Rice Cooker Madness!

I can't get enough of my rice cooker. It's just brilliant. I'm no longer dependent on the kitchen - I can make perfectly good meals just using my microwave and my rice cooker. Woohoo!

I bought a whole bunch of these Indian sauces with vegetables from the middle eastern market. It sounds weird since it comes all liquid like out of a packet, but it's good stuff - just spices and yogurt and stuff, with either some chunks of cottage cheese or lentils or small vegetables or all of the above. First I just bought one to try: It was called Dal Fry, and it was a mix of yellow lentils with some spices. I added chickpeas to make a good meal, and because that weakened the flavor I added some salt, pepper, etc. I ate it with some tandoori naan, and it was pretty good.

The other day I went back to the middle eastern market and was surprised to see that they also had 'paneer makhani'! I LOVE Makhani! It's like a tomato butter thing. Paneer means cottage cheese, I think. So that's good, and I mixed it with some leftovers from the Indian restaurant and added a bit of cinnamon, and now it's fantastic! The packet is supposed to be a side dish for a family, but I poured it into tupperware and keep it in my fridge, and I expect it to feed me for a few days.

I also bought Mixed Vegetable Curry (could be yummy!) and Paneer Butter Masala. My plan is to go to the grocery store on thursday, and buy more rice and some chicken. I can cook a weeks worth of chicken at once and then cut it up and add it to these sauces. After I make rice and maybe get some Pita or Tandoori Bread, it's a fantastic meal I can make in my room! :D

I'm also experimenting with adding different things to rice. Like butter and salt, the traditional (I find it's kind of wasted if you're not eating the rice plain), olive oil, and, most recently, vanilla. It made the room smell really good and you couldn't taste it with the Indian sauce, but later I used up the last bit with some sugar and cinnamon and it was delicious. So we'll see! :D Yay, Rice Cooker!