Risotto on a Budget

I went on a women's retreat with my church last weekend and it was amazing. I met some really neat ladies and loved hearing their stories and gleaning wisdom from them - such a blessing to get to know others. On this trip, I met Tricia and we got to talking about cooking (one of my favorite conversations) and I said that I loved making risotto because it's so cost efficient, easy, and delicious... thus this blog.

I'm so excited to share this recipe. I used a basic recipe from weight watchers, but I made it Megan-cheap. I also love this recipe because you can mix up the ingredients and have a different dish each time. Bonus!

So first you will need ingredients. I use just plain white rice, parm. cheese, peas, salt, pepper, chicken bouillon and this time, curry. I also almost always onions, but didn't go shopping this week yet and was out.

Okay, so first heat up a pan of water. The amount really doesn't matter because you can always add more... When the water gets hot, dissolve some bouillon in it. (By the way, sometimes I make my own stock and this is even better!)

In another pan, heat up oil. When it's hot, add onions and cook for a bit. Then add rice. I tend to make a lot of it at a time because I love it for leftovers, but you do what you want. Cook the oil and rice together for about 3-5 minutes. This process gets the glutton in the rice to start working so your dish gets creamy. So don't skip it even though it seems weird.

Add your hot broth. I have a shallow ladle, so I put 2 scoops in at a time, but if you have a big one, just 1 ladle full is fine. By the way, the hot broth will just lower your cooking time, it really isn't necessary, but I like to make this in about 20 minutes, so it works for me.

Okay - so you have your rice and 2 scoops of broth. I give it a good stir and then do other things. It doesn't have to be constantly watched.

It's time to add another scoop or two of broth when you pull your spoon through the rice and the liquid is adsorbed. Like below. At this point, you do the same process over and over again until your rice is cooked and creamy. The process of browning that rice and adding liquid gradually is what makes the risotto what it is...

For this recipe, I added about 1/2 a tsp of curry to my last batch of broth for just a little kick.

Then add your veggies. I like peas (because they're easy and you can add them frozen), but I've done sauteed zucchini, roasted butternut squash... you could do anything here.

Add your cheese. I used parm (again, out of the can... easy!) but have done gouda and bleu... basically, whatever you have and lots of it makes this dish.

Stir it up, season with salt and pepper, and it's done. LOVE it.

It's a New Year...

I read this amazing book this fall...

The author took a full year to explore things that make people happy and tried to incorporate attributes of happiness into her life. I love projects like this. She took one aspect of happiness (like love or friendship) and spent a month looking at how to use that virtue in a conscious way and see if in turn, that conscious act made her more happy. I liked the concept from the get go because I love focusing intently on something with the idea of bettering ones self. It is amazing what one can learn through an intense look at one's faults. This is why I love New Years; however, unlike New Years, where the drive behind resolutions starts to wane after a few weeks (days?), a new focus is created each month. This means she received a whole new list of resolutions in February (obviously carrying what she had learned in January over to the next month). LOVE! I decided back in September that I would be conducting my own happiness project as my New Year's resolution for 2011.

My January focus will be attitude (and by the way, I'm totally stealing Rubin's attributes for months - but Attitude was her November). I chose attitude for January because I think it'll set the right tone for the rest of the year. What I decided to concentrate my efforts on were the following things:

- Be less critical of others. It really is way more fun to be critical of people than just accept them as they are. Unfortunately, I find things that other people wear, say, do... hilarious, and find myself judging them... not cool. I've actually been very conscious of this bad habit the last year and feel like I'm getting much better and not jumping right into talking poorly about others. It's hard though - but another positive outcome of doing this is that I feel happier with myself. It feels temporarily really good to bring others down, but in the long run, I feel so guilty and mad at myself, which turns into negative self feelings. I've just made myself into a real lousy human being there - I wasn't constantly being critical of others, but just started noticing it as an area of weakness... better? :)

- Give more kind remarks. Stole this from Rubin again. This is another area that pops up every once and while for me, and I even hear myself doing it and think "MEGAN! STOOOOPPPP!" and sometimes I can't... but I need to start listening to that voice. It's the voice that handles the 'one upper' in me. The part of me that wants to prove that what someone has said is false (because I truly believe I'm right a lot of the time) or that I have a way better example to share. Why can't I just nod my head... even if the information is incorrect (and it really doesn't need to be corrected)? Why do I feel the compulsion to give unsolicited advice to others? I don't know. My goals here revolve around letting others have the stage for funny stories and comments, advice, and /gasp/ for being wrong and me letting it go.

- Laugh more often. I just need to. And laughing makes you happier.

- Have daily devotions. I'm currently reading through the Bible in a year... I'm actually getting close to finishing (in April), but tend to forget like 3 days in a row, and then spend the next 5 days reading 2 days worth at a time. I don't like doing this. I need a better routine and routines make me happier as does feeling in tune with the Lord.

- Memorize a verse a week. I've only identified this week's verse, and I love it. One of my good friends is currently going through a horrible time and I've been thinking a lot about her, so I think when I read this verse, I knew I had to memorize it. I find it so so comforting: "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17. Beautiful.

So that's January. I'll have to see how things go, but I find already that I am much more in tune with what I'm saying while I'm saying it, and I have repeated the Bible verse several times throughout the week. A good start.

Another good start was this awesome trip to Meijer - check out all my amazing finds and all for 37 dollars.

Yes, I laid everything out and took a picture of it. Be nice and don't judge me...