My friend at work, her name is Zully---she's the one who has named my baby Izzy---brought some delicious looking rice to heat up for lunch the other day. I thought it looked so delicious that I had her explain how to make it, and here's my attempt! Now, I love rice. I used to be the biggest fan of just plain, white rice. I've found myself branching out. Actually, I branched out a little in college with what I thought was tasty, and since being pregnant I have branched out a ton more. I like a lot more flavor than I used to. Especially things like condiments and sauces. Sterling and Adam were looking at me and Aleesha and decided it was the extra sugar and/or salt that made it appealing. Whatever. Fact of the matter is: Plain, white rice is somewhat boring now. So I was excited to try this recipe. Now, she told me to use a clove of garlic, and two buillion cubes...I didn't have either (I bought the buillion that is not cubed, because then I can measure it out easier for other recipes) but garlic powder and plain chicken buillion seemed to work fine...although I think I would have gotten a little more flavor from what she said to use. So here's how it goes:Heat a little bit of oil and garlic clove in a frying pan.
Add rice. Stir for a few minutes on high heat so that rice starts to turn up on corners and look crusty.
Add water (the normal amount you use with the amount of rice you used...so with one cup of rice, two cups of water) and it starts boiling and bubbling like crazy. Add two chicken buillion cubes and don't mix in, just let sit. You can stir about a bit, but basically you just wait the 10-15 minutes that it normally takes rice to cook, letting it bubble like crazy the whole time. Wahla...your rice is complete.
What I loved about this recipe: it makes the rice crispy, which I really enjoy.
What I did not love: Maybe it was because I was using imitation garlic and guessing on how much buillion, but I didn't think it wowed the flavor category. I'd add more of both.
The other part of that picture was tomatoes and green beans, and that has an awesome story to go with it as well! Last week at married's committe, myself and a couple other people were complaining about how much we spend on produce every week...when someone told us about this amazing program called the Bountiful Basket!!! You're supposed to volunteer every so often with the program, and for doing so, you get a huge laundry basket full of fruits and veggies for only $16!!!! The girl said you get so much fruit and veggies that one couple cannot possibly eat it in a week without everything going bad...so she goes in with some in-laws, and they only pay $8 per week and get more than enough goodness to go around! So me and my friend Kelsey (my old roommate who got married in November) decided to give it a try. On Saturday morning we picked up our laundry basket full and received: one container of strawberries, one container of blueberries, one cantaloupe, one lettuce, one pineapple, one HUGE bag of delicious green beans, six bananas, two apples, and eight tomatoes. Thats all I can remember. So by halfing it, Sterling and I came home with: one container of strawberries(Kelsey took the blueberries), one cantaloupe(Kelsey took the pineapple), half of a lettuce (the good green fluffy kind, not the circle kind), half a bag of delicious green beans, four bananas, one apple, and four tomatoes. The only disappointment: the apples. So that afternoon during our grocery shopping we got about fifteen more(I eat at least two a day, because its easy to take to work with me and I usually eat one while deciding what to make for dinner). But that was all for EIGHT DOLLARS!!!! Everything was in great condition, has tasted fabulous, and everything is perfectly ripe, although we're waiting a bit longer for the cantaloupe, and the bananas were quite green(better than black!). I have been very excited about this discovery, and am excited to continue getting their stuff---and eventually volunteering now and then to help out---along with Kelsey. They also sell bread at a great price, but I make mine, so Kelsey thought that maybe every couple of weeks they'd add bread onto our cart for themselves. So, that was my dinner.
You might have noticed there was no meat. Sterling worked tonight. I know I am pretty far along in my pregnancy, but I'm still not loving the meat. And because Sterling wasn't around to look sad, I didn't bother making any to go with my meal.
Pictures of us ice skating at our marrieds activity on Wednesday:
Eric and Britney pretending to fall over as they almost crashed into us.
A very white picture, so we decided to try again....
Uh....not so great. I started falling over. So the smiling-while-trying-to-hold-onto-Sterling-for-dear-life was not working out so great.
Finally, a decent picture. Yay for ice skating! And my excuse for not blogging this week (not that I feel accountable, just so that people know about my life) I worked mon-wed and then had a dental convention on thursday and friday in SLC. It was actually pretty fun. Namely because my employer paid for us to go, which meant I was getting continuing education credits for free, and he paid for us to go to another lecture over lunch at the Marriot, and it was pretty good (they had a stuffed tomato that I have GOT to figure our a recipe for!) and as an added bonus I saw almost my entire class from dental hygiene, at one point or another! It was fun to bump into the girls separately and hear how their lives and careers were working out. One of my good friends Candace is due two days after me! Anyway, good times, especially because I sat by Zully the entire time and we laughed at the speakers. More good times.