Day #65 - Red Robin

Another lady that I work with has owned her own Transcription business for many, many years. Recently she purchased a digital dictation / transcription system to make her life easier. She hired Jim to help her get the program set up. So we headed over to her house on Sunday morning. It ended up taking until about 9:00 that night to get it set up. It was crazy - but she treated us to dinner at Red Robin (of course!).

Day #64 - BLT's

I have coworker who is moving to Oregon - well let me rephrase that - she was supposed to be moving down to Oregon, but changed her mind at the last minute. To make a long story short - she has been staying at our house for the last week so I haven't really had time to blog about our meals. So today I'm playing catch up - I apologize for the lack of blogging.

Saturday night it was just Jim and myself for dinner. We spent the evening putting together a puzzle and then had BLT's for dinner. It was simple.

Day #63 - Chicken Fried Rice

My dad makes the best fried rice in the Universe and my goal in life is to make a fried rice that is as good as his before I die. Tonight I attempted and it was good - but not as good as his.

I bought a HUGE bag of brown rice from Costco a LONG time ago - and it's been staring at me in the pantry for the last couple of weeks. So tonight's meal was planned to try and use up some of the brown rice.

It was really simple to make - and it actually tasted really good - but I still can't get it to taste like my dad's!!!

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Brown Rice

2 Cups of Water

1 Tbsp Butter

3 Eggs

3 Slices Bacon

1 lb Chicken Cooked & Cut Into 1/2" Pieces

1 Cup Frozen Peas

2 Tbsp Tamari or Soy Sauce

Directions:

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Rinse rice in a strainer until the water runs clear. Add rice to boiling water and boil for one minute. Turn the heat to low and continue to let rice cook (covered) for 30 minutes.

Cut bacon into 1/4" x 1/2" strips. Cook in a large skillet over medium-high heat. About half way through cooking the bacon, add the egg and scramble. Don't forget to keep an eye on your bacon so it doesn't burn. When the eggs and bacon are both done, remove from the pan and set aside (save the grease from the bacon in the skillet).

After cooking the rice for 30 minutes, heat up your skillet with the bacon grease - there probably won't be enough bacon grease to get your rice all nice and fried, so I added 1 Tbsp of a healthy butter substitute to help the process. When the butter is melted, add rice and allow to cook and brown. Stir occasionally to keep from burning. Add Tamari sauce or Soy sauce and mixed. Add frozen peas and chicken pieces and cook for another one minute.

Add the bacon and egg mixture and cook long enough to heat through. Serve and Enjoy!

Day #62 - The Sloppy Joe

When I made this recipe last time, it made so much, I was able to throw the extra in a container and freeze it. Today we pulled the Sloppy Joe mix out of the freezer and went back to our childhood days once more. It was STILL really good - even after being in the freezer for a month and a half.

The recipe and nutrition information can be found at this link:

http://madewithloveforthoseilove.blogspot.com/2011/01/day-11-dressed-up-sloppy-joes.html

Day #61 - It's Shake 'N Bake: And I Helped!

Tonight I was introduced to some of the advantages to having a "stay at home husband". Although this is only a temporary situation (we hope), Jim's time at home has been very much appreciated. Tonight I came home from work to a clean kitchen and a fully prepared meal consisting of Shake 'N Bake Chicken, Golden Baby Potatoes, and Steamed Asparagus. Let me just tell you, it was FANTABULOUS!!!

And not only did I get dinner - but there was dessert too (although I did help make the dessert). Jim made a really yummy yellow cake and we topped it with homemade milk chocolate ganache frosting! I'm not a HUGE chocolate fan - in fact, it sometimes makes me gag. But holy heck - this chocolate ganache could be eaten by the spoonfuls - it was THAT good.

All in all - we had a really good meal. And now it's time for some ice water and Survivor! Later Gators!

Day #60 - Sausage & Egg McMuffins

I'm pretty sure I've expressed my love for just about all breakfast foods before. Well - breakfast is also one of the easiest meals to cook (in my opinion) and after working 11 hours tonight, I was excited to see "breakfast" had been put on the menu for tonight!!! What's even better is that I got to put my feet up and relax while my husband made dinner and waited on me tonight! It was fabulous!

Ingredients:

1 Whole Wheat English Muffin

1 Whole Egg

1 Sausage Patty

1 Slide of Cheese (Optional)

Directions: Um - I'm thinking directions aren't necessary. If you can't figure it out, I'm sure there's a video on Youtube you can follow. Let me know how that goes....

Day #59 - Leftover Navy Bean Soup

We were supposed to have beef & broccoli with brown rice today. After pulling the beef out of the freezer and letting it defrost, Jim decided it didn't look safe to use. So he made Chicken & Broccoli with brown rice, using the "beef & broccoli" seasoninng packet which didn't really fly with me. So - while he and Kayla choked down "chicken & broccoli", I opted for some leftover Navy Bean Soup with a Sourdough roll. It was really good! I'm convinced that any kind of soup or stew tastes better the next day.

See Day #57 for the recipe and nutritional information!