Ways to liven up your rice bowl

First instead of water use broth, chicken, beef or vegetable is fine.  There are quite a few things you can do to make rice more interesting.  We tend to eat a lot of brown rice here because that's what WIC gives out.  Brown rice does tend to be a little more chewy than white.

Fried Rice
go ahead and cook your rice in the broth.  Then store it overnight in the fridge.  For some reason leftover rice browns and crisps much better than fresh.  Take out cooked rice and add to hot oil.  You can use corn oil but if you want to be really fancy use peanut oil.  So fry your rice with garlic and onion powder.  When you have fried it about 30 seconds when most of the oil is used add your sauces.  I like to put in soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce.  Use what you have.  That's the point of pantry cooking! 

Sweet Rice
Cook rice in broth and add raisins and cranberries at the same time as the rice.  It adds a great sweet flavor and a little color.

I also have a great Mexican Rice recipe but its specific and takes more time.  Ill post this later.