Any Pei Wei Lovers Out There?

I LOVE Pei Wei. I love their fried rice. I shovel it into my mouth like I am not going to eat again for days. Then I swallow huge amounts of it at a time and wonder if its all going to make it down. Oh, its so good.

Yesterday I came across this recipe on allrecipes.com

Colorful Fried Rice.

Colorful.Wonderful.Flavorful.Easy-ful. The last one is a made up word, but seriously this recipe was incredibly easy to follow.

I wanted to share with all of my millions of blog readers. So, consider yourself lucky if you are one of those millions.

I doubled the recipe and thank goodness I did. Between the 2.5 people that I feed in this house, we ate it all. So here is what I used.

Colorful Fried Rice

 Ingredients:

3 cups cold cooked rice

3 green onions, chopped

1 large carrot, diced

1/2 cup frozed peas, thawed

2-3 T soy sauce (I used low sodium)

2 T fresh chopped parsley

2 T olive oil

2 eggs, beaten

salt & pepper to taste

1. Cook rice ahead of time and refrigerate. (I guess its less mushy this way)

2. Thaw out the frozen peas

3. In skillet, cook and stir the rice, green onions, carrots, peas, soy sauce and parsley in oil until the onions are tender and rice is heated through. 

4. Add the eggs. Cook and stir until its completely set. 

5. Season to taste and ENJOY!

Worst.Blogger.Ever.

That's me.


So, to update you on the past year, here it goes.

Christmas came, and went. Spring was beautiful. I graduated from Texas A&M. We went on a few vacations, and are loving life.

Photo Proof:

We had a baby horse and named him Pistol

Easter 2011

My cowboy

San Antonio Fun

Graduation, May 2011

 My beautiful cousin, AJ got married

Family Vacation in Destin, Florida

 

I will post about Brooks' 2nd birthday party and a 5 day hiking trip soon, maybe even in two separate posts.

Brooks' 1st Birthday

Brooks turned 1 on August 26th. Yes, I know- two months ago.

Our family and friends came over and helped us celebrate. We had tacos, cupcakes, cake and slushies. Brooks got many 'toddler' toys which has been fun. A scooter, a sit and spin, toy cars, dump trucks and a push tricycle (I will explain this one with pictures).  I had lots of fun with the decorations. My ideas came from links from The Shipley's blog from when their little boy Eli turned 1 in February.



I started back at school-commuting to A&M this fall, Brooks is walking and making messes and Key is applying to Law School. We have been busy around these parts! Here are some pictures from Brooks' Birthday Party.
 Like any good mom, I did not take ONE picture. not one. So I got these off of my mom's camera. So frustrating.

 

 

This is the pushable tricycle. He LOVES it.
(I wrote this post oner a month ago, and it has been sitting as a draft. Brooks has grown leaps and bounds since these pictures. Also, this tricycle you see here? Its definitely not as shiny.) 

For all you baby mommas

You dont have to be a baby momma to read this post.  I have only just run into an issue with having time to work out since I have had a bebe.

I am a runner. I like to sweat  buckets when I work out. I like to get my heart pumping. It makes me feel good. But it is too hot out there right now and I miss lifting weights.

I have a little munchkin to take care of, and since living in the boonies, the closest gym is 25 minutes away. I LOVE going to the gym,  but for now, my living room must be my gym. Also, its cheaper.

Key bought P90X over a year ago, and I was very pregnant when he got it. I said, after Brooks was born, I am going to do it! Well, it kicked my butt, so I just decided to run to stay in shape. Brooks was a champ in the jogging stroller. As summer rolled around it was too hot. My poor baby came home more sweaty that I was. So I stopped running. lame. I tried P90X again and like it, but it took up too much time. (I fit my work out in while Brooks is napping. This is also when I do the bulk of my household chores) So I only did it once or twice a week. I promise I have a point to this story. Just wait. I saw a friend who looked amaazing. I asked her what she did. Alont with running and biking, she does workout videos. I told my mom about it, and last week, my mom purchased them from target when she saw them on sale. Then I stole them from her. One was The Biggest Loser Cardio Max. The other was Yoga Melt Down.

LOVE THEM.

They were $10 each. Thirty minute workouts. You can go longer in the biggest loser when you work up to it. The point is, these workouts are awesome. You should try them.  Do not be discouraged. I could not even do the "easy" yoga workout all the way through for the first week. Now I can do it all, although I have not moved up to the "hard" workout. 

In addition to the great workout, it's only 30 minutes long! Woo! It is way more do-able than an hour+ workout for this season in my life.. Go out, buy these DVD's, or Netflix them (or any other workout video) move the furniture, invite some friends over and work out! It's fun! I promise.

Country Potato Soup. Make it now. Then eat it.

I know, I know... Potato Soup is not healthy. Especially this version. But it is too yummy to not share. I made it last week after I was given a bag of potatoes.

It is a copycat recipe of La Madeline's Country Potato Soup. For real, it tastes like the potato soup from La Madeline's. Favorite. Scrumptious. Delightful.  

Country Potato Soup

you will need:
1/8 cup butter, unsalted
2 leeks, thinly sliced (white part only)
1 large yellow onion, sliced 
1 1/2 quarts of chicken stock
4 large peeled potatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch slices
salt, to taste
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 cup heavy cream
cheddar cheese, grated
bacon, cooked and diced


what to do with it:
Melt butter in large pot. add leeks (I had to ask a grocer what the heck leeks were the first time I made this soup) and onion and cook until just translucent. no not brown the poor things.

Add the chicken stock, potatoes, salt and fresh thyme. dont skimp on the thyme. its what makes this soup awesome.

Cook over medium heat for about 40 minutes, stirring frequently to avoid scorching. Add the cream slowly and bring to a boil.


Voila! Toss some cheese in you own bowl, sprinkle some crunchy bacon pieces on top and enjoy.

Family Pictures

We drove up to College Station a few weeks ago, and had our family pictures taken by Ryan Price.   Ryan and his wife did an amazing job. Sara (Ryan's wife) was responsible for making Brooks smile. she was successful. They made us look good.

Here are some of my favorites that Ryan took before the rain came.

Yeah, I know. Its a lot of pictures.  Now I have to decide which ones I want for our house.

Brooks is 9 1/2 months.  I can not believe we have an almost one year old! What a fun year it has been! He is officially fulling up on everything in sight.  Today, he pulled up on the tv and highchair. Two things that had given him trouble before. A few days ago, he mastered the toilet. He has been trying that one for a while, but has not been able to pull up. I was cleaning around the house the other day, and was walking from room to room.  Sweet little Brooks was trying to keep up with me, but once he was in the bathroom he had stayed put for a while. When I made my way back into the bathroom, he was standing at the toilet, with his hand swirling all around. Thankfully, I had just just scrubbed the toilet. Still gross, but that fact made me feel a LOT better about Brooks' new accomplishment. Oh little boys.

Quinoa Vegetable Soup

Hi Folks,

I made Quinoa Vegetable Soup on Monday for lunch. Key ended up not coming home for lunch that day to try this yummy soup.  But that night, he came home, "doctored" it up, and loved it. Right honey? Right.

He pan seared ribeye steak, cut it into small pieces and added that.  Also, he seasoned it up.  Men. I cant help you out with what he seasoned it up with, because I was outside giving riding lessons. So, go with whatever tastes good to you.

I used the box of Ancient Harvest Quinoa.

It's the box second from the right. "Traditional" Quinoa.

The recipe I followed is on their Website.

I did some tweaking. But the recipe is as follows:

Quinoa Vegetable Soup

4 cups water                                            2 cloves garlic, chopped
¼ cup quinoa                                           1 Tbs safflower oil
½ cup carrots, diced                                 ½ cup tomatoes, chopped
¼ cup celery, diced                                   ½ cup cabbage, chopped
2 Tbs onions, chopped                               1 tsp salt
¼ cup green pepper, diced                            parsley, chopped    

Sauté quinoa, carrots, celery, onions, green pepper and garlic in oil until golden brown. Add water, tomatoes and cabbage and bring to a boil. Simmer 20 to 30 minutes or until tender. Season to taste and garnish with parsley. Serves 4-6.   This is a very basic recipe for quinoa vegetable soup. For variations try adding some of your other favorite vegetables, chopped and sautéed.   Quinoa can be a welcome addition to just about any type of soup

I had most of these veggies in (my mom's) garden, so it was super yummy using home grown tomatoes and green pepper, especially.  The quinoa expands and fluffls up in the soup almost like barley or rice would.  So the measly ole 1/4 cup that you use, goes further than you would think.

I also added peas to my soup. Key does not like peas, but I did not have cabbage, So I figured that I needed to add something in its place.

It was super duper easy to make, light on the tummy, healthy and most of all, yummy.

Enjoy!