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Healthy Baked Rice Pudding Recipe

Healthy Baked Rice Pudding Recipe Use Leftovers

I’m a pretty big fan of healthy desserts.

I know, I know. That may seem like an oxymoron. How can healthy and dessert even be friends in the same sentence?!

After all, it IS January: that month where EVERYONE talks about dieting and ditching sweets. But as you’ve come to expect from Kitchen Stewardship®, we’re all about balance. Definitely eat more veggies. Definitely drink your water and get exercise. And definitely enjoy a little treat now and then – especially if it is healthy. wlEmoticon-winkingsmile.png

Rice Pudding

Dessert … For Breakfast?

A few years ago, I learned a wonderful secret. It’s okay to make breakfast food into “dessert.” And it’s even better when you can upgrade a dessert into a breakfast food. My Fail-Proof Fruit Custard is an example of a delicious treat that packs enough protein and nutrition to be served for breakfast.

I created this Healthy Baked Rice Pudding based on a similar inspiration. I found myself with a small spattering of leftovers: 2 cups of milk that I needed to use up. A little bit of rice that wasn’t quite enough to serve for dinner. A few eggs that needed to be eaten.

And thus my favorite no-fuss rice pudding was born.

Rice Pudding

My kids also love this baked oatmeal recipe for breakfast! 

Your kids CAN make their own healthy breakfast!

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Healthy Baked Rice Pudding

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.5 from 4 reviews
  • Author: Bethany Wright
  • Prep Time: 5 mins
  • Cook Time: 35 mins
  • Total Time: 40 mins
  • Yield: 4-6 1x
  • Category: Dessert

Description

This delicious treat is a perfect way to use up your leftover rice for dessert (or breakfast!). It’s hard to beat the simplicity of this dump-and-bake recipe!


Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 2 c. cooked rice
  • 1/3 c. sucanat or honey or applesauce (or any combination)
  • 23 eggs, slightly beaten
  • 2 c. milk
  • 1 Tbs. vanilla extract (or make your own)
  • 1/41/2 c. raisins
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp. salt


ship kroger


Instructions

  1. Dump rice in 8×8 pan, spreading evenly (no need to grease).
  2. Sprinkle raisins on top.
  3. Mix all remaining ingredients in a bowl.
  4. Pour the liquid into the pan, covering the rice and raisins.
  5. Bake about 35-45 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
  6. Let stand ten minutes to “cure.” (If you dig in right away, it may be runny. It will firm up as it cools.)
  7. Serve warm or cool.

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Rice Pudding

Some Notes About the Recipe

Got A Sweet Tooth? I have already reduced the sugar quite a bit from a typical dessert. If you find that it isn’t sweet enough after baking, drizzle some maple syrup on top.

Keep the Raisins! As I mentioned before, the sugar is reduced in this recipe. The raisins and the cinnamon really help bring about the sweetness factor. If you’re a raisin-hater, consider adding another type of fruit or serve with a drizzle of maple syrup.

No Sugar? No Problem. If you’re really wanting to avoid sugar altogether, try using applesauce in place of the sweetener. You’ll want to increase your raisin volume if you do this because applesauce isn’t as strong of a sweetener as sugar or honey. And don’t worry. You won’t be able to taste the applesauce at all.

Rice Pudding

Everything But The Kitchen Sink. I love recipes that are high in protein, feature healthy grains, get good dairy into our diet, and even include a fruit (ie. – raisins). I was laughing as I was making this recipe for the photos. “It has everything but vegetables in it!” And then I realized: this could be delicious with the addition of pumpkin!! Start with 1/4 to 1/2 cup pumpkin and maybe add some clove and nutmeg. Tadaaaaa! All your food groups in one delicious meal!

Make Two. An 8×8 dish doesn’t go very far in our family. I highly recommend you double the recipe if you want some for later (or are feeding a hungry crew). You can double it into a 9×13 pan, although that will extend the cooking time and sometimes I’m too impatient for that. I find it easier to just make two 8×8 pans instead.

Got any leftover rice lurking in your house? You’ll have to give this recipe a try and let us know what you think in the comments below!
Unless otherwise credited, photos are owned by the author or used with a license from Canva or Deposit Photos.

20 thoughts on “Healthy Baked Rice Pudding Recipe”

  1. This is delicious! Especially on a cold winter’s day. And it is tasty warm or cold, depending on patient you are regarding leftovers. And it’s just like my mother used to make, except with maple, so healthier. It made my heart happy, because she passed away when I was 30 and I didn’t have her recipe. As soon as I pulled it out of the oven I was transported to her kitchen; it brought up such a powerful feeling of home, her, and her love. So many thanks for that, too. My boyfriend even liked it, and he’s not a fan of supposedly healthy foods.

    1. Christina at Kitchen Stewardship

      Morgan, glad you are enjoying the recipe! It is wonderful when we can get back those good memories (plus healthier). Sorry about the loss of your mother at a young age. Thank you for taking the time to review the recipe. Hope you get many more good meals with it!

    1. Carolyn @ Kitchen Stewardship

      You can plug the ingredients in a website like this to get the nutritional value! https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076

  2. Sarah Boswell

    Just wondering if I could use coconut milk in lieu of milk due to dairy intolerance…

    1. Carolyn @ Kitchen Stewardship

      Yes, I’ve used dairy-free milks in this recipe before and it works just fine!

  3. Hello! Could I use maple syrup as a sweetener instead of honey or applesauce? Would the amount still be the same? I really would love to try this recipe!

    1. Carolyn @ Kitchen Stewardship

      Yes you can Lilly! Maple syrup can be used at the same measurements as honey.

  4. Peter Coologeorgen

    Not sure about the milk to rice ratio. I had to use 4 cups milk to 2 cups rice, otherwise recipe pretty good.

    1. Carolyn @ Kitchen Stewardship

      That’s interesting, I wonder why. I actually just made this recipe this morning and I don’t think I could have fit 2 more cups of milk in the dish. Did you use an 8×8 dish?

    2. Peter Coologeorgen

      I apologize greatly. I was reviewing numerous recipes and got the ingredients mixed up. This recipe called for COOKED RICE, not raw like others. My bad.

  5. Hi, Katie. I just found your site and this recipe looks great. Any thoughts on whether it would work as well with rice milk? Lots of allergies over here….

    Thanks!

    1. Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship

      Hi LB and welcome! I would guess that it would be fine but have never cooked with rice milk.

  6. Very good, but extremely sweet! I’m glad to have it in my breakfast repertoire. I’ve reduced the sweetener to 1/4 c, and almond extract instead of vanilla is a nice variation.

    1. Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship

      I love almond extract in my stovetop rice pudding too, Rachel, mmmm! 🙂 Katie

  7. The recipe sounds and looks delicious! Can’t wait to make it! Do you think I could substitute Quinoa for rice maybe?

    Thank you

    1. Bethany Wright (Contributing Writer)

      Jacki – That’s a great question! I’ve never substituted with quinoa, but I’m sure it could work. Let me know what you find out. 🙂

      1. Well, I just tried it with leftover quinoa and the taste is great. The quinoa doesn’t have as much ‘body’ as rice does, but it was a good way to use up those leftovers.

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