Fruity Rice Casserole
1 cup brown rice
1 can pineapple chunks in own juice
8 oz. tofu, large dice (optional)
1 large or 2 small yams, peeled and sliced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1/4 cup raisins (optional)
1 apple, diced
sprinkle on cinnamon, salt, pepper (pumpkin pie spice is good too)
2 cup water
Lightly oil a covered casserole (if you forget, you will hate this recipe). Put ingredients into dish in order listed. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours or longer.
There are a lot of options to this dish: It can easily be doubled. Add a diced onion after the pineapple and change the seasoning to curry and garam masala, for Indian flavor. If you don't have pineapple, fruit cocktail will do, as will peaches, or any other canned fruit. Yams can easily become winter squash. Prunes work well, as do dried apricots. Feel free to experiment. This recipe is a starting point for your imagination.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
Quite tasty. My store did not have yams, so I used frozen squash, which worked well :)
This is a nice recipe if you have a lot of time to let it cook. I found it took way longer than 1 1/2 hours. However, I did double the rice (and used sticky white rice). I've also made this without carrots, with extra pineapple, yams/butternut squash, with/without raisins, with/without onions...it's a nice one to experiment with.
Sometimes I will have the leftovers with a little soy sauce or teriyaki sauce for a change of pace. My meat eating mate likes this dish also.
Anyway, it always ends up pretty tasty. This is a new addition to my list of lazy and comforting recipes!