I prefer to use brown rice in the following sweet potato rice pudding recipe because that's all that I ever cook. However, if I found myself with some white rice leftover for one reason or another I would not hesitate to use it as a substitute even though it's less healthy than brown.
The same goes for using pumpkin rather than sweet potato puree. I'm a big fan of pumpkin bread, but sweet potato puree works better with this recipe PLUS I seem to always have enough homemade sweet potato puree in the refrigerator especially around the holidays. This is one of my favorite healthy holiday dessert recipes because it not only tastes and looks amazing but the cinnamon in it makes the house smell like Christmas! Oh...and it's EASY TO MAKE!
SWEET POTATO RICE PUDDING RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
2 Cups cooked brown rice (warm is better so nuke your leftovers a second or two)
3 Cups 2% or less evaporated milk (plain 2% milks works but it's not as creamy)
1 Cup of Pumpkin or Sweet Potato Puree
3/4 Cup Honey
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Combine all dry ingredients including salt if nobody at your house is on a low-sodium diet. Stir milk, honey and dry ingredients into the sweet potato or pumpkin puree brown rice mixing well. Bake in an oven set at 375 degrees for approximately 45 minutes or until bubbly. Remove from the oven, stir well and then refrigerate for at least 8 hours before serving. Stay tuned for more healthy holiday recipes including some traditional favorites with a fresh, new spin!
Showing posts with label holiday menu ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday menu ideas. Show all posts
Thanksgiving Time Savers
One of the best Thanksgiving time savers that I put to work yesterday (and the day before) would make my great-grandmother's head spin backwards. Yeah, I was raised to believe that it was a sin or at the very least something to be embarrassed about if the can opener came into play at any time during the preparation of the holiday feast.
The rest of the year, the dancing glove was the enemy but on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter canned goods were left in the cabinet or better yet, the grocery store. The exception was, of course, something that you had canned yourself in a Mason jar.
This year, with all of the stress and extra workload in keeping the house disinfected so that everybody won't get MRSA that doesn't already have it, I bit the bullet and took a few shortcuts. And I have to tell you that of all the heretofore forbidden Thanksgiving time savers, canned chicken broth was the absolute BEST!
Led to believe that the taste of canned broth was easily detected when compared to homemade, I had never experimented with it. Under the gun this year, I forgot to buy a hen and simmer it to have my broth ready to make the dressing and gravy. After a quick and surreptitious dash to the grocery before lunch, six cans of Sweet Sue saved the day. The empty cans were bagged, hidden and buried in the dumpster and NOBODY said a thing about any of the recipes having a slightly "off" flavor.
Not having to make room in the refrigerator to store the homemade broth alone probably saved me an hour! That may not sound like much but on a busy holiday, every hour counts.
I would be curious to know if you discovered any Thanksgiving time savers that you might want to share. As for me, you can bet that I've got six more cans of this stuff on my grocery list to have on hand for Christmas. Am I proud that I jumped in and did what I had to do to make Thanksgiving dinner a success? You bet I am! Am I going to tell my grandmother what I did? Well, no. In fact, the canned broth is written in code on my grocery list and I plan to hide the cans in the trunk of the car. Will I be found out? You will have to return to Family Recipes, Babies and Parenting Issues to see more Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday time savers and to see if anybody outs me.
The rest of the year, the dancing glove was the enemy but on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter canned goods were left in the cabinet or better yet, the grocery store. The exception was, of course, something that you had canned yourself in a Mason jar.
This year, with all of the stress and extra workload in keeping the house disinfected so that everybody won't get MRSA that doesn't already have it, I bit the bullet and took a few shortcuts. And I have to tell you that of all the heretofore forbidden Thanksgiving time savers, canned chicken broth was the absolute BEST!
Led to believe that the taste of canned broth was easily detected when compared to homemade, I had never experimented with it. Under the gun this year, I forgot to buy a hen and simmer it to have my broth ready to make the dressing and gravy. After a quick and surreptitious dash to the grocery before lunch, six cans of Sweet Sue saved the day. The empty cans were bagged, hidden and buried in the dumpster and NOBODY said a thing about any of the recipes having a slightly "off" flavor.
Not having to make room in the refrigerator to store the homemade broth alone probably saved me an hour! That may not sound like much but on a busy holiday, every hour counts.
I would be curious to know if you discovered any Thanksgiving time savers that you might want to share. As for me, you can bet that I've got six more cans of this stuff on my grocery list to have on hand for Christmas. Am I proud that I jumped in and did what I had to do to make Thanksgiving dinner a success? You bet I am! Am I going to tell my grandmother what I did? Well, no. In fact, the canned broth is written in code on my grocery list and I plan to hide the cans in the trunk of the car. Will I be found out? You will have to return to Family Recipes, Babies and Parenting Issues to see more Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday time savers and to see if anybody outs me.
RECIPE for BASTING a THANKSGIVING TURKEY with a BACKACHE
Several days of dreary rain, fog and chilly weather drained me of the energy to perform all the household duties, start shopping for Christmas and participate in Thanksgiving. Good news is that the turkey and dressing were both moist and delicious. It's never a good thing to turn out a feast that's dry and unappetizing because the lack of quality is remembered until the next time that you do turkey with all the fixings. I think I found the answer to a beautiful bird worthy of a Martha Stewart photo shoot: basting.
Yes, indeed there are multiple benefits to pulling that heavy roaster in and out of the hot oven for three hours every thirty minutes or so. Other than burning my knuckles on the rack during the process, I believe that to baste is indeed best. I had read that the food that is in magazine photographs is virtually inedible because it is not actually cooked to eat. The recipes are created to look sharp, not taste good. I should have invited the photographers to come and take pics of my turkey! It was baked at 325, basted as I mentioned above and the breast was a beautiful, crisp golden brown with just the right number of spicy flecks for good measure! And it tasted positively wonderful. Eat your heart out Martha! Kiss my hiney, Rachel Raye, it IS possible to have a pretty entree that you can eat!
Here's the recipe for basting a Thanksgiving turkey that everybody loves except one of my kids' but the majority of the votes are positive!
1 stick of salted butter
1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp. basil leaves
1 tsp. dried thyme leaves (I didn't have any leaves so I used ground..so shoot me)
1 tsp. black pepper
I melted the butter and stirred the spices in.
I LIGHTLY sprinkled salt all over the turkey inside and out. I put the bird in the oven with a tent of foil for about 30 mins. Then every half hour I slop some of the butter mixture inside and out of the bird, replace the foil tent and back in the oven she goes for another half hour. For the last half hour of baking, I baked without the foil tent, but with lots of basting mix on the skin.
There you go! Easy as pie so long as your back doesn't go out from bending over to baste like mine did! LOL Really, it did. My lower back went wonky on me that morning and it's just now getting to the point that I can stand up straight so the rest of my holiday recipes may have to wait until Christmas!
Yes, indeed there are multiple benefits to pulling that heavy roaster in and out of the hot oven for three hours every thirty minutes or so. Other than burning my knuckles on the rack during the process, I believe that to baste is indeed best. I had read that the food that is in magazine photographs is virtually inedible because it is not actually cooked to eat. The recipes are created to look sharp, not taste good. I should have invited the photographers to come and take pics of my turkey! It was baked at 325, basted as I mentioned above and the breast was a beautiful, crisp golden brown with just the right number of spicy flecks for good measure! And it tasted positively wonderful. Eat your heart out Martha! Kiss my hiney, Rachel Raye, it IS possible to have a pretty entree that you can eat!
Here's the recipe for basting a Thanksgiving turkey that everybody loves except one of my kids' but the majority of the votes are positive!
1 stick of salted butter
1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp. basil leaves
1 tsp. dried thyme leaves (I didn't have any leaves so I used ground..so shoot me)
1 tsp. black pepper
I melted the butter and stirred the spices in.
I LIGHTLY sprinkled salt all over the turkey inside and out. I put the bird in the oven with a tent of foil for about 30 mins. Then every half hour I slop some of the butter mixture inside and out of the bird, replace the foil tent and back in the oven she goes for another half hour. For the last half hour of baking, I baked without the foil tent, but with lots of basting mix on the skin.
There you go! Easy as pie so long as your back doesn't go out from bending over to baste like mine did! LOL Really, it did. My lower back went wonky on me that morning and it's just now getting to the point that I can stand up straight so the rest of my holiday recipes may have to wait until Christmas!
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