Recipes

I have a love hate relationship with pudding of almost any type.  I know.   It’s strange.  But for some reason pudding is either something I want to eat every night for dessert or something I can’t really believe anyone but infants eat at all. However, recently I have been coming back around to pudding and fondly remembered the arroz con leche, a Mexican rice pudding, that one of my student’s mothers used to make for all of our classroom celebrations. It was just comforting and yummy and has all the great qualities of a wonderful pudding and dessert.  It is also great warm or cold, and will keep for awhile which is great.  For this recipe, I started with a recipe from Ingrid Hoffman, and adapted the ingredients to make it healthier.  I added in orange zest and dried cranberries but you could use adjust these or leave them out entirely.

Weight Watchers Rice Pudding
Points: 5 weight watchers pointsplus
Servings: 10
Serving Size: about 3/4 cup
Nutritional Info: 197.3 calories, 2.7 g fat, 34 g carbohydrates, .5 g fiber, 9.6 g protein

Ingredients
1 cup long grain white rice
3 cups skim milk
4 cups of water
2 large pieces of orange zest
2 cinnamon sticks
1 can light sweetened condensed milk
1/4 tsp salt
3 whole cloves
1 egg

Instructions
1. Add the rice, water, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and orange peel to a large pan and let sit for at least one hour. This will help the rice to fluff up and absorb water.

2. After an hour, bring the rice to a boil. Then simmer for 10 minutes uncovered. In a separate bowl, beat the egg and then mix in the milk, condensed milk, salt, and cranberries .

3. Add the milk mixture to the rice and cook over medium-low heat covered for anywhere from 15-30 minutes depending on how hot your stove is.  You will want to check it and stir frequently so the bottom doesn’t burn.  Mine took about 20 minutes. You want to pull it from the stove when it gets close to your desired thickness. I like mine a little on the runny side but everyone has their own preference.

4. Remove the cinnamon sticks, orange peel, and cloves and let cool for at least 20 minutes. During this time the rice will continue to absorb the liquid and the pudding will thicken up. Serve either warm or cold.

Tip: This pudding keeps well in an airtight container in the fridge. If you like it warm, you may need to add a little more milk before warming up to get it to the right consistency.