Brown rice

[dvandom]

One of my regular dinner entrees has been a bag of "boil in bag" rice (2 servings, to go by the box) with 34g of shredded sharp cheddar, 10-20g of diced or shredded pepperoni, a dash of shredded romano and some garlic salt, plus a long squirt of pizza sauce. Pizza rice, basically. Unfortunately, it amounts to about twice as much carbs as I really should be having for dinner, and since reducing my meds that has become a significant point, with my glucose numbers shooting into the 140-160 range at the "two hours after dinner" range whenever I have it. I tried cutting out milk entirely and just drinking water with it, but I'm starting to worry about drinking too little milk.

Thus, I was heartened to find that brown rice not only has more fiber than white, but it also has fewer carbs (by about 25%) and calories for the same mass of rice. And it comes in boil in bag variety (this is important, because I got tired of messing about with rice on the cooktop years ago, and I don't feel like dedicating any of my limited counter space to a rice cooker). So tonight I tried some.

Preliminary verdict...tentative yes. Obviously, given the stuff I add, the taste wasn't any different. The rice is really just a substrate, I don't much taste it one way or another. The texture was a bit off, but maybe I just need to reduce the cooking time a little. Now, to wait 2 hours and see if my glucose levels are more reasonable. Of course, it'll take a few more trials to be sure of both gustatory and diabetic elements, but at least I didn't have to force myself to finish the meal.

If this doesn't work out, though, my next option will be to reduce portion size by cutting open the bags and using a pasta strainer to drain the 3/4 of a bag's worth that I'll cook at a time. Maybe mixing white and brown in the process, who knows. I'm told that fresh brown rice tends to go rancid fairly quickly, but the boil in bag variety has a use-by-date of, um, two years from now. ;)

Update: 141 mg/dl. Better, but not great.

Comments

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

I'm using a store brand, which I think is Success Rice in a generic box, based on the style of bag. But it's been years since I did the whole "try all the brands" thing, so for all I know the bag style has been adopted by other brands.