I usually make brown rice milk, so I decided to switch it up a little and make wild rice milk. I had a wild rice blend from the bulk section of Whole Foods and made it for another meal. Using 1 cup of the cooled, cooked rice and almost an entire container of water, I blended it on high in the trusty Vita-Mix for a few minutes.

Taste it. Add more water if it is too thick, and a little maple syrup if you’d like to sweeten it.

Enjoy a rice milk that lacks stabilizers, emulsifiers, canola oils, etc. Have you ever read those labels? I’d prefer to make it myself.

Store in the fridge for up to one week.

Owning a Vita-mix has changed my life in many ways. One major change is that I no longer purchase rice milk. I make it myself in just minutes (after the 45 minutes or so it takes to cook the rice, of course).

Into the Vita-Mix goes 1.5-2 cups of rice. Experiment with this until you get the consistency you like. I lean towards 2 cups. Add water. I filled mine almost to the top.

Turn it up to speed 10, then high. Let it blend at least 2 minutes. Taste it and be sure you like the consistency. Add more water if it feels too thick. Sweeten with a few tablespoons of maple syrup if you like.

Enjoy. Store for up to a week in the fridge.

This month I was paired with My Year on the Grill for Taste & Create. I recreated Raspberry Chipotle Sea Scallops, but since I didn’t have the same raspberry chipotle sauce used in the original recipe, I created my own version, which turned out to be pretty good. Also, I made my version with shrimp and scallops as well as a side of coconut basmati rice.

After I made the sauce, I opened a small can of undisturbed coconut milk and separated the fat from the water. I added the coconut water and a small scoop of fat to the water for my rice. When that came to a boil I cooked some basmati rice. Coconut rice is so good, and it seemed to be a perfect companion to the spicy raspberry chipotle sauce.

Meanwhile, I melted a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of coconut fat in a heavy skillet. When that was hot, I added the shrimp first, scallops second, and cooked until just done, moving them around a bit to coat with buttery coconut goodness.