Cooked Rice
Noun
ごはん
最近わたしたち、ご飯を食べるタイミングが合わなくてすれちがってばかりだよね。
Recently we haven't been able to get our meal timing right, have we?
しまった!ご飯こぼしちゃった。
Damn it! I just spilled my rice.
どうしてコウイチのデスクの引き出しには乾いたご飯の塊が入っているの?
Why is there a big ball of dried-up, cooked rice in Koichi's desk drawer?
The ご just makes this word more polite and fancy. When it comes to food, it's nice to be those things. This has the same meaning as the kanji (meal) making it meal, but it also refers to cooked rice as well. So, "Come eat your ご飯" can be both "come eat your rice" and "come eat your meal." Really, since most Japanese meals come with rice, though, you can see how the overlap happens.
The reading is the same as the one you learned with the kanji. Now how about you "hand" me another bowl of rice?