Instant Brown Rice Review

Saturday's this fall Shelf Reliance is announcing four new products.  Last Saturday the announced the first.  Instant Brown Rice.  This is a highly requested item.   

 Instant Brown Rice

Shelf Life:  7 Years

Q club price for #10 can:  $9.89

Ingredients:

Precooked parboiled long grain brown rice.

Preparation Instructions:
Add 1 cup rice to 1 cup water with ½ tsp. salt and simmer in a small covered saucepan for 8 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes, covered. Fluff with a fork and serve.

Before cooking

After Cooking

 Note:  I'm not really great at cooking rice, but when I made it I followed the directions exactly and my rice turned out perfect!  

Nutrition:   Note the serving sizes on the Shelf Reliance website are super weird.  So that we could compare them straight across I used 1 cup as the measurement. 

	White Rice	Instant White Rice	Brown Rice	Instant Brown Rice
Serving Size	1 cup	1 cup	1 cup	1 cup
Calories	205	193	216	360
Total Fat Grams	0	0	2	2
Sat Fat	0	0	0	0
Trans Fat	0	0	0	0
Cholesterol	0	0	0	0
Sodium	0	7	10	0
Carbohydrate grams	45	44	45	76g
Dietary Fiber grams	1	1	4	4 g
Sugar grams	0	0	1	0
Protein Grams	4	4	5	8

My experience:  

  

My family is always trying to eat healthier and one of the ways we are doing it by eating whole grains.   We have tried regular brown rice several times and have never loved it, mostly because it takes so darn long to cook.   In my busy life 45 minutes to cook rice is usually much too long.   From start to finish, instant brown rice takes 10 minutes to cook.  For my family that is perfect.  

The other problem I have had with brown rice is that it goes rancid.   I like to buy my staples in bulk, but when purchase a large bag of brown rice I find that it goes rancid before we eat all of it.  (Regular brown rice has a shelf life of 6 months).  I hate throwing away food so the 7 year shelf life on the new instant brown rice is perfect for my home store. 

The first time I cooked with instant brown rice I was pleasantly surprised.  It took about 10 minutes from start to finish and it cooked up light and fluffy.  It has the rich and nutty taste that I associate with brown rice, and my kids gobbled it up.  

Instant brown rice is definitely a product that will  become a staple in our home store. 

Recipe:  Chef Todd’s Creamy Chicken and Brown Rice

1         tbsp. garlic

2         tbsp. butter

11/2  c. THRIVE™ Mushroom Pieces (FD)

1/2    c. THRIVE™ Chopped Onions (FD)

2         c. THRIVE Instant Brown Rice

4         c. water

2         tbsp. THRIVE Chicken Bouillon

11/2  c. THRIVE™ Seasoned Chicken Slices (FD)

11/2  c. cream

1/2    c. THRIVE™ Celery (FD)

1         tsp. Italian seasoning

1         bay leaf

1         tsp.  season salt

1         tsp. lemon juice

1         c. THRIVE™ Shredded Monterey

Jack Cheese (FD), reconstituted

            In a medium saucepan, sweat garlic and butter together. Add mushrooms, onions, and rice and stir well. Add water, bouillon, and chicken. Add remaining ingredients except cheese and bring to a simmer for 20 minutes. Reduce liquid until thick and creamy. Fold in cheese and let rest for 5 minutes before serving. Makes 6 servings.