Cheesy French Onion Bacon Rice

This is a remake of one of my favorite dishes that my mom makes.  She always makes it with white rice, which I no longer eat since having my gastric bypass.  So since I was making some of this for the family using my mom's recipe I decided I should come up with a way to make it WLS friendly.  I've substituted the white rice in my mom's recipe with instant brown rice plus I added a little extra protein by topping the whole thing with some gooey swiss cheese.

 

 Ingredients

 

1 cup Instant Brown Rice

1 can Campbell's French Onion Soup + 1/4 cup Water

8 slices Reduced Fat Center Cut Bacon (cut in 1" pieces)

1/4 cup Chopped Onion

2 slices Swiss Cheese

Pepper to taste

Heat a small saucepan.  Add bacon pieces and cook until nice and crisp.  Move bacon to a plate lined with paper towel to remove excess fat.  Drain bacon fat from pan reserving 1 tbsp.  Add onions to the pan and saute for 3 to 4 minutes on medium high heat.  Add soup and water to the pan and bring to a boil.  Once boiling add the rice, bacon and pepper to taste.  Stir, cover and reduce heat to a simmer.  Cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed.  Remove from heat and let it sit covered for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile preheat your broiler or toaster oven.  Now divide the rice between two 4 oz. ramekins.

Top each ramekin with a slice of swiss cheese.

Place them under the broiler for 5 minutes or until the cheese is browned and bubbly.

Serves 2

Brown Sushi Rice

Since I love me some sushi I have decided to start making it myself at home.  This way I can control the quality and freshness.

Here's my method for making sushi rice.  I'm not too good at making rice on the stove top so my method requires a rice cooker.  I got this great little rice cooker the other day that makes the perfect amount of rice for post-ops without drying out.  My measurements will of course be using the measuring cup that comes with the rice cooker, which is generally different from regular measuring cups.

Ingredients


1 cup Short Grain Brown Rice
2 cups Water

Sushi rice vinegar

2 tbsp. Rice Vinegar
1/2 tsp. Splenda
1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt


Wash rice until water runs clear and drain well.  Add rice and water to rice cooker pot.  In about 30 to 40 minutes you'll have perfect rice.
Prepare your sushi rice vinegar by combining all the ingredients and heating in the microwave 10 to 15 seconds to dissolve Splenda and salt.
Dump the rice into your hangiri and drizzle the sushi rice vinegar.  Cut into the rice with your wooden paddle, while fanning with your uchiwa (a japanese fan for cooling sushi rice).  Avoid breaking the grains and do NOT stir the rice, simply fold the vinegar into the rice to cover each grain.  Individual rice kernels should still be somewhat separate.  Once rice is shiny and cooled it is ready to be used.  Keep covered with a damp cloth to avoid your rice from drying out.