Risotto Rice-Cooker, Dog Watching and No Hands

Risotto is very exciting I know but first we must talk about dog tricks.

Last week, I was working at home and mid morning I headed out to a meeting.  I left my one year old Mini Schnauzer, Billie gazing longingly out of the window at the front door, cross that I was leaving her ALONE.

To be fair, this is progression from incessant barking, constant attempts to escape the backyard and chewing everything in sight as soon as her people leave the house.

I returned from the meeting around an hour later and sneakily looked through the front door window to see what she was up to.

You can imagine my surprise when I saw that Billie was sitting on the couch watching Call The Midwife.  I mean, she is super clever but really?

After checking that no-one else in the family had come home while I was out, I deduced that Billie had jumped on the couch, hit the remote and boom, one of MY favourite shows came on. I did initially wonder how a dog could navigate to iView but realised that it just happened to be on the TV that day. She has clearly been listening to recommendations.

I laughed for so long and it reminded me that pets are so good for our health in a myriad of ways, no matter who or what they are.

Wishing all you lovely people a very happy and safe Easter with just the right amount of chocolate  – whatever that may be 🙂

Something to Think About

 

“If you throw stones at every dog that barks at you, you will never get anywhere.” Winston Churchill

 

Something to Make

Rice Cooker Risotto 

Cooking risotto in the rice cooker is sheer genius as far as I’m concerned.  The original recipe was in the booklet that came with my very first rice cooker and I have adapted and changed since.  It is also a recent favourite with my football lads and we cooked it up just last week to rave reviews. It’s the risotto recipe that does not require stirring – enabling you to do the 25 other things you need to do while cooking dinner! If you can’t find the cup that came with your rice cooker (quite likely), use 3/4 of a metric cup instead.

Ingredients (Serves 6)

3 rice cooker cups Arborio or risotto rice

4 rice cooker cups vegetable or chicken stock

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 leek, well washed and thinly sliced OR 1 medium onion, diced small

2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped or minced

2 cups butternut pumpkin, cut into smallish cubes

10 mushrooms, sliced

Finely grated Parmesan

Method

1. Place onion or leek,  garlic and oil in the bowl of the rice cooker. Cover with lid and click onto COOK. Let the mixture cook for 5 minutes. 
2. Add the pumpkin and mushrooms and stir to combine ingredients. 
3. Add the rice and stir again. Pour in the stock, stir and replace the lid. Check that the rice cooker is still on COOK.
4. Leave to cook until the lever automatically clicks onto KEEP WARM. This is your chance to go do the other 25 things you need to do.
5. When ready, top with grated Parmesan and serve with steamed broccoli or green peas (you could put these in the steamer tray if you have one of these in your rice cooker).
6. Congratulate yourself on whipping up a super easy dinner.

There is a slightly different version I did for HBF here too.

Something to Do

I have two questions. One – how often do you sit on the floor?  Two – can you stand back up again without using your hands to lever yourself?

According to experts in mobility (in other words, how we move), it is very important to sit on the floor or the ground for at least 5 minutes a day but equally essential to get back up again without using our hands.

I’ll wait while you all try it………  Was it tricky? It is surprisingly difficult to get up without using your hands isn’t it?

The trick is leaning forward on your ankles, while engaging your core and glute muscles to move your whole body upwards.

All you need to do now, is practice, practice, practice.  Check out this podcast to find out why we should be doing this.