Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Today I Made Rice Drink.

Rice drink is what I've weaned both girls onto.  And with both girls inhaling this stuff at a first rate pace, the wallet is getting scary-light.  Plus, I'm suspecting there is some sort of additive that my kids are sensitive too.  I'm thinking this because as soon as we switched from breast milk to rice drink the diaper issues began.  **sigh**  After over a year of dealing with this, I finally got brave and just tried making it myself.  Time consuming?  Yes.  Hard?  Nope!  I found a recipe online and since it has waaaaay bigger proportions than my little 3-cup rice cooker, I cut it down a lot.  Then I found out that it makes rice CREAM.  So, next time I added a lot more water.  The next batch after that I added some maple syrup because I was having a really hard time convincing the girls that it was good.  Ash especially couldn't switch gears and I was mixing half store bought and half homemade.  So I upped the amount of maple syrup by 1 more Tbs per 4 cups.  That seemed to make it more popular with both the girls, but randomly.  Then I added applesauce.  That was not very well received.  So I tried a pinch of cinnamon.  Eureka!  Ash and Britt drink it with gusto and no mixing with store bought drink necessary. 

We have to shake 'em up a bit before we pour.


Quick run through of the process.   The rice gets cooked.  I throw a fourth of the done rice in the vitamix with enough water to fill it (until it reaches the 8 cup line).  Then blend a LOT!   After that it has to be strained.  Lastly, in every 4 cups of rice drink I add 2 Tbs of maple syrup and a pinch of cinnamon.    That's it!

10 comments:

CK said...

OH my goodness, NO. WAY! I didn't know you could make rice milk????!?!?! Look at this. And the recipe doesn't even look that hard! I will have to try this!
And yes. You do look a lot like your babies!

-CK

Myrnie said...

Yum!! So amazing how much better and cheaper homemade is!!

Amy said...

So cool! My mom made cashew milk the other day. it was quite tasty. I'm so glad there are yummy options for whenever I decide to go dairy free. (unless someday I'm forced into it, which is ok too)

KBoo said...

Wait, how much cooked rice do you put in the mixer? And if it's cooked, why do you have to strain it? Could you drink it without straining? I ask, cause my two older ones drink from a cup.

What I Did Today said...

KBoo, my rice cooker only holds 3 cups, so I do that much. And I strain it because it's got floaters, though the longer its in the VitaMix the less it needs straining. But, if you're drinking it from a cup and don't mind grainy stuff then it probably doesn't matter.

Charlotte (Life's a Charm!) said...

Actually, my cousins in the Philippines grew up half on rice milk. Formula and milk are so expensive in the Philippines. So, their bottle are half rice milk, and half formula.

An Apel a Day said...

I'll have to try. Sadly we don't have a rice cooker. Well we do, but my husband uses it to melt wax for sculptures. LOL I wonder if you could add this stuff to it: http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/antioxidant_omega3_natural_greens.htm?

The company just shipped me off some to review and giveaway.

An Apel a Day said...

That stuff I mentioned is flavored, so it would have to replace any other flavors. I'm not sure.

LunaMoonbeam said...

Is it just me, or did you just reinvent horchata? Is there a big difference?

It sounds AMAZING. Yum!

Milk and Honey Mommy said...

Jamie,

I've been wanting to make the move from soy to rice and/or almond milk for my kids and this may be the motivator. I was actually going to buy it, but I'm a scratch girl and homemade works just fine for me. That was an intersting article attached to the recipe. I use to buy Imagine Organic vegetable broth and now I make my own.