Coconut-Lemon Rice Pudding w/Vanilla + Smoked Salt

I’m sure that from the outside, life in our house looks like an all-out food-and-play fest. That when I’m not riding my bike, skiing, or going for a long run in the mountains I’m just home playing gleefully in the kitchen and making little videos of the foods I make. Social media is so wild, right?

In actuality, the days are much less whimsical than that. I’m finishing school (just 2.5 more months to go before I graduate from Ayurveda school!) balancing my business which includes creating and crafting content for my outdoor industry partners, working one-on-one with athlete clients, developing recipes for several commercial food companies, tackling some important cookbook updates (!!) and trying to live an active life in between.

Oh! AND – I’m making breakfast, lunch, and dinner (typically from scratch) each day. Big bowls of steaming porridge or homemade bread with toast and homemade jam for breakfast, steaming bowls of noodles with soft boiled eggs and braised greens for lunch with homemade cookies for dessert, and big pots of pasta, stews and spread with farm-fresh vegetables, slow-roasted proteins and hand-blended tea in the evening.

 

I am NOT blowing my horn here. I’m actually laughing at myself. Because it would be SO MUCH EASIER if I wasn’t dedicated to getting the grand majority of our food from local farms. If I was just willing to buy the broccoli grown in Mexico and the grapes from Peru, it would be really easy to just grab something to eat. But I’m not willing to do that. If I would just give in to convenience foods and packaged products, I could pull out a frozen pizza once in a while. And, if I was willing to food prep, I would have at least a few options on hand for when times get busy. But instead, I refuse all of these and insist upon taking the longer road, the one that means more time invested but also ensures the best results.

 

I want to eat well, I want to live abundantly, I want to maximize my time, and I want to optimize my schedule and my days.

Good. Fast. And cheap. Unfortunately, we can’t have all three at the same time.

 

Good is almost never cheap. Or fast.

Fast is usually cheap but rarely good.

And cheap is always fast, but never good.

I insist upon good. And since that is never cheap, the cost is my time.

But I’ve hacked a few ways for fast to be really really good.

This means that while I’m avoiding packaged, processed or pre-packaged foods, I’m never slaving over the stove (because, I WANT to be out on my bike, dreaming up new recipes to make + share with you!)

 

This creamy, smoky, just-sweet Coconut-Lemon Rice Pudding with Vanilla + Smoked Salt is a perfect example of the kind of “make-ahead” wonder I can get behind, made with easily available spring ingredients. It’s easy to digest, fortified with healthy fats and rebuilding carbohydrates, making it a delightful breakfast for a chilly spring morning.

Good + fast (and cheaper)

Now I know – I get it – when you have goals, a to-do list, and specifically when you’re really striving to live/play/be your best it feels like there isn’t TIME to cook. (Believe me, I know!) But what if I told you that by finding small, fast, good hacks of your own to make meals from real food ingredients you were prioritizing your optimization goals more than any convenience meal service, packaged food, or supplement “solution” ever could. Because, there’s emotional, psychological, and physiological benefits in making your food with your hands, from wholesome ingredients you know. Not to mention that convenience foods are expensive (they have been since at least 1979, and with all the new “superfoods” that get tossed in the expense isn’t shrinking!) And these are health and wellness factors that aren’t included in the business plans of even the healthiest fast-food offerings that promise organic, virtuous, sustainable sourcing which our fast-paced society has come to prize.

 

Avoiding convenience and packaged foods doesn’t mean you have to spend hours slaving over the stove.

I certainly don’t have time for that nonsense, and that sort of work is synonymous with my job!) Instead, I’m still eating GOOD and FAST, and cheaper than if I were eating processed or packaged foods. The cost is a little bit of crafty prep time, and a small amount of investment in my cooking arsenal and the benefit is better nutrition, more delicious meals, better vibes, better health, AND optimal performance.

 

Here’s how I make good, fast + cheaper happen in my kitchen:

• Prioritize great ingredients: the greatest investment I make in my life are the ingredients I bring into my kitchen. In our modern world, which has found ways to brainwash us into believing that food should be “cheap,” we’ve championed practices that ignore well-being or plant and person. But that’s precisely what I’m looking for when I shop. I seek to know the producers, their stories, and where their ingredients are coming from – whether it’s produce, protein, or pantry. Whole grains, heirloom beans, artisan products, and organic, non-GMO, fair trade are the kinds of things I’m shopping for, honestly, most of the time before I ever look at the price. Half the reason to avoid packaged foods is their sub-par ingredients, so I do my best to buy the best I can find within my budget.
• Buy local: local foods ARE what’s in season, and they’re what our bodies want and need right now, and always. I try to buy produce, protein, cheese, meat, and fruits that are from within a 100-mile radius of where we live. Sometimes that’s not possible, but it is possible to think about it. Joining a CSA makes this easier.
• Keep your sights on simple: instead of planning meals based on recipes, I plan meals around ingredients and what I know our bodies need for the day ahead. Or, on an ingredient, I have on hand. I cycle ingredients through my kitchen seasonally (because grains, fats, and pantry items have seasonality too!) And then I prepare those ingredients as simply as possible with spices, seasonally-appropriate fats, and loaded with flavor. Planning by ingredient also means I don’t end up having a bunch of ingredients purchased for a recipe that I never use.
• Set up a kitchen arsenal: while I love the notion of slow food cooking over an open flame all day long, there’s just no way that’s happening in my life most of the time. But I do have a few kitchen devices that make spinning seasonal, local, well-sourced and simple ingredients into something powerful with just a few minutes of my dedicated time. Specifically, in the spring and winter, I use both a rice cooker and a pressure cooker/InstantPot to make our meals fast and so so good. The rice cooker is optimal for cooking grains and porridge, as I do most days. I simply set the grains in the morning, hit the button and we have grains to add to soups, grain bowls, stews or to serve as part of the main course for any meal – anytime. The InstantPot is the savior I use to make beans (which makes truly nourishing plant-based eating possible!) but I also use it to make soups, stews, roasts, and more. AND I use it to make this Coconut-Lemon Rice Pudding in mere minutes. I often have both bubbling away on the countertop at the same time, so I can have a pot of steamy, fresh, fragrant rice AND a soup ready at the same time without ever setting foot near the stove.

This Coconut-Lemon Rice Pudding…

This creamy, dreamy, flavorful, seemingly-decadent pudding is perfect for breakfast before a big day full of moving/playing/thinking, or as a little recovery snack after a big effort. The spices cooked into the pudding give it unique physiological benefits over something like, say, a pudding cup. Cinnamon and cardamom warm, soothe the body, help us to reduce inflammation, improve circulation and balance digestion, AND this helps us to recover after long efforts in the cold, or bolster our bodies before something substantial.

 

For a hit of protein, be sure to add some of your favorite yogurt. If you’re a protein powder person (I am NOT,) then you can add a little bit into your pudding here, but it will change the consistency.