Oh yeah, I know, but your guesstimates are a lot better than mine! I don't know a thing about cooking! :D Oh, I don't mean the dishes I actually eat out of. I keep everything I've been using to cook in a nice little container in my room. The only thing I actually keep in the kitchen is the pot itself, and the stuff I put in the fridge after it's been cooked. I don't think my tub is big enough to hold a thing of broth, though, not without laying it on its side, which is a disaster waiting to happen... Having a big family unfortunately means nothing kept in the kitchen is safe. Don't want anyone using my ingredients!

Ah, I get you now. Alternatively, you could get a thermos or something to store it.

Is that a thing people do? It seems so weird to load up a thermos for uncooked broth. It’s definitely something I usually think of as storing finished meals.

No, not that I know of. My brain was a little fried when we were initially talking about this so it didn't immediately occur to me, but broth typically comes in cartons anyways, so storing it shouldn't be an issue. Now, if you're making the broth from scratch, then yeah, the thermos could be a possible storage solution.

Ah, okay. I thought you were recommending a thermos as, like, harder to spill than a carton. As a side note, can you think of anything else I could cook in this thing? Aside from pasta, as said. I was trying to think of something I could make on Friday, and then eat over the weekend, but I came up blank.

Beyond soup / stew, I honestly can't think of anything 🤷🏽‍♂️ [i]but[/i] if I do, I'll certainly shoot the suggestion(s) your way.

So, as it turns out, a tablespoon is actually too big to fit in my little spice bottle thing, so I had to still use teaspoons. It looks like a teaspoon is 1/3rd of a tablespoon so for the beans I used: 7 Teaspoons of the Southwest seasoning 2 Teaspoons of Garlic Powder, Onion Powder & Cumin I went up to 14 cups of water this time for the beans, but that was definitely too much. I was thinking the last batch had 12, but now that I think about it, it may have only had 10, so going up to 12 is probably the right option. I cooked them for 9 hours this time, because there was still so much water left. There was still a good amount of water left even after that, but I didn't want to overcook the beans. For the rice, same as always. There's a rice cooking option on the pot, so that one's easy. But, as mentioned, I used Jasmine Rice. Even with all the extra seasonings, though, it tasted mostly the same? There was a little bit of a smokey/spicy aftertaste, but that was about it. I'm starting to wonder if maybe the flavor on the old rice cups didn't come from seasoning at all, but maybe, like, a hint of tomato or something. As far as the extra taste from the seasonings go, it was fine, but I wouldn't say it was really any better than the more bland taste of the early batches. I think I am going to give that vegetable broth a shot. I'm thinking, 10 cups water, 2 cups broth for the beans, and 5 cup water 1 cup broth for the rice. Not sure if there's much else I could do. To my surprise, the Jasmine Rice was a downgrade from simple White Rice, though. While the taste was fine, it was much stickier. Sticky rice was never really my thing. Not a big fan of the texture. I was surprised, though, because my experience with instant rice was always the opposite, White Rice was the sticky one, while Jasmine was much less so. I buy these things in 2-lb bags, so I'll have the Jasmine Rice for the next batch, too, but after that, it's definitely back to White Rice!

Damn, I see. A couple times you mentioned trying the seasoning with the rice while that's cooking; have you tried that yet? At this point, I'm not sure what else you could try to be honest 😕

I haven't. I'm assuming you were recommending seasoning the beans for a reason, so I've been sticking with that. I suppose I can try the rice, but would that make much of a difference? I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try. But no worries. I imagine it's a little difficult to figure out how to recreate the flavor if you haven't even had it before, after all. I wish I was better at describing flavor, which would probably help. :p Though, if nothing else, I think it was still a win overall. Even if it doesn't recapture the flavor of those old rice cups, it's still a pretty alright meal, and it's both much cheaper, and much easier to get, since everything can just be found at Walmart (before I was needing to go to Smith's for the beans). As I did a little bit of research myself, I did come across a subreddit called "cooking". Part of me is wondering if making a Reddit account to go ask them might yield something. >.>

Reddit could help. The place isn't as bad as some people make it out to be and can be very useful for things. Especially in this case 'cause my knowledge on cooking is pretty limited.

Oh yeah, I'm not one of those Reddit haters. I do pop by a few subreddits every now and then, I've just never actually made an account to post anything. I think I tried once, but it gave me some auto-generated username, and then I couldn't figure out how to change it, and gave up. :p I'll see what effect the veggie broth has first, though. I did take a peek at what they had at Walmart when I was there, and they only had one brand, but thankfully it was indeed a vegan brand! And, I'll try applying seasoning to the rice instead of the beans and see if that makes a difference. It could possibly be that the beans just aren't absorbing the flavor very well.

No harm in simply adding the seasoning to both I'd say!

Well, except for the fact that that's a lot of seasoning! I wouldn't want to use them up too fast, because they were honestly pretty expensive! I think the Garlic and Onion Powders were $7 each! :p

True. Maybe go half and half on it or just use less for the rice.

I think since it feels like the seasoning didn't do much for this last batch, I'll try going all in on the rice first, and see what happens. If the beans feel too plain after that, then maybe I'll try to balance it out.

That's the way to do it. Cooking is really just experimenting when you really think about it.

I can definitely see that, yeah. And I'd imagine people who are actually good at it (i.e. not me) can probably taste something and get sort of a rough approximation for how exactly to recreate that taste. :p Although, ever since I mentioned tomatoes, I have sort of felt like there's a tomato involved somehow in this. To some extent, that may just be because I like tomato-ish flavors, like V8 (though ironically hate tomatoes themselves). Aside from, like, actual tomato chunks, is there a way to add a tomato-ish flavor to things?

Tomato paste maybe? Perhaps it could be cooked with the beans, but I'm not too sure as I've never really used it. Quoted from Google: [quote]Tomato paste is used to add depth, richness, and a concentrated tomato flavor to various dishes. It's a key ingredient in many sauces, stews, soups, and braises, and can also be used to thicken sauces and add a savory note to dishes like chili or ramen.[/quote]

I did see during my initial research into how to cook beans that people avoided using acidic foods like tomatoes, so that one would definitely go with the rice I think (though don't ask me why, that's just what the internets said), but maybe I'll look into that, too. Unfortunately, a quick google search only pulled up recipes for full-on Spanish rice dishes. It did also just occur to me, this thing would probably require refrigeration once opened, so it may not work anyway... Anything I need to keep in the kitchen is unfortunately a no-go. >.<

I see, I see.

A couple of thoughts occurred to me! A. Am I applying these spices right? I realized I never asked. I'm just adding the beans, then the water, then spices, and letting it go from there. Should I add water then spices? Stir before adding beans/rice? Etc. B. I was walking around my local Walmart, looking for what else I could grab to eat, but I came up blank. Bread was making me sick for some reason, I can only really eat salads occasionally, for some reason all the potatoes I keep getting are bad, and my favorite frozen pretzels aren't vegan anymore. It was getting late, so I quickly nabbed some instant rice cups, but as I was checking out, I thought, if I'm getting rice anyway, why don't I just use my new rice cooker? Unless I decide to double up on meal prepping, the beans definitely take too long to cook for after-work, and weekend meals (and I should probably try to vary my diet at least a little bit), but the rice itself is super quick. I could easily go cooking up some rice every day after work, and while meal prep day is a little trickier since the pot is busy cooking beans, I could probably make something work. Cook some extra rice on Friday and put it in the fridge. But, while I do tend to like bland flavors, plain rice is a little much, even for me. Really, this was all just a long winded way of saying, do you know anything else I might be able to do with the rice? Something to add a little bit of variety from the rice & beans I eat at work, but still quick to cook at home. My first thought was to add some veggies in there. Just small ones like corn kernels, peas, and the like. But, I was finding mixed answers online whether I can just drop them in. Some people seemed to be saying I need a special accessory for that?

You could try adding the spices and seasoning to the water first, that's what I generally do if I'm making rice. For example, I'll throw in some ground pepper, teaspoon of "better than bouillon" and a bit of teriyaki sauce let it disperse / dissolve (whatever the proper word to use is) then add the rice. As for the second part, veggies are the only thing I can think of adding that don't require a complicated cooking process. Was going to say tofu, but I'm inclined to assume you wouldn't like that 😆 plus Idk how easy it is to prepare, although there are many ways to do so my knowledge. What they probably mean is a steam tray. Some rice cookers and insta pots have a thing that can be placed over the rice or whatever it is you're making that allows you to steam cook while the stuff below it is cooking. Other option would be frozen veggies that come in a microwaveable bag, but flavor can be a bit lacking with those. Not sure how you feel about sauces, but that's something that can go a long way in terms of adding flavor to something relatively bland, especially rice based meals.

Cool, I’ll try spices first, then rice then. Alright, I think I’ll give veggies a shot, as long as that steamer tray isn’t strictly required. Depending what I can find, anyway. I do want to avoid microwave bags, but the reason is actually price rather than flavor. They get expensive right quick. But, if I can find something to eat in increments, that’ll work. Just kinda depends if they have small/diced veggies in those bigger bags. I think I changed my mind about the tomato paste, too. After making sure it’s vegan, I think I’ll give it a shot. With the rice & beans, not the veggie rice. The tube I saw at Walmart was not very big. I’ll probably save most of the spices & broth and whatnot for the rice & beans for that reason, though I may still try a touch of the garlic powder for the veggie rice.

Yeah, that's something that occurred to me. Even the small bags are pretty pricey 😕.

[spoiler]By the way if you're, like, totally over this, and want me to stop with the updates, just let me know![/spoiler] Rice & veggies was sadly a bust. My ineptitude in the kitchen really shone through here! It was kinda gross! How bad do you have to be to mess up rice? Aifos bad, apparently. :p As for the main dish, though, there was definitely something different this time... So, since I was already making some changes, I decided to limit the variables, and still applied seasonings to the beans. That way, if something was better or worse, I knew it was one of the other changes, not that one. So, for the beans, I used 10 cups of water, 2 cups of veggie broth. 12 cups is definitely the right amount. Could see water boiling even an hour before it was done, but when it was finished, all dried up. Perfect. I did apply the spices to the water before the beans, and gave them a quick stir, and I think that was definitely a difference! I could definitely feel the kick of the spices better. It wasn't so much a flavor, though, as it was just spice. For the rice, I used 1 cup of veggie broth, 4 cups of water, and also added in two teaspoons of tomato paste. Like the spices, I added before the rice and stirred. I also was back to white rice instead of jasmine this time! I bought a big 5lb bag of rice instead of a 2lb one as I have, so instead of just approximating it, I measured it in cups. I think, 2 cups was right? I was aiming for 1lb. Starting next week, I'll have to do the same with the beans, and I think I measured it to 3 cups. Anyway, I also forgot to microwave it, so that's a thing! I'm not sure how much that affected the flavor. The rice was fresh out of the pot, but the beans were refrigerated while the rice was cooking. It was only, like, half an hour, so they weren't cold, but they weren't hot. Just warm. The shift in flavor was definitely subtle, but there was definitely a little bit extra to the flavor here. I'm not quite sure how to describe it... It was kind of... Dull? In the background. It definitely wasn't the flavor of the old rice cups, but I would say it was an improvement. The question, though, is was that improvement worth it? Because both of the new ingredients have a drawback. The veggie broth's drawback is I'm paranoid! The containers for all the brands looked really similar to the chicken broth, and I'm, like, way more worried than I should be about grabbing the wrong one. Especially since it seems like my family actually uses the same brand of broth, as I saw an extra carton in the fridge. They also got veggie broth, granted, but even so. I'd also have to buy the veggie broth every week. So, I think I'll go back to just water. It'll ease my brain. The drawback of the tomato paste is it's so messy! I guess most of it evaporates, and gets all over the lid. I still haven't bought a sponge, and today I felt that more than ever! Except when I made the pasta, that was still the worst. I think I'll still try the tomato paste one more time, since I've got this whole tube, and maybe add a bit more next time. See if it can add enough flavor to be worth the mess. How much would you think? I did try looking on Google, but I couldn't actually find an answer.