Chicken Fried Rice

It's a chicken fried rice version- just health-a-fied. I put in extra vegetables. Because everything is better (and meals stretch farther) with extra vegetables. When Lance and I got married. He didn't eat Chinese food. Or rice for that matter. But his horizons have expanded in the 4.5 years we've been married and now he loves Chinese and Thai food and is okay with brown rice. He really prefers white rice, but most of the time I make brown rice because it's better for you. This is what we had today after church. If you make your rice ahead of time, this meal is a breeze!

Ingredients
4 egg whites
1/2 c. green onions, white and green parts separated
2 garlic cloves minced
12 oz uncooked chicken, cubed
1 c. carrots
2 c. cooked brown rice
1/2 c. frozen peas, thawed (or add them in half way through the cooking of the chicken if frozen still)
1 c. broccoli
3 T soy sauce

Directions
First make your brown rice. It will take the longest, right around 45 minutes.
Cook egg whites and set aside. Saute garlic and separated white onions in a wok with a little oil for about 2 minutes. Add chicken, carrots, and broccoli. Saute chicken until it is golden brown. Stir in egg whites, cooked rice, peas, green onions, and soy sauce. Cook 2 minutes more and then serve!

I want to be a neutered housecat.

Seriously, I could think of worse things in life than being a neutered housecat.


Well, unless your owner locks you in a giant rubbermade tub and thinks it's funny.



Isn't that the life? Naptime all the time?


I'm a crazy cat woman. I even watch Cats 101 on the Discovery Channel on Saturdays. But isn't Fie Fie cute?

Survival Mode

This is me. Trying to stay afloat. Trying to balance. Trying, trying, trying. I'm somewhere in the middle between sinking and floating. So basically, survival.
Lance and I had an interesting conversation last night. He's attempting to get into grad school for the fall and we started talking about how long he thought it would take him to get through. His answer: 3.5 years. My answer: WHAT!?!? His plan was to take 3 credits a semester. I told him that was lazy and last semester I took 9 credits and got 4.0. Lance's response: yes, and look what it's turned you into. Blar. I do well under pressure. Anyway, 6 credits is standard. Lance has always gotten by on being smart. Not by trying hard. Me, on the other hand, needs to try hard. Not so much blessed with easy intelligence like my other half ...

Anyway. Survival mode. This means less interesting food. But this salad, oh, it's a keeper. It's so stinking delicious. I should make it every Saturday for lunch. Hmmm... there's a thought. This recipe is from my friend Katie who keeps a record of their two girls, Hallie and Harper. Let me just say this, those girls are beauty-ous! They have good genetics, they can't help it :)
Oh yes, going back to the point of this post. This is Katie's aunt's recipe and it's yummie.

Oriental Salad Dressing
1/3 c. white vinegar
1/2 c. sugar
2/3 c. oil
1 T soy sauce
1/4 c. sweet and sour sauce
1/2 c. mayo
1/4 t. garlic powder
2 t. sesame seeds
1/2 poppy seeds

Cook vinegar & sugar in saucepan until sugar dissolves. Take off heat and wisk in oil, soy sauce, sweet & sour sauce, and mayo. Add seeds and garlic.
Serve on salad with rotisserie chicken, romaine lettuce, cucumbers, green onion, cabbage and carrots. Top with sliced almonds and chow mein noodles. This can also be made into a wrap.

It's very similar to Applebee's Oriental Chicken salad. I love it.

Zest with the Best

It's Jan 31 and I am no where near having an empty freezer. Not even a small dent. We have to be getting rid of something, right? I mean, I didn't have freezer-burnt stir fry the other night for no reason ...

Moving on. For Christmas this year, I got a lot of cooking items. Probably more than a normal person usually receives. Here's a smattering of what I can remember off the top of my head: Silpat mat, microplane zester, The Pioneer Woman Cooks! cookbook, salt and pepper grinders, individual casserole dishes, scoop & chop, and a 1/2 pink plaid apron. Keep in mind, all but two of those items, were on my Christmas list. I've used about half the items so far and this weekend I had the opportunity to use my zester and my Silpat mat. I made Cranberry Orange scones for breakfast today while my parents were in town. The zester made zesting oranges a breeze. I highly recommend it if you ever zest citrus fruits or chocolate. It's a worthwhile tool. I also thought that my Silpat mat did a really nice job of evenly baking my scones and they did not stick at all. Those were the highlights. The lowlights include that I didn't really like my scones. I used fresh cranberries and they were incredibly tart. Pucker-power and slight grimace tart. I also did not think that the orange flavor was very pervasive. And they were a little dry. So I'm not posting a recipe. So there. But I do recommend microplane zesters, so I'll post a picture of one instead. :)

Cell Phone

At least once a week I forget to take my cell phone out of my lunchbox and it sits in the work fridge all day long. Reception isn't so great in the fridge. And I think it probably is annoying too as I'll come to reclaim my phone at the end of the day only to discover that it's been beeping all day from missed call. Yep, I'm pretty sure that's annoying.

Does anyone else do anything as dumb as this?

Beef. It's What For Dinner

Do you remember my mondo long freezer list? Yeah ... Lance just informed me that we're getting another quarter side of beef from his parents just after the first of February. I have no idea as to where I'm going to store even more beef in my freezer. Maybe I'll have to start burying steaks in piles of snow in my backyard. I'm sure that won't attract raccoons ...

2010 Reading List

I'm a voracious reader. There's no way around it. I've been that way since the third grade where I was dropped off at a summer daycare where a clique of girls decided to ostracize me and reading was my only opportunity to pass the time. In 2008 I made a goal of reading 100 books. I came really close. I think by the end of the year I was at 87. That's pretty freakin amazing because it means I averaged around two books a week. Well, in 2009 my reading dropped off pretty dramatically with the onset of school and required reading. Amazingly enough, my consumption of non-fiction is much slower than my consumption of fiction. At least the stuff I'm assigned to read for school :)
When Lance and I moved to Des Moines I started going to used book sales. Previously, I had the tendency to only purchase books that I had read previously and loved because who needs to waste money on something I'll never read again was always my philosophy. Too bad I can't apply that philosophy to textbooks ... But book sales. I started picking up things I had heard good things about, but never read. Well, it's been a dangerous practice because for the first time in my life I have a stack of books that I've purchased but have no idea if I like them or not. It is my goal for 2010 to finish that stack. And here is the list:

1. The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen Carter
2. Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky
3. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
4. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcom Gladwell
5. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
6. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
7. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
8. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
9. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
10. The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky

As you can see, no rhyme or reason to my list. Just thinks that I've picked up the last couple of years that I thought would enrich my life. And then of course whatever books my book club reads and other random books that strike my fancy. Will I get the list done? What are you reading?

Late in the Game

I realize that most of America has probably already discovered this, but the Simply Apple juice is phenomenal. For the longest time I've resisted buying any of their brands because a) $4 for a jug of juice is ridiculous b) I didn't want to get hooked. But it happened. Fareway had their Simply Apple juice on "sale" last week and I bought a jug. I just opened it this morning and it's beautiful. It tastes so much like real apple cider. I'm afraid that I can never go back to ordinary again.



I tried their Pink Lemonade too and now I like that too. Crap. It's so hard to go back to concentrate and powdered mixes once you've tasted the good life! Do you buy $4 jugs of juice?

Things in my life

Christmas is finally over. It's a relief to know that we'll be home bound for the next couple of weekends. That gives me plenty of time to procrastinate working on my thesis project. :)

There hasn't been tons of cooking in my life recently. We've been out of town, Lance made supper on Monday (his "famous" Italian dressing marinade chicken and a Lipton package of rice) and last night we ate at Ban Thai and went to The Lion King. Lance and I had seen the production in 2005 in London, but wanted to relive the magic. I'm glad we went, it was better than I remembered it!

But in lieu of a food post, I thought I'd post a couple of things I'm currently digging in my life right now.

Bare Escentuals - Bare Minerals Matte. Because I'm shiny by lunchtime. And my face seems to get fewer pimples when I'm using Bare Minerals products than for example a traditional Clinique foundation. One of the reasons I'm loyal to Sephora is because they allow me to return opened makeup. Genius and convenient for a girl like me who is never sure until she gets it home and decides "NO!" If anyone wants to know, my shade is medium beige :)


I also am really appreciative of my wireless mouse I got at Target. No, I didn't need it, but darn it, it makes using my laptop so much quicker!



I've been hairspray shopping for awhile. I went in for a trim the other day (BTW: I love my hairdresser - Kristy- Talking Heads Salon; if you make an appointment, tell them I sent you and they'll give you 50% off your first cut and color!) and picked up Aveda Brilliant Medium Hold hairspray. It's the perfect amount of hold and of course it smells fantastic - and it has a gloss in it that makes my hair super shiny. I had previously purchased "Air Spray" by Aveda because it smells absolutely glorious, but really, it did nothing for my hair as far as hold. So it was basically like spraying my hair with perfume ...



And lastly my new Scentsy warmer. My mom had got it as a gift, she didn't want and thought it had been regifted in the first place and gave it to me. It's a little pink ... but I'll take it! I love free.


And those are a few random things in my life right now. Enjoy!

Last Christmas

Lance and I are headed back to NW Iowa for one last Christmas ... I've never said this before, but I'm tired of Christmas. If only I could hire someone to take my Christmas decorations down!