Things I Eat: Re-Used Rice and Peppers

As you probably learned from my Healing and Recovering post, I am feeling really crappy and looking for delightful shortcuts that will restore my faith in the world.

I asked one of my friends who is a fantastic food-maker about the Gourmet Garden spice tubes and he said they were not a good thing to use at all.

They tasted horrible and he prefers his organic, home grown spices which live on an all vegan diet and listen only to Bach – and only organ music from 1714 and on due to the Italian influences. He told me about gently harvesting the plants in a way that respects Mother Nature’s gift and how only the sterile, hand-made German kitchen knives did justice to carefully cutting the spices in order to free the internal oils for maximum flavor infusion.

But, then I was like, "I’m f'ing lazy." And I purchased garlic and ginger in a tube. Then I threw out the rotting ginger in my fridge which I never got a handle on using on the daily.

UPDATE: If you don't do dairy, don't eat the spice tubes (other than ginger) they DO contain milk. Don't be like me, read labels! You can't trust anyone!

As a note - I did not throw out the Jello I made the first week I moved into my apartment. It’s about 7 years old and I call the Jello Karl (From the Eddic poem, "Rígsþula" in which the Norse god, Rig, fathers all the classes of mankind and Karl represents the middle-class freeman who normally own land and are pretty prosperous. I was going through an optimistic time, if you were wondering).

I'm still trying to use up all of my white sticky rice I bought from Whole Foods in the bulk section. I have so much and learned a delicious lesson in mastering the. .mm. .thingsy that control the amount of food that comes out of the bulk food bins.

Does it even have a name?

Lesson: I have toooo much rice!

Anyhow, I made myself some plain sticky rice the night before and didn't eat it all so I figured I would saute it up for a rice re-boot.

To make sticky rice, if you need to know:

• 2 cups white rice (also called "sticky" or "glutinous" or "sushi" rice)
• 2.5 cups water

Rinse the rice until the water runs clear. Unless you forget, then you will have really sticky rice. Then boil the rice covered for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, peak and see how it is doing - if you need to add more water or cook a little longer, do so. If not, turn off the heat, fluff it then let it sit, covered, for 10 more minutes. Done!

Maybe you have some left over Chinese take out rice? That works to! A lot of this recipe depends on how much stuff you have. You might have to eyeball what you have and adjust the flavors as you go. I had a lot of rice left over - I think I made 2.5 cups the nice before which was about 4 cups when cooked. I don't know how much I really ate. I'm not good at these things.

What You Need

• Rice: Any rice, you can even use brown rice or whatever. It don't matter I just spent all the time telling you about sticky rice, does it?
• 1 red bell pepper: Dice it! Maybe you have other peppers? Stick with the sweet ones for this dish - don't do a green pepper.
• Onion: I had a HUGE onion and I used part of it. Again, will depend on how much rice you have and all that. 
• Garlic: I used my Gourmet Garden spice tube that real cooks hate.
• Ginger: I used my Gourmet Garden again!
• Braggs Liquid Aminos: A dream - vegan, soy free, yeast free. It's good stuff. Use it like soy sauce but understand it is more salty than normal soy sauce. Use a little and taste, then add a little more if you need.
• Coconut oil: My favorite fat - also gives a nice sweet flavor.
• Brown sugar: Optional, and it will depend on how much rice you have. Go with, "too taste." I wanted a little something sweet for my irritability.
• Scallions: Optional, I had some that I threw in.

What You Do
For starters, chop up the onion and red pepper - true story, mine had a baby twin on the inside that I ate! I promise I will get better at taking pictures.

You don't have to be super about cutting up things. Just dice them up into bite sized chunks. Then throw them into your pan that has a coating of coconut oil. It should smell REALLY good. Yum.

Saute it as much as you want. I waited until the onions were sort of brownish. Not burnt - just one step beyond transparent. I threw in my chopped scallion here - that would be optional. You could use it for garnish, too.

Then I lowered the heat and added a handful of brown sugar because I wanted a little more punch of sweet. Then I added in the rice and a healthy squirt of my Liquid Aminos! You really do want to turn down the heat because the rice just needs to get warm, it doesn't need to cook again. I also squirted in a few inches of garlic and ginger. Then let everything get warm and blended.

I put it all in a bowl for myself and tasted it - I did add a little more sea salt and ginger and mixed it up real good.

Delicious! I totally ate it all. Which is good, because, I been haven't been eating much this week! The spice tubes are a freaking hit in my book. I will be getting more. Sure, it is basically pureed spices but they are so ready to go and easy. I don't need to buy 23 cloves of garlic and try to make them into a smooth paste - I can just buy this stuff and use it.

I'm using it in smoothies, too, by the way. Oh yes I am! Ginger is fun in a tube and in my belly.

Be Thy Medicine
What did this little meal do for me as part of my "food be thy medicine". . mm. .thing? Let looks at the largest parts of this meal:

• White rice: A super carbohydrate to give energy to my tired system. It also contains selenium which helps the thyroid gland regulate hormones. Let's chat about manganese - how perfect it helps your body use carbs, it's like white rice is meant to be in your tummy.Oh and it might turn you poop black. Just saying.
• Ginger: It aids in digestion, calms nausea and also helps inspire hunger. It improves the absorption and assimilation of essential nutrients in the body. It also helps calm inflammation.
• Garlic: It strengthens the immune system, it cleans out bad cholesterol, it gives a great punch of B6 and regulates blood sugar.
• Red peppers: Packed with vitamin C, E and B6 for excellence and beta-carotene, which lavish you with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits.

It also helps if you eat it with someone who will sing to you. Like Josh Groban on PBS.

Cheers, my friends!