I am a little less than 4 weeks away from the WBFF World Championships, and down to one high-carb day per week. I wanted to try out rice today to see how it digested and how I look in terms of tightness in my muslces vs skin quality when eating it. My coach JJ has me eating about 180 grams of carbs today, very little fat, and moderate protein, (about 110 grams)…I had bought a wonderful box of organic arborio rice, the rice used in creamy Italian risotto dishes, and I wanted to use up the chicken broth I had kicking around in the kitchen from last week’s chicken roasting bonanza. If you don’t have your own chicken broth, just substitute with the organic variety from the store. The difference is that with the homemade variety, you get all the gelatin and minerals leached from the bones and when you’re dieting and training hard like we are, you need everything you can get! xo
What you’ll need…
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 stalk celery, brunoise (very small dice!)
1/4 vidalia onion, brunoise
1 small clove garlic, smashed
1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
sea salt
generous splash of fish sauce
rice vinegar, as much as you need!
2 cups arborio rice
6 cups + chicken broth
In a fairly large pot, heat up the sesame oil, and then toss in the vegetables, stirring frequently to keep the garlic from burning. After only a couple of minutes, add everything else but the broth, and coat the rice thoroughly. Add in 2 cups of the broth, bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer, stirring often to avoid sticking. The key to cooking risotto is to CONTINUOUSLY add the liquid to the rice. I’m too busy to stand over the stove, so I added a cup or so at a time, stirring occassionally, and when it was almost done, (about 30 minutes), I removed from the burner, covered, and let finish in it’s own heat. I had JJ taste it, adjusted the flavors by adding a bit more rice vinegar and fish sauce, and voila, we had rice for the entire day!
I had my rice with about 2.5 oz of chicken “tenders” made in my handy-dandy toaster oven! On low carb days it’s often good to pair your starches with leaner meats: chicken, halibut, egg whites, pork loin, etc….