake last spring. It is $35 at Walmart.

I had cooked my friend Jasmine rice (from Costco). I followed the directions that come with my machine and tossed in a tablespoon of butter because, clearly we love butter at my house.  I flipped the dial to 55 minutes and walked away. Now that I am back to work, I will actually start the steamer before I leave the house in the morning. When I get home I just turn the dial to add 15 minutes and it steams it warm.  We use our steamer to cook rice almost once a week. We all love it and I love the convenience.

Want more grain? I also find it super easy to include multigrain rice, wild rice and quinoa in the mix. I usually cut it 50/50 with Jasmine rice and use the exact same amount of time as my steamer requires for regular rice.

Want rice pilaf?  Add a tablespoon of finely chopped onion, a tablespoon of butter, and a heaping tablespoon of chicken bouillon. Voila!  Quick way to mix up the carbohydrate at supper time.

My brother, Luke, and his wife, Brittany have a rice cooker. The thing I like about theirs is it takes half the time. If I had known theirs was so fantastic this spring, I would have bought one like it for the lake instead of the steamer (I only use mine to cook rice!). Theirs also comes with a sweet price of $20 at Walmart.

Have a wonderful start to your week!