A Yankee in Texas

I am always trying to think of ways to liven up Brown Rice. I love the stuff, but it’s a bit bland on it’s own. I was watching a cooking show, this afternoon, where they made Chili Oil and the first thing I though of was ‘That would be great on Brown Rice”.

I adjusted the recipe a little ans scaled it down to the amount I would need for a weeks worth of rice.

Here is my adjusted recipe:

1/4 Cup Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Red Pepper Flakes
2 Tablespoons Chopped Garlic

Instructions:
Preheated a sauce pan to medium high heat, add the ingredients, and cooked until everything is brown, but not burnt.

The result was not exactly as I had planned as the solids had become all clumped together. I decided to strain the oil from the solids. Once the most of the oil was removed I broke up the garlic and pepper and added twp tablespoons of the solids back to the oil. You can see the results in the image below.

I think next time I will just start with 1 Tablespoon of Garlic and Red Pepper Flakes and see how that works out.

Here is a Tablespoon of Chili Oil mixed with 1.5 cups of cooked Brown Rice.

I had a taste and all I can say is…. wow that Chili Oil packs a real punch.

– Jeremy

1/2 cup Lemon Juice
1 Tablespoon Grated Ginger
2 Teaspoons Crushed Garlic
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Black Pepper
1/2 Teaspoon paprika

This is enough for 2-4 chicken breasts. Marinade for 1-2 hours.

I marinated for 2 hours and it gave the chicken a very distinct lemon flavor.
This marinade met with mixed reviews. I loved it. Nicole thought it was too
much lemon flavor.

Sorry no pictures this time.

– Jeremy

Honey Ginger Marinade

1/2 tablespoon grated Ginger
1 tablespoon crusted Garlic
3 tablespoons Honey
3 tablespoons Lite Soy Sauce
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

– Jeremy

So after Nicole and I started eating out on the balcony every once and a while. We decided we should buy a grill. We aren’t allowed to have a conventional grill of course, but electric grills are allowed. I did some research and narrowed it down to a George Foreman unit that looks a bit like a Webber kettle grill. I was going to order it from Amazon, but I remembered seeing one at Costco the last time we went shopping there.

Monday I stopped at Costco on my way home… the grills weren’t on the end cap where I had seen them. So I looked around and found the display. A tag near the grill said they would be receiving more on 4/15 (Tuesday). Tuesday Nicole stopped in and still nothing, but she was assured if they had them they’d be out on Wednesday. On Wednesday I ran over to Costco during my lunch and still no grills to be had. I was about to throw in the towel and order it on Amazon after a bit of discussion we decided to check back later in the week. There was no real rush since ordering online wouldn’t have gotten us the grill by the weekend anyway.

Tonight after work I stopped at Costco. I honestly didn’t have much hope, but there they were. I grabbed one, checked out, drove home and set it up. Then Nicole and I ran to the store to grab some burgers to make on our new grill.

Lid down and preheating.

The lid has this cool knob thing inside that allows to rest the lid on the edge of the grill while you are tending to your food.

You can see it a little bit better in this photo.

Raw meat meets new grill!

The finished product. Not the best photo… sorry.

The view from the balcony while I was grilling.

Doesn’t get much better than this….

– Jeremy

If you’ve ever seen the movies V for Vendetta or Moonstruck you might be familiar with Egg in a Basket. The basic idea is a piece of bread with a hole made in the middle that you put in to a skillet with butter, then you crack an egg in the hole and cook it until the egg is done. I tried this recipe a month or so ago and now I am hooked on it. So I decided I wanted to try make it a bit healthier, but still just as good.

I replaced the butter with cooking spray, the white bread with whole wheat and the whole egg with egg whites. Here is the result:

As a treat for Sunday brunch I cooked up some Center Cut Bacon.

The Nutritional break down looks like this:

Serving Size: 2 slices

Calories: 96

Fat: 0.5 grams

Carbs: 17 grams

Protein: 12 grams

Fiber: 6 grams

Sodium: 229 milligrams

This alone isn’t going to make much of a breakfast, but I am going to try pairing it with a bowl of Kashi cereal with soy milk.

– Jeremy