I totted up my lunch costs (budget is really the wrong word) the other day, and realized it was a little ridiculous. In a burst of irony, I blew a large chunk of lunch money to buy a 3-cup rice machine to use at work. Zojirushi is an expensive brand but usually you get what you pay for.

Yesterday I made my first meal with it, and I’m really very happy I bought the thing.

First, I made some rice porridge. That’s one of the best things about the fuzzy logic machines, that you can make rice porridge with it. Until I owned a fuzzy logic rice machine, I’d never had rice porridge before. It’s awesome. Like cream of rice but creamier. It’s like having a warm savory pudding for breakfast, although if you wanted you could make it sweet. I just add a little salt and margarine to mine.

I hear you can also make some pretty decent non-instant oats with the porridge setting, but since I can’t have oats anymore I can’t confirm that. Apparently you can also make grits on the porridge setting.

Next I made one (asian, it’s 3/4 of an american) cup of brown rice with chicken broth instead of water. When it was almost done cooking, I chopped up some chicken thighs and opened a bag of vegetables and microwaved them with soy sauce. Then I mixed everything - the chicken, veggies, and rice - up in a bowl and had lunch.

Very good stuff. It tasted good, and I seemed to have more energy than usual yesterday. Today I’m seeing if it’s better if I cook the chicken with the rice. I’ll toss in the veggies after an hour of cooking, with at least 20 more minutes to go. I’m looking forward to lunch!

It’s good!