New recipes: carne guisada and rice pudding

I, LOVE carne guisada, or meat with gravy, for my non-Spanish speaking fans.  Anyway, I've never made it and decided to give it a shot.  I made it in the crock pot (which my husband said was the "white way") but whatever--I wanted the meat to be super tender.  The problem with the crock pot though is that my gravy didn't get near as thick as I wanted it.  So, next time I will probably move the liquid to a regular pan at the end of the cooking time to make the gravy and make sure that it gets hot enough. 

1 large box of beef broth (32 oz)
1 beef shoulder roast, trimmed of all fat and cut into bite size pieces
2 tsp of salt
3 tsp pepper
1 TBSP of onion powder
1 TBSP of garlic powder
1 TBSP of cumin

Trim and dice your meat.  Spray the interior of the crock pot and put the meat in the pot.  Sprinkle all spices over the meat and mix/toss with your hands to season all meat.  Pour broth over meat (this should cover the meat, if you need more liquid to cover the meat, add water and adjust seasoning.)  Cook on high for 5 hours. 
Note at this point I added a cup of water and 4 TBSP of corn starch to thicken the gravy but it just doesn't get hot enough in the crock pot to thicken.  Next time, I will complete the gravy on the stove.  Also, my roast was not large--I would say it was medium size.  I would recommend tasting the broth at about 4 hours and making sure that your spices are to your taste.  You may need to add more of something.  For example:  my husband said I needed more pepper and cumin.  :)  this will be especially true if your roast is large. 

Rice pudding
Had a craving for this so I decided to give it a try since I had leftover steamed rice in the fridge.  All three of the people I live with (LOL) liked it so guess this recipe is a keeper.

1 1/2 C cooked white rice (I actually used some leftover steamed rice)
1 1/2 C skim milk*
2/3 C sugar*
1 beaten egg
1/2 C half and half
1 TBSP butter
1 tsp vanilla
raisins are optional

Put rice, 1 1/2 C milk,and sugar in a pan and cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes until thick and creamy.  Combine egg and half and half.  Add to rice mixture and cook for about 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla.  If you want raisins add them in at the beginning of the cooking process

Notes:  The original recipe called for 2 C of whole milk.  I subbed 1 1/2 C skim milk and the half and half.  I thought it still tasted creamy.  Also, instead of sugar I used sugar substitute.  This is the one that I told you I found at HEB.  It is called Smart Sugar and you find it near the sugar substitutes.  It comes in a bag that looks like a 2 lb bag of sugar. 
The kids loved this warm and topped with cinnamon.