Fried Rice: Faster Than You Think

Welcome back from the weekend! Woo. And especially to those of us who had Monday off. I spent most of my weekend with my notes and watching Castle. Which is great by the way. If you like crime drama, it's pretty good. It also has Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, etc.), who is awesome no matter what you like. So go check it out, it's a good waste of time.

So, recipes! I have a multi-pronged one for you today, as I made Leftover Chicken Fried Rice! Leftover because I cooked nothing except the egg this evening (and it took maybe 5 minutes)! But you could cook the rest at the time if you wanted.

It looks a little funky, but it sure was delicious!

Anyways, I'll talk you through the chicken breast recipe (easy peasy) which can then be used for almost anything you want. Plus you can make it more specific by adding extra spices! So far, I've used my cooked chicken in this rice, on top of salad, as the filling in quesadillas, and just as the main part of the entree with potatoes. And that was only one chicken breast.

Now, as a warning, I only had about 1/3 c. of rice. While this was enough for me, the egg-to-rice ratio was a little high. It still tasted delicious, though, and wasn't too eggy. It just looked like it was. And remember, you can play with the recipe: different meats, different veggies, etc.

Leftover Chicken Fried Rice

For 1

1/2 cup cooked rice 

1 egg, lightly mixed

2 tbs cooking oil.

2 tbs teriyaki sauce or soy sauce, or to taste.

Add-ins:

• Cooked meats (chopped into relatively small chunks) or uncooked (make sure you cook these first in the pan before adding other ingredients)
• Veggies: you can really use anything you have, but favorites are green onions, carrots, green peas, bean sprouts and onions (brown onions first).

Put oil in wok or frying pan and heat. Add meats and veggies (except fragile ones like green onions and sprouts) and cook (stir-fry) for 2 minutes, stirring. Add rice and fragile add-ins and mix well for 2-3 minutes.

Add egg and mix quickly, so the egg breaks up. It's okay if there is some sticking; just scrape it up with the spatula and mix it back in, as long as you get it before it's burnt black.

Mix in teriyaki/soy sauce to taste; you want it mixed in enough so that there is no huge blobs of sauce anywhere.

Pour into 1 (or more) bowls and enjoy!

Chicken:

1 chicken breast

spices to taste, depending on what it is used for. For this recipe, I used black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning (which had salt, so no extra salt). For mexican food, you'd use taco seasoning, or a mix of chili, cumin, cayenne, garlic, onion, salt and pepper.

In a saute pan on medium heat, heat oil/butter/cooking spray. While heating, slice the chicken breast into slices between 1/2 and 1/4 inch, or more depending on how thick you want them. It is easiest to cut chicken breasts when they are slightly frozen; they are less mobile and slimy. Add spices (easiest way is to put the slices in a ziploc or bowl and add spices, then toss like a salad. Carefully, since it is raw meat.

Add to the saute pan and cook until chicken is cooked all the way through (all white/tan instead of light pink). Make sure they are not sticking, since sticking is no fun, and flip a few times to make sure both sides cook. Use right away or allow to cool and freeze/refrigerate until needed.

Rice:

Now, as it's easier to make rice in large batches, here is a quick overview of making rice. It depends on how much rice you want to make, but the ratio is generally 1 cup rice to 2 cups water. It seems like a lot, but the rice soaks it up and becomes nice and fluffy. Dump the rice in the water in a pot with a lid, bring it to a boil, then cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. It usually takes about 20 minutes, or until all the water is gone. DO NOT REMOVE THE LID WHILE COOKING. I'm not quite sure the details, but I know it's on par with opening the oven door while cooking a souffle. It's just bad. When it's done, fluff it around with a fork so it doesn't clump. You can freeze it in ziploc bags, keep it in the fridge for a few weeks, or eat it with lots of yummy things.

Peanut Butter Cookie Pins

If you read yesterday's post, you'll see that I was craving something sweet. I did end up continuing my experimental night in the kitchen with a peanut butter cookie recipe.

The original pin picture. 

This specific peanut butter cookie recipe came from Pinterest, where many of us probably spend hours oohing and aahing over drool-worthy pictures of everything under the sun, including food. Now, I don't know about you, but I've heard and seen a few horror stories of hoaxes, lies and just plain bad food coming from those boards. (As a side note, if you haven't checked out the Pinstrosity blog yet, it is an ego boost and support group for those of us that aren't quite as handy with the mixer or tool gun as well as a place to double check if you pin will actually work).

Anyways, this was touted as a "healthy" peanut butter cookie recipe, with ONLY 36 CALORIES PER COOKIE! (yes, it was written like that. -grin-) Even better, it only used four ingredients: peanut butter, sugar or honey, egg, and vanilla. And when I googled it, another blogger seemed to have tried it and had good results. Bingo!

Now, just out of curiosity, I did the math on the calories. These cookies are definitely not 36 calories per cookie. They use a cup of peanut butter and a cup of sugar or honey; even disregarding the egg and vanilla, they end up being more like 134 calories a cookie. Higher if you use a sugary peanut butter, but then you probably can reduce the amount of sugar that you add in to compensate.

Still, however sketchy they were, my hunger (literally and metaphorical) for something sugary propelled me onward. The dough seemed a little wet, but sometimes that happens (and I hand't quite had enough peanut butter, but you'd think that would make them dryer, if anything else. That is also why they don't have the normal cross-hatch pattern; the fork was sticking! You can probably sprinkle them with a little sugar to keep this from happening. I popped them into the oven, and they came out just like peanut butter cookies. I was mildly surprised.

And they were delicious. As a note the next day, they are still a little more gooey than normal peanut butter cookies. It could be because I made them a little bigger, and didn't quite cook them enough (the picture shows 18 cookies, but we all know not to trust pictures).

Conclusion: Not 36 calories as touted on Pinterest, but they really are quick and easy. Four ingredients, 10 minutes in the oven. Plus, they are gluten-free and still taste like normal peanut butter cookies, which is always a bonus. Makes appx. 12 cookies normal-sized cookies, which is a little bit less than I expected for a cup of peanut butter. Vegans can replace the egg with oil. 

The light in my kitchen is awful. And I might have somehow ingested a cookie before remembering to pull out my camera.

4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies:

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup sugar or honey

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Mix peanut butter and sugar/honey together, add in egg and vanilla. Scoop onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, silpat, etc. (or you can probably grease it). Use fork to make classic peanut butter cookie cross-hatching. Bake 10-12 minutes. Makes a dozen cookies. You're done and have delicious cookies!

Mashed Cauliflower: Delicious Replacement or Cruel, Cruel Lie?

Today I was bored. And hungry. And we all know that is not a good combination. But I am trying to be healthier, which means not chocolate chip cookies at the moment. Or chocolate lava cake. Or cheesecake. Or really anything with sugar.

This decision might also stem from the fact that I have no chocolate in my house at the moment. Or cream cheese. Or butter. I might have stocked up, but only on the first level of necessities. You know...something to sleep on, cans of soup, light source, silverware...and according to my mother, half a fridge worth of fruits and vegetables.

Now, I'm all for fruits and veggies. I love them, really I do. It's just, like many people, I find it easier to pop a bag of popcorn into the microwave than wash, peel, cut, prep, etc. Buying pre-prepped things is much more expensive, and I really don't trust their "Already Washed" job anyways. And although I learned how to make about every iteration of meat, potatoes, and fattening foods from my boyfriend, sometimes you need to suck it up and eat the good stuff.

So, I decided to use up the leftover cauliflower from my mother's initial stocking of my fridge. Sure, you can eat cauliflower raw. Or steam it and cover it in cheese. But there's all that hullabaloo about mashed cauliflower: "Exactly like mashed potatoes!", they say. "Yeah, right", we're all thinking.

But they are pretty delicious. Word of warning: it helps to have mixer, potato masher, or equivalent kitchen gadget. The first time I tried this, I used a fork. The cauliflower was a little too stiff and ends up crumbling into tiny little florets. Cheesy, delicious florets, but they aren't smooth and creamy like mashed potatoes. I used a blender the second time, but it wasn't quite wet enough and the blender had trouble pulling the larger chunks down into the blades.

And of course, you could always mix them into mashed potatoes to sneak in some vegetables for you or your picky eaters of any age.

(Image courtesy of wholefoods.com, you can find their recipe here)

Mashed Cauliflower and Cheese

Since I was cooking for myself, I used about 1 1/2c of cauliflower, washed and cut into manageable sized florets. Place them in the microwave with about a tablespoon of liquid (I used half-and-half, but you can use water, milk, cream, etc). Nuke them for a few minutes, stir to break up, then add a minute at a time until they are nicely steamed/soft. I had a problem with the stems not softening up, which is where it's useful to have a mixer, food processor, or other electronic gadget.

At this point, add more liquid (around another tablespoon to start with) and some cheese (I used finely grated chedder, because that was what I had on hand) and mix using your kitchen gadget of choice.
Add liquid, cheese, butter, or anything else to taste (I topped with cheese and gave it another 30 seconds ing the 'wave to make sure it was all melted; there is nothing like small chunks of unmelted cheese in a dish to weird out your sensory organs). I was going to add cayenne powder, but got distracted and ate my second batch before I remembered. I sure it would have been delicious, though.

Once sufficiently mixed, enjoy! The flavor is definitely reminiscent of potatoes, although I don't think I'd call it exactly the same. And I'm sure it depends on what you add in; butter and cream will probably make them more "classically" mashed potato-like. Either way, they lose that particular taste I associate with cauliflower. The recipe is definitely worth a try. And check back later; I might experiment with this one more for a better result.

Thanks for reading!

Hello, all!

For a first post, I should probably start off with a little background. I've just moved halfway across the United States to attend college. Grad school, to be precise. However, my undergraduate college just happened to be a little under half-an-hour's drive from home, which meant I did my own laundry exactly once in three years. And I was lucky enough to have a boyfriend who loved to cook. All this added up to not really getting the full "live on your own in an apartment" college experience. Until now.

So, this blog will be my documentation of a Pacific Northwester's life down south (although there seems to be some debate to how "South" Arkansas really is--either way, it's definitely south for me). It's also probably going to end up being a "how to live on a budget"-type blog--we can explore that topic together, since I've never actually made a budget in my life, and I definitely don't have much money coming in--and a "how to cook on a busy schedule"-type blog. Recipes, DIYs, interesting tidbits...really anything that goes on will probably end up here. No twitter-like "And then I went to the bathroom" posts though. We don't need any more updates about people's bowel movements or lack thereof. -grin-

So welcome, and hope you enjoy and see something you like!