You Can Lead a Girl to the Whole Foods Bulk Bin, but You Can't Make Her Cook All Those Bags of Grains She Bought . . .

As I've mentioned before, I'm a teacher in real life, and my mornings and evenings have no real "down time."  Here's an example of my weekday schedule:

 

Morning

 

5:00 am:  Wake up and get ready

5:30 am:  Wake the 3 kids, and get them washed up and wrangled into the car

5:45 am: Pile into the car with kids for the 40-minute commute to our respective schools

 

Evening

 

4:00 pm: Head home from school

4:40 pm: Homework time while I get dinner on the table

5:00 pm:  Dinner

5:30 to 6:30 pm: A random hour that gets wasted before I realize how late it got

6:30- 7:00 pm: Bath, book and bedtime for my littlest guy

7:00-8:00 pm:  Bath, books, bedtime for my big kids

8:05 pm: Passing-out-on-the-couch-time for me

 

 

So you can imagine how I love a snow day.  To me, a snow day is like a gift you open in your pajamas; I don't get dressed and I try to use the time to do the little projects I always put off.  

 

 

 

So when this month's "Snowpocalypse" hit, I pulled out all the bags of grains I bought months ago.   I collected them with the best of intentions but never used them because they take too long to cook in time for a weekday dinner.  A few days earlier I was disgusted with myself as I bought 6 packages of "Ready Rice" at $2.00 each, knowing damn well I had about 10 pounds of all manner of rice lurking in the deep dark recesses of my pantry.  So when I was blessed with a snowday this Friday, I planned a morning of making up packs of rice and other grains for the freezer.



 

(I also pre-cooked a lot of the dried beans I've been hoarding.  The process is the same:  soak overnight, cook until about 5-10 minutes shy of perfection, then freeze.  The only difference is that most people, myself included, add some of the cooking liquid to the freezer bag before sealing it up)

 

There is no real "recipe" to pre-cooking rice and grains and then freezing them, but I thought I'd post it just to show how a lazy morning spent in the kitchen can make it much easier for you to add healthy whole grains to your diet. It is also a fraction of the cost of packaged cooked rice at the store.

 

Step one: prepare your grains as you normally would, but "undercook" them by about 5 minutes.  For today's monster batch I made quinoa, barley, wheat berries, jasmine rice, Spanish rice, bulgar wheat, and a rice mix I threw together of wild rice, brown rice and forbidden rice.

 

 



 

 

 Step two: Spread cooked grains out in cookie sheets and/or baking dishes and cool until lukewarm.

 

 

Step three: portion out grains into freezer bags.  I did 1-cup portions.  I use a Foodsaver and the special bags for this.  Lots of people just use regular Zip-loc freezer bags.  Whatever you use, make sure you are getting all the air out, and flattening the contents as much as possible before freezing.

 

 

 

Step four: Freeze bags for up to 3 months.  When you're ready to use them, cut a small slit on both sides of the top on each bag and microwave for 90 seconds.  If your grains are a little "mushy" for your taste, try undercooking them a bit more next time before freezing them.