Cooking with Rice

Updated on September 29, 2010
M.Y. asks from Pasadena, CA
14 answers

My son is almost 13 months and he loves pasta. I've been cooking him pasta with marinara sauce with veggies and meats mixed in it for over 3 weeks. Though it's nutritious and allows me to use milk to cook the sauce (he hates milk and cooking the sauce with milk is the only way to get some milk in him) I want to venture out and have him try rice. I just cooked some mushy rice (he only has two teeth so far) and don't know what to do with it.

I know white rice doesn't have alot of nutritional value but the one I am using is fortified so hope that is better than regular white rice. I am not sure if my son will like brown rice right now.

Any ladies out there who cook with rice and if you can share some ideas as to what you do with it would be great !

Thanks in advance !

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Featured Answers

J.L.

answers from Los Angeles on

Ok, this isn't the most nutrirtional, but to me its a treat we have when we have left over white rice. It's called morning rice, or poor oatmeal.
Take teh rice you cooked, mix in a little milk, cinnamon, sugar and whatever else you like. my mom always added butter to hers, but I didn't like the taste. I liked mine with raisins but thats a choking hazard for kids.
My baby loves white rice with chicken gravy and vegetables. She also likes rice with smooshed pineapples and teriyaki sauce.

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S.H.

answers from Detroit on

Uncle Ben's 90 second rice (in the microwave) is the best cooked rice I have ever had. I couldn't believe how good and easy it is and will never cook rice the other way again!! There are many choices... we are vegan/vegetarian family, so we stick with basamati, brown rice and veggie rice (little peas and carrots in it)... very delish.... but you might want to check out some of the other options... especially for an easy quick healthy meal in itself. My daughter and I have eaten the veggie one right out of the bag! We do a lot of stir fries to add to the more plain rice. It's probably more expensive (can get it for under $2 a bag)... but to me, worth ever penny!

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M.H.

answers from Las Vegas on

I just made this last night for my picky 13 month old and he LOVED it!

Rice Balls

1 cup of cooked rice ( I used brown rice, but use any)
1 cup of puree chicken breast cooked
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup sweet potato purée
1/4 cup cheddar cheese
1/4 cup of buttermilk or whipping cream
1 large egg
1/2 cup of spinach or broccoli or butternut squash purée ( I tried butternut squash)
1 1/2 cup of bread crumbs

For purée I steam the veggies and blend them up.

Into the food processor add sweet potato,cheese,salt,pepper and butter milk and blend until smooth. Put into bowl and stir in rice, then roll into 1 inch balls and place onto foil or waxed paper.

Set balls aside and in a bowl put egg and what ever vegetable that you choose, i.e. Butternut squash and mix. Put bread crumbs into another bowl and dip the balls into egg then bread crumbs.

Fry the balls with a little olive oil until brown.

They were great!

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S.B.

answers from Kansas City on

for a treat when I was a kid my dad used to give us white rice with milk, cinnamon and sugar. I'm not sure if that helps, but we loved it and only got it once in a while.

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K.P.

answers from New York on

My son will eat just about anything if I mix it with rice! The nice thing about rice is that it's small and tends to be mushy. The Lipton packets are really easy and you can make the whole thing and portion it out. They usually have veggies mixed in already.

I have also used the pasta sauce with rice and ground turkey to make a "stuffed pepper" w/out the pepper!

1 mom found this helpful

D.P.

answers from Detroit on

Uhm... I am asian so I am all about rice however if you are thinking white rice it has almost no nutritional value so why introduce that when pasta is more nutritious.

That said here is our favorite rice dish. It is actually soup that we pour over rice

Ingredients
cut up beef short ribs ( you may substitute leaner beef)
salt and pepper to taste
cut up celery cabbage (or chopped celery and cut up cabbage/bok choy/spinach)
1 ginger thumb peeled and pounded

boil beef in water for about 20 mins drain ( This cuts the oil some skip this step but I personally hate the too greasy soup.

add water and pounded ginger make sure the water covers the beef (cover)
bring to a boil.
salt and pepper to taste and bring down to medium heat
add the greens
cook until tender
**taste better if you add fish sauce about a tbsp. but the smell can be so offensive although you can't really smell it in the soup

serve over white rice or on it's own

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G.R.

answers from Dallas on

arroz con leche(rice with milk)

bring to boil milk add cinnamon sticks and rice let the rice cook with the milk add a little sugar and raisins and serve with cinnamon is yummy :)

rice and beans

cook some beans ,mashed the beans or just blend some beans in the blender and mixed with rice

he can have rice as side dich with almost everything

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J.G.

answers from San Antonio on

My son loves soup, so I often turn anything with rice that my hubby and I are eating into 'soup' by adding some broth.

So maybe you can make a creamy soup, add rice.??

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M.L.

answers from Houston on

You can add milk with a little bit of sugar, maybe some cinnamon with that mushy rice for a warm oatmeal substitute.

We love plain rice, I just add in a little bit of butter with salt and pepper and eat it with everything. It's also good plain with a little bit of shredded cheese on top.

You can top it with all kinds of sauces with chicken, or like the chipotle rice bowls with the chicken and pico de gallo, avocado, shredded lettuce, cheese and black beans... it's also good like the Hawaiian haystacks, again with the chicken, celery, chives, cheese, chow mein crunchy noodles, chopped pineapples and shredded coconut.

I especially love the Indian curry, so do our boys. You can always buy a jar of it, it's in the ethnic foods section in the grocery store and the most "Americanized' and mild version is Chicken Tikka Masala. It's a creamy orange in color. You can always add some milk to that too, as well as tomatoes, peas, chopped potatoes, cooked meat, or leave it just the sauce.

You can bake rice in casseroles too, an easy one would be with cheese and broccoli.

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S.R.

answers from Minneapolis on

It is common in India to give babies rice and yogurt. Just mix unflavoured yogurt with the mashed rice..it'll be a nice substitute to milk which your son doesnt like.
Adding some meat broth and making it a rice soup.
Add steam cooked carrots and green beans to the rice and serve with any kid of dipping to keep away the dryness.

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O.A.

answers from Nashville on

A nice rice recipe its called curry and spinach. Just boil plain ol white rice and add some salt and even canola oil if you like.

To make the curry:

Buy any coconut milk, a bag of frozen spinach and chicken breast and of course curry (madras is fine)

Cut an onion and fry in canola oil until it is brown.
Add a teaspoon of curry (this should make the onions totally yellow if not add a bit more0
Fry it for like 3 minutes
Add a can of coconut milk
Cut the chicken breast into square (manageable enough for your lil man)
Add the cut chicken breast into the coconut milk
Add some salt if you like or just add a bay leaf
Cook for at least 20 minutes (to ensure the chicken is done)
Then lastly add as much spinach as you want
It comes out really good and both of my kids love it.

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C.H.

answers from Chicago on

We have an Indian friend who cooks yogurt rice and my kids (who are the pickest eaters) love it. She basically cooks white rice and then adds plain yogurt to form a creamy dish.

Since then, I have run out of rice and used sour cream and my kids live that even more than the odd taste of plain rice. I've even incorporated some cream cheese.

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L.M.

answers from Dover on

My daughter loves rice (she is now 3.5 yr). Plain rice w/ butter, gravy, cheese, or broth, or flavored rice (Lipton packages). Cream chip beef or chiken ala king over rice or potatoes is a great option and also ones that will allow you to get milk in him.

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A.I.

answers from Tucson on

shred up some cooked chicken, mix it with the rice, put some cheese and a little milk in it ..you can grind up some broccoli too and then put it in a caserole dish and heat it up for a few just to melt the cheese.

1 mom found this helpful
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