WFMW – What to do with Leftover Rice?

Every Tuesday morning, we use our rice cooker to make hot rice for breakfast – sprinkled with sugar and milk on top…Yummy! There always seems to be a smidge leftover in the bottom of the cooker. Too much to toss with a clean conscience, not enough to serve as a complete meal.

Cooked rice freezes really well. I often throw the leftovers into a Ziploc and freeze. When I have 4-6 cups, I make our favorite fried rice (remind me to post that recipe. It's fantastic!). This side is a staple with Teriyaki chicken or Chinese Cole Slaw.

My boys especially love it when I use the leftovers to make rice pudding. I heard that rice pudding can be made in the oven, but I’ve never had much luck. The super easy way to come up with rice pudding is to make a box or two of vanilla pudding, then mix in the leftover rice.

It really is not much harder to make some vanilla pudding from scratch before putting in the rice. Here’s and easy homemade recipe for vanilla pudding that is healthier and more lip-lickin’ than what comes out of a cardboard box.

Homemade Vanilla Pudding
This makes about the equivalent of a regular-sized box of pudding. (That means the Stumpfs double or triple it!)


1/3 C Sugar
1.5 Tblspn Cornstarch
1/8 teaspn salt2 C Milk
2 teaspn Vanilla Extract
1 Tblspn Butter

Combine sugar, cornstartch, salt in a medium saucepan. Whisk in 1 cup milk until smooth. Whisk in remaining milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to thicken. Reduce heat to low and cook for 2 to 3 more minutes, stirring gently.


Remove from heat and stir in vanilla, butter, and rice, if desired, stirring until butter is melted.


We usually serve this warm, but can be chilled if you prefer. We serve this as a side dish and call it “dessert for dinner.” Gives us some “cool parents” points. My boys usually have to be reminded about good manners when we have this as they are likely to fill their plates with it!