Hayley: Ode to the Rice Cooker

This holiday season, ask a loved one to buy you a rice cooker. I love my rice cooker and I want everyone else in the world to be able to share my joy for this kitchen tool of dreams. Maybe you already do share my joy. If so, buy someone else a rice cooker!

It knows just how long to stay on until the rice is cooked, then it clicks off and goes from “cook” mode to “warm” mode. Whether I’m making rice, quinoa, millet, or oats (all of which it can in fact cook- told you it was awesome) I always use a 3:1 ratio of water to grain.

Tonight, I poured in a cup of dry brown rice and 3 cups water to make 4 servings that I can put in the fridge and eat all week long.

Thanks to that grey basket on top of the rice cooker, it’s possible to steam vegetables while the rice cooks. If I’m making rice, I always put something up top because since the rice cooker is already fired up for rice, I might as well. It’s always nice to have things ready to go when hunger or laziness hit.

Tonight, potatoes, sliced so they would cook faster, went in first.

Then, I took this squash that I really wanted to just eat like an apple (but didn’t, because that would be disgusting),

Sliced it open,

Took out the seeds and stringy pieces,

and sliced it along with some beets

to form steamer basket #2. After about 20 minutes (the rice takes about 40 to cook), I switched out the potatoes.

Now,  after all of the rice cooker’s hard work, I have rice, potatoes, squash, and beets– the makings of a few different meals– after just one foray into the kitchen. Let’s all take a moment and say thanks to the rice cooker.

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