Rice Makes It Nice
Sorry, bad title. I was struggling with this one!
First of all, thank you for all of your sweet comments about our house! I love our house…it is one of the bright spots in my life when I get sad about having to live in a town that’s so far away from my family. Living in a small town like Altoona has its disadvantages, but there are also perks—like affordable real estate!
Right after lunch today, I turned around and got started on dinner:
Rice & Veggie Patties
Ingredients
1 cup dry brown rice
2.5 cups water (or vegetable broth, for extra flavor)
2 small carrots
1/2 small onion
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 small zucchini
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. raw hemp seeds
1 tbsp. raw sunflower seeds
5-6 chopped pecans
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil
garlic salt and pepper to taste
Directions
In a saucepan, combine rice and water (or broth) and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, and cook for about 30 minutes, until liquid has been absorbed. Once rice is cooked, transfer to mixing bowl.
As rice cooks, use a food processor to mince the vegetables (carrots through zucchini). You can also do this by hand, but a food processor makes the process go much faster. Once veggies are chopped, heat olive oil in a pan and cook veggies until they are soft but now browned, about 10 minutes. Set aside in a mixing bowl.
Add hemp seeds to rice, and transfer to food processor. Pulse until the rice is smooth and creamy, about 10 10-second pulses. You can make the rice mixture smoother or courser, depending on your taste. Once the rice is processed, transfer back to mixing bowl and combine with veggies and the rest of the ingredients. Mix very well…the best way to do this is with your hands!
Once mixture is fully mixed, form patties and place on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. The mixture will be quite wet, but you should be able to form patties. This recipe makes 6 large patties, or 8-10 smaller patties.
Refrigerate the patties for at least an hour. Once you are ready to cook them, cook in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, flipping once at the halfway point.
Enjoy!
Mmmm…these were good! They kind of reminded me of a cross between a Sunshine Burger (love!!) and a Morningstar Veggie Cake. They had great texture on the inside, and a really chewy crust on the outside after baking.
Here are some pics of the process:
Hemp seeds:
For dinner, I had a rice cake on a big ol’ salad with spinach, chicory lettuce, radishes, grape tomatoes, sunflower seeds, and Amy’s Green Garlic dressing. I also had a side of grapes—I seem to be going through a grapes phase lately!
Followed by a blondie from the freezer…mmmmm hmmmm!
Hope you’re having a great night! Anthony Bourdain is calling my name. Is it sad that I totally have a crush on him, even though he hates vegetarians? It’s like in high school, when you have a crush on the jerk who makes fun of you in class. I feel like Jodi Sawyer, hiding behind the curtain, waiting to talk to Cooper Nielson after his Stars and Stripes performance, complimenting him on his pirouettes, only to have him turn around and leave with another girl. What a jerk!
Center Stage, anyone? No? Alrighty then!
G’night!
Haha! I love Anthony Bourdain! He may be a jerk but I still am thoroughly entertained by him.
I wanted Center Stage about a week ago… I’m 12…
LOVE center stage…it came free when I purchased RENT. It has definitely become a huge secret chick flick indulgence.
Ok your house is gorg!!!!! To buy a house like that in CA would be ummm 7 figures. Next life time
The burgers. I can SEE The rainbow flecks of color in them…love these Anna! And the fruit from the last post…wow, cherries? or grapes maybe. Anyway, juicy and perfect!
I dont even know what Ctr Stage is. Seriously outta the loop i guess
It’s definitley a trade-off.
Trust me, I’d rather be living in California in a shack 
Center Stage is a cheeeeeeeeesy movie about dancers from the early 2000′s. It is awesome
Hahahaha, YES! Center Stage always makes me curse the fact that after taking ballet for 4 days when I was 5 my teacher told my parents I was probably better suited to something like soccer. Apparently I’ve never been graceful…
holy delicious rice recipe!!! i love center stage…so cheesy, but i love ballet and so i love that movie
my husband likes anthony bourdain also, and he’s a vegetarian. i think he’s just a really appealing guy!!!
These look fantastic! Got to bookmark that recipe.
YES! Center Stage. Love that film. I even have the soundtrack, muahahahaha. It makes me miss ballett though.
Great idea for the patties!
I have a question – what do you have for breakfast each day? (I kinda remember a post about it but it was aaagges ago!) and do you snack?
I usually don’t post breakfast because I am bad about eating the SAME thing for weeks at a time. In winter, I usually have oats, and in warmer weather, cereal and fruit. I’ve been on a green monster kick lately (with protein powder).
I do snack– definitely!! I have a snack basically every day around 4:00– what I have varies depending on my hunger. Usually either some sort of bar (lara bars are my fave) or a piece of fruit and some nuts or sunflower seeds. I also almost ALWAYS snack on some wasa crackers when I get home as I cook dinner.
There are usually at least 3-4 items in my daily eats that don’t make it on the blog, but I wanted this to be more of a recipe-driven blog, as opposed to a “show everything I eat” blog, if that makes sense.
I almost bought grapes at the store yesterday, but they weren’t organic so I passed. Grapes, apples, and spinach are the 3 foods I ALWAYS buy in organic. I love to freeze my grapes, have you ever done that? Really nice in the summer.
Thanks for this great recipe. These sound simple and delicious.
I read your comment on my blog yesterday. You think you are intolerant to chicory root?? That is something I have never heard of, but I bet it does exist! That is too bad since chicory root is not like HFCS, and it’s in EVERYTHING!! It’s crazy.
I LOVE that movie!! *swoon*
Although I love almost all dancing movies
Your rice cakes look yum. Oh, and I’m all over dancing movies. I guess it stems from my background as a dancer though. Most people aren’t so excited about them.
Haha omg, love Center Stage! I watch it everytime I see it’s on TV!
that place mat is suuuuper cute and your photos (as always) are flippin’ gorgeous. you need to come snap all my pics for me.
I totally have a crush on A Bourdain as well! He is so gritty, and I love everything he does while he is traveling! Your rice cakes looks awesome, much like the pesto ones I made a few weeks ago!
It is embarassing that I got the Center Stage reference.
Did you see Center Stage 2?
Only in bits and pieces…from what I’ve seen, it doesn’t even hold a candle to the original
I totally like mean boys. I’m a classic Jodi Sawyer, through and through. The assholes get me every time!
HAHAHA love the Center Stage reference!! That was my favorite movie back in the day!! Hope you’re having a great Thursday!
Delish, delish, delish. A Gena recipe through and through. Bookmarking this!
Oh, and PS? Love the ref. Cue Mandy Moore circa 2000 now.
This looks wonderful, very creative and tasty! Lol, I’m on a huge grape kick too and they rock frozen in a glass of wine.
We watch Anthony Bourdain too, addicting!