Brown rice has become a staple in my healthy weight loss menu plans. It is versatile, taste delicious, and allows me to create fun and healthy recipes I know my kids will enjoy. In the past, I would cook rice the old fashion way on the stove. This method almost always left me with overcooked rice because I never had the time or patience to constantly watch over it. I also like to cook rice in bulk to freeze in batches for later meals. The stove top method just did not work for my needs as a busy working mom of two small children. For these reasons I decided to purchase a rice cooker.
A rice cooker is one of those small kitchen appliances that one never really thinks they need until they actually use one. I purchased the Aroma ARC-998 8-Cup Digital Rice Cooker & Food Steamer
5 reasons I love my rice cooker and why I think every busy mom should own one:
1. Easy to use. All you need to do, to make the perfect batch of rice is measure the appropriate amount of rice and water, place in rice cooker, and press start. Once it is done the rice cooker beeps and you will have perfectly cooked fluffy rice. And if you do not get to it right away not a problem because it automatically switches to warm mode. Lastly, it is super easy to clean. No sticky or burned rice on the bottom to scrape off.
2. Cook up large batches of rice with ease. My biggest strategy for weight loss is to have healthy meals and snacks prepared ahead of time. One way to do this is to cook up meals in bulk then store in smaller batches in the freezer or fridge. Having a rice cooker has made the taunting task of cooking rice easy so it fits seamlessly into my busy life.
3. Don’t have to tend to or stand over it. I can set it and forget it until it is ready. As a mom of two girls under 6 years old this is an important feature for me. I love the fact that I can have a huge batch of rice cooking and still play with my kids or focus on something else.
4. It does not heat up my entire kitchen. In the past, I would find myself straying away from cooking certain foods, rice being one of them, because I did not want to have the stove on for a long period of time. Now on hot summer days I can pleasantly make a batch of rice without sweating my family out of the kitchen.
5. 99% success rate of perfectly cooked rice. I have used my rice cooker almost every week since I have bought it and I have always got perfectly cooked rice. This was not the case when I would cook it on the stove. In fact if memory serves I think I had about a 5% percent success rate when I tried to cook the rice the old fashion way. Therefore, not only does having a rice cooker assist me in having healthy perfectly cooked rice it actually saves me money because I am not wasting huge batches of rice gone wrong.
In addition to cooking rice the manual has recipes for steaming vegetables and preparing all kinds of recipes using the rice cooker. I have not used my rice cooker for that yet but when I do I will provide an updated review.
My Aroma ARC-998 8-Cup Digital Rice Cooker & Food Steamer
If you have a rice cooker sitting in a box in your basement right now go get it and start using it. If not you can purchase the Aroma ARC-998 8-Cup Digital Rice Cooker & Food Steamer
I suggest getting the Aroma rice cooker that has a delay timer. I use that function almost every time I make rice. We come home from work and the rice is ready done!
Can you cook grains in the rice cooker? I’ve been trying to add more barley to our diet.