Gluten Free Rice and Oatmeal Cereal

When I was a freshman in college, living away from home for the first time, I had the hardest time feeding myself. One day I was complaining to my mom about it and especially how I always got hungry so fast after eating breakfast. I needed something that was quick, yummy, cost-efficient, and would fill me up for awhile. Cereal just wasn't cutting it.

My mom suggested I try "Wheat and Rice Cereal." (I know... this is a gluten free blog and the title of that recipe has "wheat" in it. Don't worry. I've altered the recipe, so we can eat it. I love it that much!) I remembered seeing my her make and eat that stuff before and in my mind it was one of those foods that only my mom's generation and older liked (like cream of wheat and black licorice), but I was desperate, so I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did. It was delicious and filling and simple! Everything I love!

Another reason I love this recipe is because I love oatmeal, but I hate the high price of gluten free oats. With this recipe I'm still getting to eat my oats, but I'm stretching them a lot further, so I'm saving money. In fact, I prefer this cereal to oatmeal even if money wasn't an issue.

Anyway, enough about that. Let's get to the recipe. It does take some forethought (you need to boil some water the night before), but it's simple.

Rice and Oatmeal Cereal

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup brown rice (in the original version it was whole wheat)
• 1/2 cup water
  
• 1/2 cup cooked white rice
• 1 cup GF raw oatmeal
• Raisins (as many as you want)
  
• Apple, diced (as many as you want)

For serving:

• Milk
• Brown sugar or honey

Directions:

1. *Bring water and brown rice to a boil, then cover, turn off stove, and let sit overnight (this gives it a different texture that is perfect for a cereal).
2. In the morning add: cooked white rice, oats, raisins, apples
3. Serve with milk and brown sugar or honey. Enjoy!

Store the leftovers in the fridge and you can have some each morning just like you would boxed cereal.

*If you don't have cooked white rice left over from some meal (I always seem to have some in the fridge) and you don't want to take extra time to cook it separate, you can add it in with the brown rice (it will just give it a little different texture, but will be fine0. Just make sure you double the water.

This cereal might seem weird to you at first, but give it a chance. I love it!