Jazzing up rice: here's how to break your routine and add some pizzazz to your diet by exploring the many different types of rice and ways to use them.(GO GLUTEN FREE: FOOD)

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Bored with eating plain brown or white rice? Falling into a rut by repeatedly preparing the same old rice is a common problem for gluten-free eaters. The monotony may seem necessary to eat safe foods, but fortunately, gluten-free life doesn't have to be so boring. There's a whole world of gluten-free rice out there and many different ways to flavor it. Try these tips to shake things up, explore new horizons, and treat your taste buds to new tastes and variety.

Simmer-in flavor. Use a gluten-free broth, such as Pacific Natural Foods Organic Free Range Chicken Broth or Organic Vegetable Broth, instead of water to cook rice. Simmering rice in broth is an easy-way to make rice pilaf without extra work. You can also crush two to four cloves of garlic and simmer with your rice until the water starts to be absorbed.

"Veg" out and go nuts. Saute assorted vegetables or nuts in olive oil, butter, or macadamia nut oil, and add into cooked rice. Try mushrooms and shallots; celery, onions, and slivered almonds; spinach, garlic, sliced artichoke hearts, and pine nuts--the combinations you can create are endless.

Sauce it up. For completely different tastes, top rice with or mix in gluten-free pasta sauce, pesto, wheat-free tamari, or a coconut curry sauce.

Explore the world of rice. The world of rice abounds with a lot more than the familiar basmati and brown rices. Try each of these different types of whole-grain rice with their own special taste:

Bhutanese Red Rice: Grown in Bhutan, in the eastern Himalayas, this rice from Lotus Foods has a mild, nutty/earthy, slightly sweet flavor. It is semimilled, meaning some of the reddish pigment in the bran that is formed by minerals in the soil is left on the rice. It cooks in just 20 minutes.