Creamy Non-Dairy Rice Pudding

I love rice pudding, tapioca pudding, chocolate pudding, pistachio pudding...well, just about any kind of pudding really. I love the texture in rice and tapioca puddings. The creaminess of the custard pudding combined with the soft rice. Yum.

My problem has always been the amount of time it takes to make. I also didn't want to have to use a half gallon of milk to make it. Once I get the craving for rice pudding I want it now, not in 2 hours. This recipe takes a total of 40 minutes, and that includes the time to cook the rice. I usually just use leftover rice so that cuts the time down to 20 minutes.

Typical rice pudding calls for regular white rice. I have used Basmati and Jasmine to make this recipe. I think using these fragrant rices really adds to the sweetness and flavor of the pudding. The medium and long grain rices will also give a creamier pudding because of the starch content. I've also seen recipes that use Spanish yellow rice along with Spanish seasonings to make Cuban Arroz con Leche. I plan to try it with brown rice as well but I think I'll need to make a few adjustments for sweetness and texture. I'll update if I ever get around to trying it out.

Creamy Non-Dairy Rice Pudding

Ingredients

3/4 Cups Uncooked Rice (or 1 1/2 Cups Cooked Rice)
1 1/2 Cups Water
2 Cups Unsweetened, Unflavored, Soy Milk (you could also use vanilla soy/almond milk for more flavor and sweetness)
2/3 Cups Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 Tablespoon Margarine
1 Tablespoon Vanilla
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1 Teaspoon Nutmeg
Optional: 2/3 Cup Raisins (some people like to soak the raisins in rum prior to adding)

Directions

If you are using leftover rice, skip steps 1 & 2.

1. Boil the water in a sauce pan.
2. Add the rice to the boiling water and cook for 20 minutes, until all the water is absorbed.
3. Add the sugar, salt, and 1 1/2 cups milk to the rice.
4. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, about 15 minutes.
5. In a small bowl, beat the egg with 1/2 cup milk.
6. Add the egg/milk to the rice pudding.
7. Add the raisins.
8. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
9. Remove from heat and add the margarine, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Serve the pudding warm. If you choose to serve the pudding cold, you will have to add about 1/2 cup more milk since the pudding thickens as it cools.

Yields: 6 servings

Quick, easy, and yummy. This recipe even won over Vince, who was convinced that rice pudding was a bland and flavorless glob.

Non-Dairy Coconut Ice Cream

I recently tried Soy Delicious Coconut Almond Bars. For those of you that are not aware, Soy Delicious makes vegan (aka dairy-free) ice cream products. The bars were awesome. They were a creamy coconut ice cream covered in chocolate and almonds. The good: They are delicious and only 170 calories. The bad: They cost almost $6 for a box of 4 bars. There's no way I could justify that, no matter how good they are.

So my quest for the perfect creamy dairy-free ice cream began. It took a few trys to get it right. Some were not very coconutty, others didn't freeze well, and others were more like iced milk than ice cream.

Then I stumbled on a recipe at Allrecipes. My search has ended. This ice cream turned out smooth, creamy, sweet, very coconutty, and completely vegan. What more could you ask for? Chocolate. You can never go wrong with chocolate. Just a little goes a long way. It's like a frozen Mounds bar.

Just try it. You'll love it. I promise. Just do it already!

Coconut Ice Cream

From Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

1 (15 oz) Can Cream of Coconut
1 Cup Unsweetened Unflavored Soy Milk
1 1/2 Cups Unflavored Soy Creamer
Optional: 1 Cup Shredded Coconut

Directions

1. In a bowl, mix all of the ingredients together thoroughly.
2. Make sure your ice cream maker is set up and ready to go.
3. Pour the liquid mixture into your ice cream maker.
4. Freeze according to the directions of your particular machine.

Note: Cream of Coconut is not the same as Coconut Milk or Coconut Cream. Cream of Coconut is thick and sweetened (look for sugar in the ingredients). It is typically found with drink mixes for Pina Coladas.

Yeilds approx. 2 quarts of ice cream.

You can use regular dairy products for this recipe as well. I'm sure it would turn out even creamier using real cream.

Almond Roca Protein Shake

I know it sounds weird but it really is good. This started when I found a recipe for an Almond Joy Shake. I didn't have all of the ingredients necessary for that one, although I do now and I'll be making it soon. I started substituting for the missing ingredients and this was the resulting recipe.

It is coconuty (is that a word?), slightly chocolatey, and oh so almondy. You can make it thick like I did and eat it with a spoon, or thin it out and drink it. Either way it makes a great after work-out shake or even a dessert!

Almond Roca Protein Shake

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Lite Coconut Milk
1/4 Cup Water
1 Scoop Vanilla Protein Powder
2 Tablespoons Coconut Flour
1 Tablespoon Almond Extract
1 Tablespoon Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (this is baking powder not hot chocolate mix)
4-5 Ice Cubes
Sweeten to taste (I used 4 packets of Splenda)

Directions

Put it all in the blender and let it go!
If you want a thinner shake, just add more water.

This may taste like dessert but it is actually pretty low calorie, really high in fiber due to the coconut flour, and high in protein.