Dinner - Tuna Noodle Ricecookered

The Meal

Experimentation night! I have 6 packets of velveta cheese that are 3 months passed their best buy, which makes me sad. So Tonight I am attempting to find out if they are still good. Upon opening one, smelling and tasting it, I determined it was safe to consume, if nothing else. My recipe is one I have used in the past

This meal was prepared in several parts:

• 1 tablespoon Chopped Onions (dried)
  [5 calories]
• 1 Tbsp veggie oil
  [120 calories]

Fried those little onions up real quick, had the button held down by a file.
Then I put the pasta in, 1:1 ratio with water. Tonight I was using small shell pasta, cook time estimated at 6-8 minutes.

• 1 cup shell pasta
  [266 calories]
  

After 8 minutes of cooking, I added in 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup velveta cheese sauce, 2/3 cups peas, 1/4 cup breadcrumbs, and 1 5 oz can of chicken of the sea white albacore tuna. One note, if your rice cooker has a tendency to burn stuff on the bottom like mine, stir it every 3 minutes, you'll get nice and crunchy parts from the burning breadcrumbs :)

• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
  [120 calories]
• 5 oz tuna
  [150 calories]
• 2/3 cups peas
  [80 calories]
• 1/2 cup milk
  [45 calories]
• 1/2 cup velveeta cheese
  [160 calories]
  

Taste

Review: Well then, that was mighty tastey. Sure, I added a little bit of salt and lots of garlic pepper, but I always use garlic pepper on my tuna cassarole. The cheese was good, the meal went great with a blue moon honey ale, which was nice. Each time I took a serving (3 times) I let the bottom burn considerably, then scooped it up, making it perfect.

Side note: Goes great with Honey Moon Summer Ale

Portion Size: 3 medium portions

Calories: 986

Score: 7/10

Dinner - Chunky FULLY LOADED Beef Stew w/ rice

The Meal

Tonight is a lazy night. Nothing special, just soaked a half cup of jasmine rice in a can of beef stew for 20 minutes, then added 555ml of water, filling my rice cooker to 6oz. I did not preseason it as I do no really know what to expect, other than beef stew that is full of rice.

This meal was prepared in several parts:

• 1 - 18.8 oz Campbell's Chunky FULLY LOADED Beef Stew [sic]
  [370 calories]
• 1/2 cup Jasmine rice
  [320 calories]
  

Taste

Review: Wow, I was not expecting having to add salt, I did not realize that this soup was low sodium. Anyway, after adding my typically salt, chili powder, and salt, this was amazing. The rice is great, covered with gravy, waiting for this to cool was the hardest part! The overall outcome was very large, for my rice cooker anyway, only lost .5 oz's of water cooking, the rest was either absorbed or still in there (it has to be- mass balancewise). Never had this soup by itself, but it's pretty good, though I did add a lot of onion, which I can taste, and that makes me happy.

Side note: Goes great with Honey Moon Summer Ale

Portion Size: 3-4 medium portions, 5-6 small portions (made so much I will not be finishing this tonight)

Calories: 690

Score: 8/10

Ideas for next time: Add bacon.

Dinner - Chicken Soup w/ Jasmine Rice, Peas, and more Chicken

The Meal

Today I am making what may well be a classic here, chicken soup with rice and veggies.
This meal consists of:

• 1 18.6 OZ. can of Campbell's Select Harvest - Chicken with Vegetables
  [550 mL of soup @ 80 calories per 240mL = 183 calories]
• 1/2 cup Jasmine Rice
  [320 calories]
  
• 1 Cup water
  
• 1 Tablespoon Chopped Onions
  [10 calories]
• Fresh ground black pepper
• 50g of sweat peas
  [39 calories]
• 100g baked chicken
  [138 calories]
  

The meal cooked in the rice cooker for about (started at 6:48) on cook, then I let it set for 10 minutes (it was still boiling) on keep warm. I had to manually change it from cook to warm to make sure there would still be water left.

Taste

Review: Very large output, wasn't expecting so much food. Lots of good veggies flavors however.

Portion Size: 5 medium portions, 3 large portions

Calories: ~690

Score: 5/10 (bland, needs more flavor)

Ideas for next time: Add more spices up front, 80 calorie soup has no flavor.

Dinner - Easter Leftovers (Teryaki rice & pig)

The Meal

Ah Easter, a great holiday where my mother cooks for 12 hours. Today I will be using the first of the remnants, crumpled boiled ham and jasmin rice (rice was uncooked). I also have kidney beans that were soaked overnight, rinsed and drained. The beans are where the teryaki sauce was added, 1 tablespoon, was all, but I also added chili powder to add some kick.

This meal was prepared in several parts:

• 1/4 cup of jasmine rice
  [160 calories]

Picture:


I found this bag of opened rice in my parents basement, completely full, but a year past expiration. I decided to try to cook up a 1/4 cup and see how it came out. I didn't wash the rice, but boiled it with 1/2 cup water. I let it soak for 20 minutes prior to cooking. After determining the rice was okay, I started working on the kidney beans.

Last night I figured I'd start using whats left of my kidney beans. I soaked 2 tablespoons in a container with water overnight, or for about 10 hours. The beans absorbed all of the water. An hour before using the beans, I drained off the water, and added the Teriyaki sauce and chilli powder.

• 2 tablespoons red kidney beans
  [~60 calories]
• 1 tablespoon Teriyaki sauce
  [30 calories]
• 1/4 teaspoon chilli powder

To the meat. As I said earlier, I crumpled up some ham left overs, and I have bacon I needed to cook, so I did what any logical person would do! I chopped up the uncooked bacon, put it in the rice cooker, added the crumpled ham, and let the mixture simmer and pop for 20 minutes.

• 120 grams of boiled ham
  [~70 calories]
• 2 slices 365 smoke house bacon
  [70 calories]

Picture:


After those two items were nicely cooked, I threw the kidney beans (with water and spices still in container) into the mixture, let it simmer for 10 minutes, then added in my rice.

Taste

Review: Surprisingly the beans were still very firm, though did retain most of the original flavor and spice. The main flavor of this dish was the ham and bacon, which was a great flavor. The rice acted as a nice filler so that the dish isn't too fatty (no fat was drained in the cooking of the meal). Overall, this was a tastey as hell meal, nice flavors all around, different depending on what was eaten first. Cooking the ham in bacon fat was a great idea, as it crisped the ham. Definitely would use this recipe again, increasing the amount of rice to 1/3 cup.

Pictures:


Portion Size: 1 medium portion, 1-2 small portions

Calories: 390

Score: 8/10

Ideas for next time: Chop bacon before cooking, add more rice.