My favorite rice pudding with fruit

I am the queen of quick recipes. I look for any kind of cookbook with "easy," "quick," and "simple" in the title. I'm always excited to find new foods to make that don't take more than 20 minutes, and here is one of them that I found that I added a little fruit twist to. It's also nice because it's low-fat.

I like it better than traditional rice pudding because that requires white sugar to sweeten it, and I like the more natural taste and feeling of using fruit as the sweetener instead! You can use any fruit you want; I usually use peaches, but you can use strawberries too. You can mix fruits too, such as using one kind of preserves and one kind of canned/fresh fruit.

Fruit Rice Pudding

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup uncooked, long-grain rice
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 can (15 ounces) fruit, lite if possible
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1/2 cup fat-free milk
• 1/4 cup 100% spreadable fruit or preserves
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (optional, but it tastes really good when you're making this recipe with peaches)

1. In a saucepan boil together the water, rice, butter, and salt. Reduce the heat, then cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the rice is done. It's okay if there's extra liquid.
2. If you're using canned fruit, drain the canned fruit, setting aside 1/3 cup of the juice. (If you're using fresh fruit, set aside 10 or so ounces and use juice from another source.) Mix the juice with the cornstarch and milk. Add it to the rice, bring it all to a boil, then stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.
3. Remove the saucepan from heat, then stir in the spreadable fruit or preserves, as well as the cinnamon if you decide to use it. Cool it to room temperature.
4. Chop up the canned or fresh fruit, then add to the pudding. You can stir the fruit in or layer the fruit and the pudding together. Enjoy!

Now wasn't that easy? I got the idea from Shanna Webb out of the Taste of Home cookbook, then added and changed a few things to my liking. I can eat this all in one sitting and I don't feel bad! I hope you like it!