Hot Rice Cereal with Nuts and Raisins

As I have previously posted the last couple of months I have been working on my breakfast routine. Before making these changes I was horrible about eating breakfast. I would grab for a cookie or leftover piece of cake and my cup of coffee and not eat anything healthy until well into the afternoon. I was feeling tired all the time and my stomach was always upset. So slowly in the last couple of months I have been making changes. I have always been great about cooking from scratch and eating healthy. However, I also love to bake and when I am stressed I tend to over bake. I have fought with low potassium and anemia since February and I knew that it was time to start making a serious effort to be as healthy as I can be. So I made a big decision a couple of weeks ago after talking to my doctor and have eliminated gluten from my diet and drastically reduced the amount of cane sugar that I consume. In addition I have started eating balanced breakfasts and lunches and increased my consumption of fruit and vegetables. The results have been pretty dramatic. My stomach cramps that I was getting almost daily are gone and the bloating that my belly seemed to always have is gone. I feel so much better and my kids have stopped endlessly snacking and are actually eating their meals The change in breakfast habits has taken a couple of months to become like second nature to me and it has involved trying a lot of new recipes until I found a few I really love. Last month I tried a new recipe from Everyday Food for Hot Rice Cereal with Nuts and Raisins, which uses brown rice and nuts and looked like a great way to add protein to my morning breakfast routine.

This recipe has 6 ingredients. It takes 3 minutes of total time (plus the time to cook the rice) and makes 4 servings. I did make a few changes. Instead of using the whole milk suggested by the recipe I used vanilla flavored almond milk. I rarely if ever use whole milk. I find the fat and saturated fat too high for my breakfast routine. Flavored almond milk still has the sweetness, but has far less fat than the cow's milk alternative. I also found for the cereal to thicken it took closer to 5-8 minutes, instead of the 3 suggested by the recipe. Finally I used cinnamon to top the cereal, I am not a huge fan of nutmeg outside of baked goods so I chose to leave it out. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I love how this recipe is gluten free and has a lot of flavor. I had never thought about making a hot cereal with brown rice and I was very surprised how easy and delicious this recipe was. My two boys were skeptical of this dish at first, but enjoyed it once they ate a few bites. With 9 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber it is a great whole grain option for breakfast and if you prep the brown rice the night before it only takes minutes to prepare in the morning.

For the recipe go to Hot Rice Cereal with Nuts and Raisins.