Never Doubt Aunt Yiya's Dessert

OK, so I realize just days ago I was complaining about how I can't seem to lose weight on a vegan diet. Nevertheless, today's post is going to be about rice pudding. You'll have to learn to embrace my contradictions.

So I had heard of rice pudding as a youngster, and it always sounded disgusting. Then in high school, we were at a family get-together at my Aunt Carlotta's house (Carlotta knows how to prepare a meal....YUM) and she had made rice pudding as the dessert. I quietly scoffed at her poor judgment -- what a terrible idea for a dessert! But as soon as I took my first pity bite, my life was changed forever. OK, OK...I'm being dramatic. Seriously, though, it was so good! I got the recipe from her and proceeded to make it the very next weekend. The problem, though, is it calls for gallons of half and half and about 3 lbs of sugar. Roughly. And it made this huge batch in a crock pot. But I didn't care. It was good.

I figured once I'd chosen a vegan diet, my days of rice pudding were gone. But luckily, I was proven wrong!! I found this recipe on a fellow bloggers' page and am pretty impressed. It's not quite as rich & creamy as Aunt Yiya's (that's what we called her when we were little, before we could pronounce 'Carlotta'), but it also takes a quarter of the time and I've gotta assume has a quarter of the calories.

I'll post it below as I made it...I cut the recipe in half, because I'm a crazy cat lady who lives alone. If I made the whole thing, Lord knows I would eat the whole thing. In under 5 minutes.

Quick & Easy Rice Pudding

1 cup water
1/2 cup white rice
1 cup non-dairy milk (I used part rice milk/part coconut milk...I think a vanilla flavored variety would be incredible in this recipe!)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Ground cinnamon

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine water and rice and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes (or until water is absorbed). Remove saucepan from heat and let sit, covered, for 5 minutes.
2. Add milk and sugar to cooked rice, stirring well. Return saucepan to stove. Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously, for 15 to 20 minutes or until very thick and creamy. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Let rice pudding cool slightly before serving. If desired, sprinkle with ground cinnamon before serving.

Serves: 1-2, depending on how much rice pudding you can eat in a sitting :)