My Kind of Fried Rice

I am not a left over person per se. But in my house, leftovers are inevitable. I am so used to cooking for an Army (Me, my mom, dad, brother, sister, her boyfriend, the neighbor, my aunt and cousin and grandma and whoever else happened to linger around the house at dinner time) so cooking for two is tough!

Not wanting to eat the same thing again, I’ve gotten pretty good at morphing my meals. Nothing is worse that throwing perfectly good food away.

I usually always make too much rice and too many veggies and there is always some left over protein laying around. Light bulb! I can turn this into fried rice.

What you need:

2-3 cloves chopped garlic

2-3 tbs light olive oil (I like to infuse mine with garlic and ginger for this)

2 cups precooked, left over rice

1 cup precooked mixed veggies

1-2 cubs left over, chopped pork, chicken or beef

2 eggs scrambled

¼ cup or so of Soy Sauce

A drizzle of Sesame oil

The low down:

Start by scrambling the eggs in a good sized skillet ( I scramble mine in a lil bit of butter for flavor). Once scrambled, place in a bowl (I even use that bowl to eat out of once it’s all done. I HATE cleaning up the stuff I needed to prep the meal in) and wipe out the skillet. This is a one pan-er people.

Add 2 tbs. of garlic/ginger infused oil to a pan over medium heat. Once it’s hot add the veggies and protein to the pan to reheat.

After a few minutes, add in the rice and incorporate everything together. You should hear a sizzle when you add the rice. I like to push the veggies and protein to the side and create kind of a well in the middle of the pan. I like to add a splash more oil to the center right before I add the rice.

Add the eggs back in.

Once everything starts to heat through and come together, add the soy sauce (this is all to taste and for looks. I don’t like mine too salty or too dark so I go a lil shy of a ¼ cup, but in kitchen play with the amount).

Stir everything and let the flavors blend for a few minutes.

Turn off the heat and add a drizzle of seasame oil. I said a drizzle because this stuff is potent. Too much will kill any dish! Give it one last stir and dinner is ready!

Serve it up in bowls and you have a complete meal, only one pan to wash AND you emptied out the fridge. Success!

I've been owned

Sometimes I wonder if God is a prankster. 


I took my new running shoes out for a test run and they were amazing. No more knee pain. Wooho! When I got back home, Chris had his soccer gear on and asked if I wanted to kick a ball around with him. I put Oakley's leash on and we all walked over to the park by our house.


While Chris kicked the ball around I ran Oakley around and noticed there were two large, unleashed pitt bulls in the park as well. Super. We are easy targets.


Of course one of the pitt bulls caught our scent and made a b line towards us. His owner yelled, "He's nice, don't worry." Psh like I am going to fall for that one. I bent over to protect Oakley from what I thought would be an immanent death. However, this pitt was quite friendly and just sniffed him. Whew.


But before he went back to his owner, this pitt decided he liked me and decided to make me his. Yupp, he lifted his leg and marked my leg AND my NEW shoes! Ugh! 

New Kicks

So I have been doing this running thing pretty consistently since we got back from CT. Don't give me that shocked face. Anyhoo, after a straight week of running I was getting a wicked pain in my right knee. It was clearly time to get some new running shoes.


Chris told me I should go to a running store to be properly fitted and I didn't argue. Another shocker. Hey, he was supporting me and offering to pay for new shoes. My momma didn't raise no fool.


After trying on a few different pairs, the guy at Runners HI found me the perfect fit... 100 big ones later!

I cannot wait to test these bad boys out.

What’s for dinner this week

Back to normal again, after another great weekend of being wined and dined.

Monday: Marinated and grilled pork loin chops with rice and veggies

Tuesday: Tacos!

Wednesday: Morphing the pork and using left over rice and veggies to make pork, fried rice.

Thursday: Chicken and cheese quesadillas.

Friday: Eat the Street and Oktoberfest.

Saturday: Roast chicken, mashed potatoes and stuffin’.

Sunday: Breakfast for dinner, my fav!

Disney Anniversary Staycation ~ Day 3

Wahh. This is our last day. But alas, all good things must come to an end.


Instead of going to breakfast, breakfast came to us via "private dining." Usually room service is pretty pricey but it was actually cheaper than going down to breakfast. Oh and it was faster. Double score.

After breakfast, we donned our swim suits and went to enjoy our last day at the Aulani. We swam, went down the water slide and made one last go around in the lazy river.

We had to check out of the room by 11, but we were able to stay use the facilities until we had our fill. Score! Another bonus is they have a place where you can store your stuff and shower (they even provide you with towels, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and a bathing suit dryer). Why waste my hot water when I can use Mickey's! Honestly, I was just milking my time at the hotel hehe.


We were sad to leave BUT we are going to Disneyland for Christmas AND we will be back at the Aulani for New Years/Chris' birthday.

Before we went home we had to pick up Oakley from his stay-cation with Fred and Bentley and their humans Kerri and Matt. We left him there as a dry run for Christmas, because they offered to take care of him so we wouldn't have to board him. He is a very good dog, but sometimes he can be a bit needy. Hmm I wonder where he gets that from ... I know he doesn't know what Christmas is, but I would feel terrible if he were alone on X-mas. Luckily Kerri and I think alike and she would be more than happy to watch him for us. Talk about a great friend!


As usual, he was super happy to see me. Makes my heart swell. For the most part he was good, except he threw up on their bed once. He insisted on eating Fred, the Boxers, food which subsequently didn't settle well in his temperamental tummy.


With the pooch in hand, it was time to head home and get ready for work on Monday... Our party is officially over.

Disney Anniversary Staycation ~ Day 2

Waking up past 6 a.m. really gives you the vacation feeling. Being on vacation also makes you hungry 24/7! With that said, Chris and I headed down to the Makahiki Restaurant for a decidedly Disney breakfast with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Stitch.

The resort does an excellent job of catering to both kids and grownups and its not overly kiddie by any means.

Breakfast was good, but at 32 bucks a pop, it’s a lil pricey for all you can shovel into  your face. They had Mickey waffles, so for me, it was totally worth the arm and a leg.

 

Stuffed, it was time to explore the resort grounds, and by that I mean plopping ourselves on beach chairs in front of the pool and soaking up the sun until our friends arrived.

They had great timing. We had finally digested out breakfast so it was time for swimming, water sliding, lounging in the lazy river and playing in the water playground designed for kids …. but we are big kids so it was cool =)

While I was showing them around the joint, we stumbled across a place where you could feed Hawaiian Brown Stingrays. We inquired about the cost, but with it costing $50 to feed them stinky fish, we decided to just watch other people do it.

 

We did, however, pay the nominal $20 fee to snorkel, shark free, in the Rainbow Reef. It was so cool to swim through schools of brightly colored fish. One even looked me eye to mask. The water though was chilly, so after about 30 minutes we were over it.

 

The grounds at Aulani are amazing and the imaginers did a heck of job. One of our favorite places to lounge and take in the views was from the double decker hot tub infinity pool.

The inner kid came out in all of us and we played in the water until we were pruny all over. Playing in the sun and water really makes ya hungry, so in the spirit of vacation we ordered food, pool side!

After a few more hours of lounging and exploring, it was time to head in to get washed up for dinner.

We all walked next door to the JW Hotel for dinner at Azuls. It was fab! The setting was picturesque (read sunset in the gardens), the service impeccable and the food was amazing. The hotel even has mini hammer head sharks and string rays swimming around it! Sometimes fancy restaurants complicate their food and I’m left either confused, unimpressed or starving. This was not the case here. The prices were also very reasonable. As much as I liked Ama Ama, we got more food for our money at Azuls and we will def. be coming back!

They had a great prix fix menu that our server graciously let us mix and match because the menu was so hard to chose from!

For starters, Chris got seared tuna with a yellow tomato gazpacho.

 

I got Steamed Mussels: Spanish Chorizo, Azul’s Spicy Tomato Broth, Rosemary Foccacia Bread.

Marissa got Carpaccio: Grass-fed Free Ranged Beef, Parmigianino, Balsamic Citrunette Dressing.

 

Chris got Lobster Bisque: Shrimp and Lobster Meat, Chives Infused Oil. Our server told us it takes the chef eight hours to make this soup. It took Chris less than eight minutes to eat it!

In between our meals we got an interesting and floral tasting pallet cleanser. Marissa looked down at said “Oh look at that cute little caper!” Perplexed why a caper would be in our sorbet, I looked down at my dish to find a frozen blueberry. This is what I love Marissa.

 

For our meals, I got a mozzarella stuffed, double cut pork chop in a creamy mushroom sauce.

My Chris got Beef Tenderloin: Grilled Tenderloin of Grass Fed Free Ranged Beef, Caramelized Shallot Confit, Classic Port Wine Sauce.

Marissa got Rack of Lamb: Fresh Herb Marinated, Whole Grain Mustard Crusted, Porto Wine Sauce.

 

Her Chris got the Surf & Turf Special: Grilled 4oz. Fillet Herb Grilled Jumbo Shrimp stuffed with a scallop, Mango Chutney, Citrus Butter Sauce.

Even with all the goodies in our hotel room, we all couldn’t pass up dessert. Well and that fact that dessert came with all of our meals except for Marissa and my Chris’ hehe.

Chris B and I both got a chocolate opera cake and the pastry chef sent out a fancy desert that was not on the menu for me and my Chris’ anniversary.

Marissa ordered the best dessert: Maui gold pineapple tart tatin with warm crème anglaise and caramelized Maui pineapples and macadamia nut liqueur, topped with macadamia nut ice cream.

Today was so fun, I cannot wait to do it again tomorrow!