I credit my genius mother in law with this idea for making meals over rice a breeze: She cooks up several bags of white and brown rices at the beginning of the month. After cooling the rice, she spoons it into small and gallon sized zip-loc baggies until they are about 3/4 full.
She then seals the bags by zipping them almost totally shut, inserting a drinking straw into the small opening, and sucking the air out of them just before zipping them all the way. She then flattens the rice bags (they go to about an inch thick) and stacks them neatly in her freezer with waxed paper in between them to be removed, thawed and reheated as needed.
What a great way to have a steady supply of cooked rice on hand for fast-fix meals. The frozen rice can also be quickly reheated by steaming it in a covered skillet with a spoonful of water added, or microwaved in the same manner.The layers are thin enough that they can be easily broken apart to fit in any pan. I hope this will be of use to someone!
Katz and others: The concern about freezing cooked rice must be unfounded unless you are freezing old previously cooked rice. Otherwise all the companies that make meals including rice could not do so. Those microwave packets of rice would not cook in 2 minutes if they were raw rice.
My naturopath tells me that rice, when cooked breaks down very quickly and can be a health hazard after two days, and not to eat it after that. So freezing doesn't seem a good idea.
I can't believe I haven't thought of that before! When cooking for two, it's hard to make a small amount of rice for our dinner dish and still have it turn out okay. It's either too soggy or too crunchy! So, if I make a BIG batch and then freeze "dinner for two" portions, I'll save myself time and frustration! Thank you for that tip.
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