Crock Pot Rainbow Risotto

A quick crock pot recipe is a foreign concept to me. One of the luxuries of the crock pot is that you can start something in the morning and not worry about it until the evening. I generally avoid recipes that are for the crock pot that take 2-4 hours. It just seems like a waste of the crock pot's magical abilities. I realize that it's not, it just seems like it for some reason. However, the other day, I saw this recipe and really wanted to give it a try, so I broke my crockpot all day simmering rule, and made this.

Isn't it beautiful?? Now, as pretty as this picture makes it appear, it's not that pretty when you actually make it. Somebody went to a lot of work to turn their veggies and rice into a rainbow masterpiece. I was not that person. I would rather eat my food than play with it (because I love to eat, not because it can't be super fun). But, it was fun to look at and definitely enticed me to give it a try. What can I say? I'm a sucker for prettiness.

I followed the recipe as described in the link above but added probably a little more purple cabbage and doubled the rice and chicken broth. I don't know why it is that I always think that one cup of rice just won't be enough. This time, however, I think it most definitely would've been enough - as long as I had also used only half of each pepper. It would've been rather pepper-heavy otherwise. While the rice and veggies cooked in the crock pot, I cut up and fried some chicken to add once all was completed. I was gonna post an image of the chicken being fried, but it was very unappealing, so I'm going to spare you the gruesome image. You're welcome.

After it was all prepared, I mixed in the milk products and the chicken and dished us up a very colorful dinner. Along with this rainbow risotto, I steamed some broccoli. I figured if the rest of the dinner went south, at least the broccoli was something I knew I could handle. This dinner was tasty. It wasn't my favorite and I felt like the rice was a bit undercooked, but it wasn't bad. Might not be one I'd try again. Or, maybe I'd try it again with a cheese that I liked better. Either way, it was worth breaking the cooking-all-day-in-the-crockpot rule.