Breakfast Burritos

Don't get me wrong, I love PDub's Breakfast Burritos, but when I have a hankering for them, I don't want to put the effort into making her super yummy, but a lil time consuming, Breakfast Potatoes.

With that being said, I created my own, hit the spot, version. I always tend to make way to many tater tots so instead of throwing them away the next day, they inspired me to create these bad boys:

Ingredients:
1-2 cups cooked Tater Tots (mine were left over, so I recrisped them (I just used a lil pat of butter) up in the same skillet I make the eggs in)
6-8 eggs (My rational depends on how many you want to make and how big your tortillas are. I also figured one egg per burrito. When I made mine, I used 8 eggs and that filled 8 burrito sized tortillas)
1/3-1/4 cream, 1%, 2% or whole milk (whatever you have on hand)
1/2-1 cup of cheese (I used a 4 cheese Mexican blend because that's what I had, but use whatever you want and however much you want!)
8 burrito sized flour tortillas

How to:
If you are making the tots from frozen, cook them based on what the package says. I bake mine and when they come out of the oven I hit them with a little bit of salt and pepper.

Scrambled your eggs in a pat of butter and seasons them with a salt and pepper to taste.

Once the eggs are 98% scrambled, add in the tots and off the heat add in the cheese and stir to combine. Don't be afraid to smash the tots!

Once the filling is all mixed up, place the tortillas on a plate, covered with a damp paper towel and heat them in the micro until they are pliable (less than a minute should do the trick).

Then fill 'em up. About 1/4 cup of filling should be enough, but then again eyeball how much you want to put in them, but be mindful of your ratio of filling to burrito.

To roll, place the filling closer to one side of the wrap and fold in the sides and roll up tight!

Once they are rolled, I roll them in foil and put them in a freezer bag and put them in the freezer for a quick breakfast on the go.

When I have a hankering for them, I just take them out of the freezer, remove the foil and microwave them for about 2 minutes until they are no longer frozen and nice and warm =)

Variations:
* If you want to jazz them up, add in some cooked bacon crumbles or ham.

* To kick up the tots, saute some onion, a red bell pepper, a green bell pepper and garlic in some butter and then add in the tots, giving them a crush as you incorporate them into the veggies.

Quesadillas

Several months ago while we were livin' the life in Hawaii, my good friend Jess had me and another "Never Daunted" spouse over for a play date (ie they both has lil ones) and she served up some mean quesadillas for lunch.

I was looking through her new pics of her lil girl and it made me miss them so I decided to whip up her quesadillas with a few twists of my own.

Ooey Gooey Quesadillas

Ingredients

4 medium flour tortillas (as is this makes two, but I just halved the recipe and just made one for myself)
2 Tbsp. Ranch dressing (I used Spicy Ranch)
2 Tbsp. Salsa (I used Mild)
1/3 c. Shredded chicken (I didn't have any chicken so I just used more cheese)
2 strips cooked Bacon crumbled (optional, but I left this out because I didn't have any on hand)
3/4 c. Shredded cheese (I used a full cup since I didn't have any chicken)
2 Tbsp. Chopped green onions (I omitted these)
(If you like spice add in jalapanos)

How to:
Combine all ingredients in bowl. Since I'm just using cheese, I just mixed the sauce components and I sprinkled the cheese on top of the sauce layer.

Heat skillet with a drizzle of veg oil.

I LIGHTLY browned both sizes of two tortillas because I like the texture and crunch when they are browned.

Place one of the LIGHTLY browned tortillas back into the skillet.
Off the heat, spread the mixture on top.

Place the other lightly browned tortilla on top.

 

Cook until the cheese adheres and melts to both tortillas and carefully flip it and cook on the other side.

So cheesey and gooey!

Yumm! I like mine with a dallop of sour cream.

Meal Metamorphosis

Now that we are down my entire income, making every dollar stretch and sticking to a budget is more important than ever. Instead of going to the grocery store and making spur of the moment dinner decisions, now I go with a meal plan and a list and have been making a valiant effort to stick to the list.

Some shopping trips are better than others =)

Being more budget conscious, I've also signed up for a coupon service (Coupons.com) and the local free military paper here (The Gidon) offers P&G Coupons in the paper every week. I recently bought a coupon book/grocery list organizer and before I hit the commissary I peruse my Pinterest Wall for ideas/inspirations/meals and go through my coupons to see where I can save some dough.

I wanted to have my friends Ashley and her fiance Eron, along with there two Beagle pups (Doc and Pierre), over for dinner since they had us over twice and cooked two fab home cooked meals while we were hotel bound/homeless and took care of my hunny while I spent two weeks in CT in July. I finally settled on a pulled chicken crock pot recipe that I found on Pinterest. I was a bit skeptical because it only called for three ingredients (Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, a packet of taco seasoning and a 16 oz jar of salsa) but all the comments/reviews were positive so I decided to give  it a whirl.

Pulled Chicken Crock Pot Tacos that are bomb and cheap and cheerful!

 

 

Boneless and skinless chicken breasts (No need to chop them, they literally fall apart- I used 3)
1 packet taco seasoning mix
1, 16oz jar of salsa (you decide the spicy level and brand)
Put it all in the slow-cooker.
Stir to combine and in 4-6 hrs (high) or 6-8 (low) you are good to go!!

I served them with soft and hard shell tacos, and all the fixins for tacos (Shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, sour cream and salsa) and Mexican rices and they were a hit! I really like serving food that isn't fussy to eat or too prepare and I find that the more laid back the food the more laid back the company =)

Even thou I only used three whole chicken breasts and we ate until we were all stuffed, I still had a good amount left over. Since I don't like to throw food away (but i'm not a fan of eating the same thing over and over for days) I racked my brain on how I could morph/transform my leftovers into something else. Then it hit me: Make chicken tortilla soup! It was my first time making it (I perused several different recipes to gather the basics) but i'm pretty proud of my results =)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

 

Leftover chicken (about 2 cups of the shredded chicken mixture)
One 32oz box of chicken broth
One can corn (drained)
2 hand fulls chopped parsley or cilantro but I HATE cilantro so I used parsley
One squeezed lime
One can diced tomatoes ( I had leftover marinara sauce that I made so I used that)
One small can of diced chilies
1 small yellow onion

2-3 cloves of garlic
One can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 teaspoons of cumin
2 teaspoons of Chile powder

Salt and pepper to taste
 

I sauteed the onion, chilies and garlic in evoo then added in the rest of ingredients in no particular order. I let it simmer for about 30 minutes and finished it off with cheese, a dollop of sour cream and tortilla chips.

Sweet Treats

Since my co workers and I are on the Weight Watchers bandwagon, we swore an oath to not bring treats into the office.


BUT, we made an exception for Valentines's Day =)


I've had my eye on two Pinterest recipes and I jumped at the opportunity to break our no treat rule.


I made Cream Cheese, Red Velvet Brownies and M n' M Blondies.

I'd make the blondies again for sure, but I would alter the brownie recipe. 

After consulting with my fellow Army wife and home cook extraordinaire we both agreed that the next go-around we would just use a boxed brownie mix (less ingredients, less complicated and bottom line cheaper) add red food coloring to it, bake it in a 12x13 v. an 8x8 and keep the cream cheese topping recipe the same.

Happy Howl-oween!

My lil Ewok =)

To ward off vampires I made Pumpkin and Sausage Pasta and Basil Garlic Bread. I meant to snap a few pictures but the "ghouls" I had over gobbled it up right quick.

Bake-a-Pa-looza

With Chris gone, my boredom set in and I found myself fully immersed in cookie baking mode.

I had pinned quite a few cookie recipes and I made a promise to myself that I would actually MAKE the stuff I was pinning.

With that being said I decided to bake S’more Chocolate Chip Cookies and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. I also vowed to take Chris’s absence as a time to focus on myself aka WORK OUT, so having these sweet treats at home was not my best idea. However, the battalion was having their Halloween party Friday and I could put all the baked goodies in a basket and pass them out as part of my costume: Betty Crocker!

Both cookie recipes were both easy to make and I had all the ingredients in my pantry so I didn’t need to dash out to the store to pick up any ingredients. That usually puts a buzzkill on my cooking/baking mode.

First I made the Pumpkin Chocolate Chips ones. Man were they good. More cakey than cookie, but with a glass of milk they were yummy.

I am kind of obsessed with S’mores these days so it was only fitting for me to make S’more Chocolate Chip cookies. The ingredients were very similar to a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe, however this one called for crushed up graham crackers and to top the cookies with mini marshmallows and broken up Hershey Bar pieces midway through the baking process.

Step 1.

Step 2: Top with mini marshmallows and Hershey Bar pieces.

Ta-Daa!

Both experiments were a success because they were all gobbled up at the Halloween party =)

Fancy spuds

Did you know that if you fancy slice potatoes and roast them with butter and oil they’re called Hasselback Potatoes?

Where have these spuds been all my life?

These are a great company fake out because they look super shi shi but they are hellza easy! These are my new go-to baked potato for sure.

The low down:

Slice into russet potatoes and put thin slivers of garlic into the cuts.

Place a pat of butter on each one and sprinkle them with salt and EVOO.

After an hour of roasting and basting at 425, the potatoes are tender and buttery with a crisp, crunchy skin.

A-MA-ZING!

Chicken dinner

Chicken, crispy bacon and cheese are three of my favorite things and they come together to make an easy weeknight dinner: Bacon Wrapped Chicken. I always tend to have chicken breasts and bacon in the freezer and cream cheese has a pretty long shelf life, so I didn’t have to run to the store to make this. This recipe is great for a family but it can do single serving duty as well (not that I’m not going to make enough for seconds…) and I adapted it to fit my needs while my hubby is away.

What you’ll need:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts pounded thin
4 oz of cream cheese doctored up with a few tablespoons of powdered ranch dressing mix
2-4 slices of bacon
salt (to taste)
2 tablespoons butter

The low down:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Between 2 sheets of wax paper/plastic wrap/or in a plastic bag with a mallet flatten chicken breasts to ½” thickness.
Evenly distribute the cream cheese over each chicken breast. Then dot with butter and season with salt and pepper.

Wrap with bacon and stick a toothpick through the rolled chicken breast to hold it together.

Roll up and stick a toothpick through to hold it together.
Bake uncovered for 35-40 minutes (or until juices run clear).Turn on the broiler and broil six inches from the heat for 5 minutes or until the bacon is crispy.

Step 1: Spread Ranch cream cheese on seasoned, pounded chicken breasts.

Roll 'em up.

Rap 'em in bacon and bake!

I am a big fan of simple pasta dishes. I am terrible about just cooking enough for dinner, so I always end up with several days’ lunches.

This pasta – a big mess of roasted zucchini, garlic and onion tossed with pasta, fresh basil and Parmesan – can stand on its own. But it’s like first grade without the glitter. That’s why I am serving it along side the bacon wrapped chicken.

What you’ll need:

2 medium zucchini, trimmed, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds

1 small sweet vidalia onion or 1 shallot, thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 boxpenne or ziti, dry, preferably whole grain

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1/4 grated pecorino romano cheese

The low down:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and put your baking sheet in there as well (just make sure its dry! This will make sure the zucchini gets nice and crispy!). 

Toss zucchini, onion, garlic, salt and pepper and enough olive oil in the bowl to coat.

Spread into a single layer on a large rimmed baking sheet. 

Roast until zucchini is lightly browned, turning once, 15 to 20 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the pasta according to the package directions.

Reserve 1/2 cup of cooking liquid before draining the pasta.

Return pasta to pot and toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil and a handful of cheese.

Add the roasted vegetables to the pasta.

Add 1/4 cup pasta cooking liquid, and stir over medium heat until heated through.

Add basil and cheese. Toss, adding reserved cooking liquid by tablespoonfuls to moisten if dry. 

Voila!

What’s for dinner this week?

Monday- Grilled NY Strip, with loaded, twice baked potatoes , steamed veggies and S’more Croissants for dessert (more about these bad boys later). Chris’ last meal before Korea =(

Tuesday- Mickey chicken nugs and waffle fries to cheer me up since Chris is gone.

Wednesday- Bacon Wrapped Chicken with Roasted Zucchini Pasta.

Thursday- Hasselback potatoes. Yes I am just eating starch for dinner.

Friday- Spaghetti with garlic bread crumbs, olive oil, parsley, and lemon juice and Baked Garlic Shrimp .

Saturday- Pesto Chicken Stuffed Shells 

Sunday- Lemon Chicken , Smashed Potatoes and Ooey Gooey via crockpot

What’s for dinner this week

Monday: Grilled flank steak with roasted potatoes. After a long day and my steak still frozen, Pizza Hut to the rescue.

Tuesday: Let’s try this again… Grilled flank steak with roasted potatoes.

Wednesday: Sesame chicken salad.

Thursday: Dinner with my Cali cousins! Roasted pork tenderloin, PW’s creamy mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus.

Friday: Leftovers before the Haunted Lagoon ride!

Saturday: Girls night out in Waikiki!

Sunday: Depends on my “recovery!”

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!

Veggie Lo-Mein

Maybe I am a food snob/just plain spoiled, but upon moving to Hawaii, I haven't been able to find a solid Chinese/Japanese take out restaurant so I had to come up with a recipe to satisfy my noodle cravings. This is what I came up with. It's picky husband approved and it's quick and easy =)

Grocery List:

Low sodium soy sauce

Sesame Oil

Frozen and semi thawed stir fry veggies (use whatever combo you like and if you have fresh veggies use em!)

Precooked Asian noodles (most grocery stores have them in the Asian or International isle, but feel free to use pasta)

Garlic- two whole. peeled cloves and about two cloves minced

Light olive oil or canola oil

S and P

The Low Down:

I take the extra few minutes and infuse some oil with garlic (if you like ginger, infuse the oil with a few peeled hunks of it). That way my veggies have an extra boost of flavor.

 1. Over low heat, let two peeled garlic gloves flavor a few tablespoons of oil (Don’t mince it, it’s hard to remove it that way!).

Side note- If you think you put too much oil in the pan, like I always do, before you add in your veggies pour some oil into another container and reserve it, or after you add your noodles to the veggies pour some onto the noodles, that’s what I usually do.  

Okay, back to business. Once you can smell the garlic, remove the cloves and discard them (about 5-7 minutes). Their work here is done.

Now that your oil is infused, crank up the heat and add in your semi thawed veggies. Stir fry them until they are just about cooked BUT NOT MUSHY and season them with a lil S and P. Go easy on the S because you are going to add in soy sauce. Right before you add in your pasta/noodles, add in one, chopped garlic clove and let that cook for another minute or so, being careful not to let it burn. Burned garlic=yucky!

Add in the noodles (try and separate them as you add them to the pan because they are usually clumped together) and combine with the veggies. Add in a couple glugs of soy sauce (this is really to taste) another chopped garlic clove and let everything marry for a few minutes. Turn off the heat and add a drizzle (a lil goes a long way here) of sesame oil and stir to combine.

Enjoy!

What’s for dinner this week

Monday- Marinated, seared and then roasted pork tenderloin with garlic and herb roasted potatoes.

Tuesday- It’s our anniversary, and whereas most couples go out for a nice dinner, we are staying in. To be honest, we are kind of over going out to dinner because that’s all we did in CT. Tonight I am bringing the steakhouse to us. I am making dry rubbed T-bones with homemade onion rings, baked potatoes with the works, and ice berg wedges topped with ranch and bacon.

Wednesday- Grilled pork loin chops with garlic rice.

Thursday- Meatball Parm grinders.

Friday-Sunday- We will be at Disney’s new resort, the Aulani, for our anniversary stay-cation hooray!

Chicken Parm Pizza

This bad boy was born after I had some leftover, bread chicken cutlets in the fridge from dinner the night before. Not wanting to make chicken Parm with pasta or a sandwhich, the lightbulb when off in my head (yes, this sometimes happends) and I came up with this use for leftovers.

Grocery List:
Pizza dough (if you are feeling frisky, make your own, I, however, used store bought dough aka Pillsbury pizza dough in a tube that I doctor up)
Leftover, breaded chicken
Sauce (again, if you are feeling frisky, make your own, I just used jarred stuff, because, well, that's what I had on hand)
Fresh mozzerella cheese (shredded will do the trick)
Fresh basil
EVOO
S and P
Italian seasoning


The Low Down:
Unroll the dough onto a pizza stone sprayed with cooking spray (a sheet try will work just fine). Spread it out so it's an even thickness. If it tears, don't freak out, just mush it back together.

Sprinkle on on S and P, Italian seasoning and some EVOO.

Bake it on 425 for 10 minutes.

While the crust prebakes and gets brown, chop up your leftover breaded chicken.

When the crust has browned slighlty, spread a thin layer of sauce, pile on the chicken and spread it out so every bite gets some, top it with the cheese and sprinkle on the basil.

Return it to the oven for another 10-12 minutes so the cheese melts and the rest of the ingredients get warm.

Enjoy!

Breakfast Party

I love breakfast and I love to entertain so I married the two together and had some friends over for breakfast. Not that she has ever steered me wrong, but the Barefoot Contessa was right when she said early morning entertaining is easy!

I have been wanting to try two of my friend’s recipes and this was the perfect opportunity to test-drive them. The best part was they are make-ahead wonders. I am usually weirded out but making things made a head of time, but these two bad boys proved me wrong. The ingredients were easy for me to find at the commissary here and the prep is minimal, pretty much consisting of cracking eggs and whisking them together, and clean up is a breeze.

The recipes call to bake them at two different temps, so I started them both off at 350 and then halfway through turned the oven to 375 and the came out great!

When I woke up in the morning, I took them out of the fridge, set the table, preheated the oven and once the oven beeped, I put ‘em in. While they were cooking I made some bacon and started the coffee pot AND took a shower (crazyness)! My guests arrived and about five minutes later breakfast was ready, pretty awesome in my book! And the best part was the food was awesome! Try ‘em out!

Italian Strata 

Compliments of Emily Borland 

Grocery List:

1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes chopped, (if in oil you may want to rinse off)

12 oz. Italian sausage, bulk (I opted for mild)

3 1/2 cups milk

8 eggs

1 tsp. Thyme minced (1/2 teaspoon if using dried spices)

Salt and Pepper to taste

11 slices of white sandwich bread

1 onion chopped (I cheated and used frozen, chopped onions)

1/4 cup chopped fresh Basil

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmiggiano Reggiano (Not the Kraft kind people!) 

Topping:

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup crumbled soft fresh goat cheese (I omitted this)

1/2 cup Flat Leaf Parsley

The Low Down:

1. Sauté sausage over medium heat until cooked through, breaking up with a spoon. Transfer to towel-lined plate to drain. Butter a 13x9x2 inch baking dish.

2. Whisk milk, eggs, thyme, salt and pepper in a large bowl to blend. Add sun dried tomatoes, sausage, onion, bread, basil, and grated cheese.

Stir to blend and transfer to buttered baking dish. Cover and refrigerate at least four hours or overnight.

Next Day:

1.    Preheat oven to 375. Bake Strata uncovered until puffed and golden brown, about 45 minutes. Sprinkle with mozzarella, and goat cheese and bake till cheeses melt, about 5 more minutes. Garnish with parsley.

Creme Brulee French Toast


Compliments of Emily Borland’s Mother-in-Law Zebbie 

Grocery list:

1/2 cup Butter


1 cup Brown Sugar


2 Tbsp. Corn Syrup


1 8-9 inch round loaf of bread like Challah, or the Hawaiian Sweet Bread

5 eggs


1 1/2 cups of Half and Half


1 Tbsp. Vanilla Extract


1 Tbsp. Almond Extract (Or if you don't have it, double the Vanilla. It's just as good)


1/4 tsp. Salt


1/2 cup Sliced Almonds (I ommited these)

The Low Down:

Heat butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently until it is all melted together.

Pour mixture into the bottom of a 13x9x2inch pan.

Slice the bread into 1-inch slices and layer upright into the pan and you may need to squeeze the bread slightly for it to all fit in.

Whisk together in a medium size bowl eggs, half and half, vanilla and almond extract and the salt.

Pour custard mixture evenly over the bread. Push the bread down slightly so that it soaks up all of the mixture.

Cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours, or overnight.

In the a.m. Preheat oven to 350. Remove casserole from fridge and let come to room temperature. Top with sliced almonds. Bake uncovered for 35-40 minutes.


Pizza Party

BBQ Chicken Pizza

To Buy List:
1 Pkg. thin cut chicken breasts
1 Bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce
1 Bag of Part Skim, Four Cheese Mexican Blend
1 Container Pillsbury Pizza Dough (If you can find the thin crust one use that one)
Pizza stone (if you have one, if not, lightly oily whatever size cookie sheet you have)
Salt, Pepper, Olive oil

The Low Down:
Season the chicken with salt, pepper and drizzle it with olive oil (I have this seasoning from Tastefully Simple called Garlic Garlic that I also sprinkle on top of the chicken).

Grill the chicken (indoors or out, doesn’t matter), adding BBQ sauce to the cooked side. Do this until it’s cooked, the sauces starts to caramelize and it looks done (I know I am so specific).

Let it rest. While the chicken cools, preheat the oven to 425. Take out your dough and press it onto your cookie sheet/pizza stone (mine is square, makes it easier since it comes out of the can in a square shape) so it’s an even thickness (if it tears, which it will, just press it back together). I like to season my dough with salt, pepper and drizzle it with olive oil and prick the center of it with a fork.

Put the dough in the oven for 5-7 minutes until it gets slightly brown.

In the meantime, cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.

Take the dough out of the oven, spread a layer of BBQ sauce over it, sprinkle the cooked chicken and then sprinkle the cheese over the top (use however much cheese you like). Then drizzle some more BBQ sauce of it.

Bake it for another 10-12 minutes just so the cheese melts and the crust gets to a nice golden brown.

Enjoy!

What’s for dinner tonight

Monday: Grilled chicken/breaded chicken (depends how my workday goes) with a cheesy/broccoli pasta.

Tuesday: Out for my birthday dinner. The hubs hasn’t told me where yet =)

Wednesday: Ribeye steaks with oven roasted garlic and herb potatoes  .          

Thursday: Orange chicken with rice and mixed vegetables.

Friday-Monday: Big Island for my birthday weekend =)