When I started eating according to the Paleo diet in July 2010, I did it rather low-carb overall, but I quickly found that low-carb does not work for me – although eating too many carbs makes me feel terrible, eating too few does the same. So, I have to find a good balance. While I am fine with sticking to protein, fat, and fiber in the first half of the day, in the late afternoon or, at the lastest, around dinner time, I get an appetite for carbs, and if I do not have any then, I will remain unsatisfied and get hungry again quickly. I have also found that my carb-sensitivity gets better in the evening, after a day of eating enough other nutrients, so this is the perfect time of the day for me to have carbohydrates.
After some trying around, I have found that doing a certain kind of food combining works well for me – not separating carbs and protein like in classical food combining, though, but carbs and fat. This is because carb-and-fat combinations are my trigger foods, so I feel better avoiding them. Also, I have noticed that I do not have much appetite for fat in the evening, so I usually stick to protein and fat in the first half the day, and protein and carbs in the second. (The protein is important for me to have with every meal because otherwise I will not feel satisfied.) A lot of veggies are a must because they deliver fiber and alkaline load, and the latter is especially important because I tend to have acid overload and then get a lot of inflammations in my joints, skin, and elsewhere in my body, so I aim for at least 60 to 70 % veggies and fruit in my diet (volume-wise).
You see, it is a way of constant improvement, but after such a long time, I am figuring it out! But what works for me does not necessarily work for you – so you have to figure it out yourself.
Anyways, after getting a macrobiotic nutrtition counseling a few months ago, I have started to reintroduce some (gluten-free) whole grains into my diet. Oats are something I find really nice every now then, while quinoa rather irritates me – the hairs are weird 
, it is so small, and I am not a fan of the flavor – but brown rice has really become one of my favorite foods. (Rice has always been my favorite grain, so I do not really wonder about this.)
At first, I started to make brown rice with my pressure cooker. After doing this for a couple of times, however, I regularly observed that the rice burned at the bottom of the pressure cooker. (This may have to do with the fact that my pressure cooker is a little older, my grandmom has given it to me.) So I bought a rice cooker a few weeks ago.
~ his name is Cuckoo (he already came with that name) ~
I had looked for a rice cooker for several weeks before, at all stores that sell kitchen appliances around here – without any success. Finally, I looked at my favorite Asia store (I should have thought of that before because a rice cooker is a standard resident in almost every kitchen in Asia), and there they were – even in different colors, so I could choose between pink, blue, purple, and orange. I took orange.
At first, I was a little skeptical. This lovely little thing only has a single button (on/off), so how would it be able to cook different kinds of rice – white or brown, long-grain or short-grain – that need different cooking times? (Side note: This is not necessarily the case. You can very well spend $300 and get a spaceship with different programs and a timer function, but I did not have $300 to spend.) However, apparently Cuckoo has something like a little sensor, and as long as you get the rice-to-water proportions right, it cooks the rice to perfection – not dry, not watery, just right. The only thing you have to do is fill in rice and water in the right amounts, close the lid, and push “cook” – then it starts cooking, and it will stop automatically when the rice is done, and keep it warm for 12 hours afterwards. No burning, no overboiling. Do I have to mention that I love my little Cuckoo?
~ this tastes so good! 
~
I also love the little cartoon drawings in the instruction manual (which was also in English and German, but with less cartoons).
Especially this one …
Usually, I am a rather simple eater, and I am very satisfied to have a small bowl of rice together with some veggies and chicken or fish for dinner. Sometimes, though, I long for something more fancy, and these are the days when I make things like sushi or these lovely rice balls which I stuffed with shiitake and wakame.
SESAME COATED RICE BALLS WITH SHIITAKE AND WAKAME FILLING
2-4 servings (4 rice balls)
Ingredients
- 100 g (3 1/2 oz) raw brown rice
- 1 splash of soy sauce
- 1 dried shiitake mushroom
- a few crumbs of dried wakame (seaweed)
- 1 tbsp sesame seed
Directions
Cook the rice until soft and let it cool. (I did not cook it with salt, but feel free to add a little salt if you wish.) Meanwhile, soak the wakame and shiitake mushroom in water until the mushroom is soft, then cut it into quarters. (The wakame unfolds very quickly, but dried mushrooms usually need to soak for about an hour.) Then take about 1/4 of the rice and form a little ball with your hands. Make a hole and stuff the ball with a quarter of shiitake mushroom and some of the wakame.
Then carefully close the hole so that the filling is covered with rice from all sides. Go on making another three rice balls like this. Finally, toss them in sesame seeds until they are completel coated and enjoy. The rice balls stay fresh in the fridge for a few days and make a nice snack or side dish.
With cuckoo, James, and Leopold, the little kitchen family is complete now.
Which kitchen appliances do you have at home? What do you think of rice cookers?
Filed under: Eating, Rice Dishes Tagged: Brown Rice, Sesame, Shiitake, Wakame
