Quick and easy lunch: chicken fried rice

Now, I am a fan of Chinese takeout as much as the next person, but lately, I've been preferring to make my own, as it is cheaper and healthier. Stir-fry is a good, quick meal for me for dinners, especially when I'm just cooking for me as I have been the past two weeks. But since it is just me, I end up with TONS of leftovers and I can only reheat the same dish so many times. Plus, rice tends to get rather dry and (in my opinion, gross) when it sits in the refrigerator for too long. So what's a girl to do? Well, in my case, I make fried rice, which is good for lunch when I've got a busy afternoon of classes or meetings, which is where I will be spending this afternoon.

I start with one egg, beating it with a teaspoon of soy sauce (you can use more or less, depending on your preference), then scrambling it in a saucepan that has been heated with just a few drops of oil (I don't really measure, but I'd guesstimate that it's about half a teaspoon):

When the egg is scrambled, remove all those lovely little bits onto a plate and keep warm (on a side note, aren't our dishes lovely?):

In that same saucepan, put half a cup of leftover vegetables (this particular batch of stir fry was from a kit, so the noodles were in the original. Also, I added chicken when I made the stir fry the first time--you can add it or leave it out because it's yummy either way) and saute them until they are hot:

Add half a cup of rice (more or less as you desire) on top of the vegetables:

And pour in about 3-4 more teaspoons of soy sauce. I like a lot of soy sauce, so I used 4 (and I use low-sodium, so it's not quite as bad for me!). Stir these ingredients until everything is nice and hot; it makes a great crackling sound once you add the soy sauce and the kitchen smells lovely!

Once it's all nice and hot, put the eggs back in and stir to mix:

Then dish it out onto a pretty serving dish and top with some Chinese noodles (at least, that's what I like to do).

The nice thing about this is that it can be customized to whatever I have on hand--no chicken? No problem! If you like beef or shrimp, that can be added instead of the chicken. Any particular vegetable you can't stand (mine would be mushrooms) can be left out. And since I make it myself, I know there's nothing yucky like MSG added.

Having a kitchen is bliss :)

Brunching with my grandparents :)

Tonight I called my grandpa to invite him and Grandma (who is flying home tomorrow from visiting her sister in CA) over for breakfast after church on Sunday. And I just think that it's pretty fantastic that I can invite them over to my new place; I'm glad that I have a place to invite them to and I'm glad we're close enough to do that.

Growing up, none of my cousins were fortunate enough to live as close to my grandparents as I do. I used to spend every afternoon over at their house after I finished my schoolwork--it was my grandpa that taught me to cook. We would sit in his big brown recliner, me on his lap, and watch cooking shows, after which we'd make dinner for the three of us. Between helping Grandpa and my mom, I was always in the kitchen, which I believe is what makes me love cooking today.

My grandma and I would go shopping together, which we still do; I'm sure she appreciates it much more now that I'm trying not to dress her like a disco drag queen (if it was hideous and sequined, I thought she'd be beautiful in it!). She taught me to hunt for a bargain and to never purchase something unless I loved it. She has also always thought I was beautiful and tried to get me to dress that way.

I'm so excited about them coming because during the last 3 years, they have been nothing but supportive of my academics. Not that my parents have not been, because they are wonderful, but there's something about my relationship with my grandparents that makes their support and encouragement extra special; perhaps it is the fact that I am not as close with my dad's parents as I am with my mom's, my Grandma and Grandpa. (By the way, one of my favorite recent memories was the time in April that they came to MC for a grandparent's luncheon and we took a tour of this apartment building before it was anywhere close to finished. Brittany, one of my fellow staff members took a picture of my grandpa in a pink hard hat--priceless! I think I'm the only person in the world that he would do that for, even if it was rather grudgingly :)) . So now I'm off to bed, but after work tomorrow, I'm going shopping for brunch! Yay!

Honey, I'm Home!

I'm sitting at the desk in my new bedroom in my apartment! I'm surrounded by boxes, but luckily my kitchen is (mostly) put away, thanks to my mama and her wonderful help: she washed all my new pots and pans and helped me figure out where everything should go. My family has left now and I have a few hours to unpack before I need to head downstairs to begin training. Pictures will come soon, I promise! Once I find my camera, that is...