The Shift to Brown Rice

Last Friday, which was a holiday (Chinese New Year), we unofficially shifted to brown or unpolished rice. All our meals last weekend, except for our Friday dinner where we had unlimited dimsum at Kung Fu Kitchen in The District Imus, included brown rice. It was a mutual decision for the hubby and me (though I’d admit I had bugged him about it until he realized I had a point) and so far, we’re enjoying it.

one of our meals with brown rice

In the three days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) we consumed brown rice, I noticed that it made me full longer. I also liked it’s texture. The cooked grains are firm but not too hard to chew. It’s like I’m eating fried rice (I love fried rice of all kinds!) except that it’s not oily at all. And another thing, brown rice is more “raised” or maalsa than your regular white rice. That’s economical because it means you get more cooked rice at a lesser amount of grains.

The preparation is different, too. For every cup of brown rice, you use two cups of water. I was also advised by the guy at the supermarket to soak the rice in water for at least 30 minutes first before putting the right amount of water and cooking it. I followed his advice and got very good results.

For now, we plan to do this brown rice thing during weekends only. Since we stay at our in-laws’ place in Manila during weekdays and we don’t have time to prepare our brown rice there due to our work schedule, we have decided to just eat the white rice or whatever food they serve to us. We eat there for free, anyway, and we are eternally grateful for their generosity.

But come to think of it, I could try to convince my parents-in-law to shift to brown rice, too! Brown rice is way healthier than white rice. It may be a bit more expensive, but it’s like investing on your health. Let me start on my “brown rice advocacy” with my PILs tonight. Haha. 🙂

P.S. I’d also like to try to cook red rice some other time. Just like brown rice, I heard it’s very healthy and nutritious, too.