Tuesday is the New Monday.

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Last night my husband asked me what the worst day of the week is for me. Seeing as all days pretty much run into each other since I have stopped working, I just said Monday because, well, Monday’s have always sucked! Especially after a great weekend like we had, so of course Monday is going to fail in comparison!

When I reciprocated the question, he said Tuesdays. I of course laughed at him like I always do, and questioned his answer. He then proceeded with the rebuttal as to why he hates Tuesdays, and it actually made a shit ton of sense. He said Monday’s are usually slow days. Everyone crawls into work from a great weekend, tired and cranky that they had to wake up early and go into work. Then you spend most of the day catching up on what has happened over the weekend and before you know it, it’s time to go home. As for Tuesday’s, you are finally set in your groove, plowing through all the work, meetings, and reporting but then you realize its only Tuesday.  You are 4 long, grueling days away from your weekend and its highly depressing. I never thought of it like that and had to commend him on this observation.

Made me re-think my answer. I’m thinkin’ Tuesdays are the new Monday’s.

Annnd that’s my random thought for the day.

- Amanda

 

What do you think?? Are Tuesday’s the new Monday’s or does Monday still suck for you?

Fried Brown Rice

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Here is the most absolutely delicious, better than your local Chinese takeout place fried rice recipe, as promised from yesterday. I stumbled upon this recipe on this site called Pinterest. I don’t know if any of you have ever heard of it…or if I ever mentioned it before….(subtle sarcasm much?) I’ve attempted fried rice numerous times, and it always came out greasy or just tasting way too much like soy sauce.

I had brown rice in the house and made about 3 cups worth. Ate one cup that night with my husband, and save the last 2 cups for this fried rice. Left over rice is the key to making this taste amazing.

So with out further a-do…

Fried Brown Rice

adapted from Life as a Lofthouse’s recipe

fried brown rice. yes please!

  • 2 cups Brown Rice, leftover
  • 3 TBS Sesame Oil
  • 1 cup frozen peas and carrots
  • 1 small onion chopped
  • 2 tsp minced garlic (I ran out of garlic and omitted it. Still tasted amazing w/o it)
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce

If you have a wok, fire that up on medium-high heat, if not a large pan will do. Heat the 3 tablespoons of sesame oil then add your onions, peas, carrots and garlic (if you’re using it). Cook those for a few minutes, then push to the side of the wok/pan.

Lower the heat a bit, down to medium, and add your lightly beaten egg. Cook it around as if you were cooking a scrambled egg.

Once the egg is cooked, add rice and the soy sauce and mix together well. Cook that up till everything is nice and warm.

Easy right?!

It tastes amazing, even left over and reheated!

- Amanda

Better-Than-Takeout Baked Sweet Chinese Chicken

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Who doesn’t love a good Chinese food take-out night?

I have always loved attempting to make my own Chinese, Thai, and Oriental foods. I’ve attempted – as you can see attempted is the operative word – fried wontons, pad thai, lo mein, sesame chicken and lettuce wraps.  I succeeded maybe 2 out of 5 times. So last week as part of my daily routine, I was scouring Pinterest for new recipes and came across one for Sweet & Sour baked Chicken.

I was intrigued.

I have been craving it for some time and figured to test it out for dinner. In pure Anti-Mom fashion, I was missing (and forgot) some of the key ingredients. I said eff it, and just went along with it anyway. I was out that night and my husband ate it before I could try it out. I was praying it wasn’t a huge fail but the final product turned out better than I could have ever imagined. Instead of a typical sweet and sour Chinese chicken, it was more along the lines of a General Tso – all it was missing was a kick of spice.

Better-Than-Takeout Baked Sweet Chinese Chicken

delish.

Chicken:

  • 3 -4 chicken breast
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • 1 cup of Corn Starch
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1/4 cup Canola Oil

Sweet Sauce:

  • 3/4 cup of sugar
  • 2 TBS Ketchup
  • 3 TBS BBQ Sauce
  • 1/2 cup Vinegar
  • Optional: 1 TBS Soy Sauce (this is the ingredient I forgot. bleh)
  • Optional: Red Pepper Flakes for some spice

Pre-heat the oven to 325. Rinse chicken and cut into cubes. Season with salt and pepper. Take 2 shallow dishes and beat 2 eggs in one and put the corn starch in the other. Dip the chicken in the corn starch first, then in the eggs.

Heat the canola oil in a large pan on medium-high heat and cook the chicken till it browns but be sure you don’t cook all the way through. Place the browned chicken in a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan/dish.

In a small bowl, whisk the sauce ingredients together then pour over it all over the chicken evenly. Bake for 1 hour, giving the chicken a nice stir every 15 minutes.

Try it out, I promise you will not be disappointed. Stay tuned for my  Fried Brown Rice recipe. It makes a great freakin’ side to this chicken! YUM!

- Amanda