Food Friday - Fried Rice

Fried Rice
adapted from Life as a Lofthouse

  You may recall that last week I shared a great recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken.  Well, what do you need with good Chinese food?? Fried rice of course!!  I have (or should say had) another recipe that I usually used but this one was much more simple so I thought I would try it out.  Guess what?  It is great! I will say that I used "fresh" rice so it didn't have quite the "bite" that fried rice normally does but the flavor was really good and the left overs were wonderful.  You could turn this into a great lunch by adding a package of chopped ham or salad shrimp to it as well. 

 

Fried Rice                                                                                             

3 cups cooked white rice (day old or leftover rice works best!)

3 tbs sesame oil

1 cup frozen peas and carrots (thawed)

1 small onion, chopped

2 tsp minced garlic

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1/4 cup soy sauce

      On medium high heat, heat the oil in a large skillet or wok.  Add the peas/carrots mix, onion and garlic. Stir fry until tender. Lower the heat to medium low and push the mixture off to one side, then pour your eggs on the other side of skillet and stir fry until scrambled. Now add the rice and soy sauce and blend all together well. Stir fry until thoroughly heated!   **You could really play around with this rice too! Try adding some diced ham, or green onion :) Yum! 

Pinterest Plans - March

First of all, if you want to see what I did (or didn't) accomplish in February, just click HERE.  I did try some things, one even failed HA!

I'm starting to think about summer ideas so I want to make this game from This Old House.

Once again, after ready the description . .. well, I'm not making this HA!  I don't really do saws or anything.  Plus I got a magazine that has lots of fun stuff for outside that is CHEAP :-) 
 
Since St Patrick's Day and Easter hit in the same month . . my April wreath really needs to carry over to May also so I thought that this one from Polka Dot Chair would be perfect.

Watch for an upcoming post on the making of this wreath in April.
One of my goals this month is to take care of my feet to get ready for summer so here is one idea I'll be trying from Buzzle.

I'm also going to try this idea from Ehow.com to help my dry feet.

And, on the other foot, I'll try this idea from KSL.com :-)

Another thing on my goal list (again) is to get a coat rack hung up in our entry way so this is my inspiration from Little Daisy May.  (Ok, the photo is from pinterest and links back to this blog - but to the home page. I did not search for the actual post . . .)

I love this for the bathroom - for the price, I'll probably just order it instead of make it! Check it out over at this Etsy Shop.

I have this marked in Etsy.com to order - it will go into April's budget - I'll share a photo once I have it, and have it on the wall! 
This is something else I'm hoping to buy this month.  I first saw it over at Shannon Makes Stuff.  Maybe my kids will want to be potty trained if we have this cool seat!

As much as I want one - they are a little pricey . . .if I can budget it for it soon, I will order it!!  
 
I'm kinda getting tired of the art in my bathroom and want something more fun so I think I will maybe add this . ..it only links back to a board on  Pinterest as the link only goes to a photo anyway.

One last idea I want to make this month is this birthday calendar from Eighteen 25.  I used to be so good at sending cards but I've slacked off.  I know I love getting them so I want to get back into the routine and this would help me out!

I still need to work on cleaning out my boards.  As I've looked for ideas I want to do I've found lots of things I don't want to make or that are doubles.  I might even just delete my recipe board and start over HA  It is way to big to work with!

March Too Cute Plans

If you would like to check out what I completed in February, just click HERE .  I've updated what I'm doing, what I nixed, and what is on hold.

In going back through my February Too Cute Posts - this is what I want to accomplish this month and my plan on how I want to get it done since there are quite a few!  .

So, i have the supplies for this but haven't made it.  I think the whole idea, with the basic supplies, is going into my "Summer project bin".  Something to do on a rainy (or really hot) day. 

I want to make ONE, yep just one page for each of the boys for a quiet book.
I have supplies to do my first page - I'm actually starting with a farm page - I just have to take the time to do it.  A lot of cutting and some sewing to do - I think it needs to be a Saturday project :-)  

Still need to get the supplies and make this - it is on my goal list for our first camping trip in June.
Getting ready for camping and trips to the beach - I want to make one of these big beach blankets.

Sometimes I don't think through a process.  I am not making these -they will not work on my boys beds due to the set-up and the fact that one has drawers. 
 
The boys would love these to hang on their beds and keep their favorite animals close - this is a "bonus" project . .. not sure if I will get it done, if not it will move ahead a month.

 With spring coming- I want some rainy day things for inside the house - so I want these made :-)
I'm throwing around the idea of buying some others that I found so I haven't made these yet. 
 

Made these - fantastic.  Check out the post HERE
 
Yummy!  An easy recipe to add as a dessert one week.

 I have a bottle of foam soap to use up and then I'll make this and see if it works.
I have the stuff to make this but am waiting to use up the first bottle of soap -  the soap is ALMOST gone!!  Soon I can try this :-)  

 My goal is to make 3 of these muffin tin recipes.  There are quite a few I'd like to try (not all of them - some of them make my stomach turn HA!)
I have not made a single one - after re-reading them, they really didn't interest me. 

 This will be one of our Easter crafts for preschool.
I totally failed Easter Crafts HA  I still want to make this - I'm thinking in May would be good since the birds will all be back! Again, I think the supplies will go in the summer fun bin :-) 

 I will be ordering two of these :-)  These will be awesome for when we go away, go camping, or just travel to Nana's.
I have these marked in Etsy and will be ordering in May so we have them for camping!
 

 Planning to pick out our first chapter book to read with the boys.
We have started reading Little House in the Big Woods - but my boys are typical boys and sitting and listening to a book is not high on their list.  I'm trying though :-) 
 

 Another fun recipe to try :-)
So, I bought some lofthouse cookies a few weeks ago and said to myself, "Why try to imitate perfection?"  So nope, not even going to try. 
 

 This will be a craft for preschool this month.
The directions on this craft are so crazy that I decided not to try - if I can't follow the directions, how can I make it??? 

 This is one of those "iffy" ideas - I'd like to make at least one of the crafts but these might need to get pushed to next month.
They made one at church.  Does that count? 
 

Same with this one - it might be too early to put this out. 
This is back on the radar again :-)  Time to feed the birds!!!

Too Cute Not To Toot

Have you missed a "Too Cute" post recently? Just click HERE to review the posts from this year :-)

Every once in awhile - I run across a "dry" spot with ideas and this week that is what has happened.  A lot of the same ideas keep coming back up so I really did not find anything worth sharing!

Enjoy!

February Preschool

Did we do preschool in February?  Ummm No.  I was sick last week and, quite honestly, didn't do much.  Here's hoping March is better!!  :-)

So, nothing to share this week :-(

A Photo a Day for March and Update on 101 in 1001

A friend of mine posted this on facebook and I decided it looked like fun to try.  I tend to fail at these but this particular friend is a great cheerleader and is part of a Scrapbooking group I'm in so I figured she keep me accountable ;-)  Don't worry that I'm posting this after March 1st - just catch up (no one will ever know!).  I plan to post at the end of the month - a nice long post with just photos but here is a sneak peak.

March 1 - A Clock

The story: My watch.  It has sat on my desk awaiting a battery for about 2 years.  Yes, 2 years.  Why?  I would never remember to take it with me when I went to the mall.  Finally, on February 28th, I remembered and it is like I have an old friend back.  I have missed my watch - Time is my friend. 

On a different note - remember that 101 in 1001 goal list?  Just click on the link if you would like to see an update. 

Weekly Menu

Hello!  Last week went pretty much like planned but due to a snow storm on Tuesday, we had to move dinner plans with friends to Thursday.  We ended up having spaghetti on Tuesday night since I hadn't taken anything out of the freezer to use for dinner.  Spaghetti is one of the boys favorite meals so it worked out well :-)

Can you believe it is March?  I feel like I just said "can you believe it is February?".  We are fighting the normal spring colds in this house but I think we are all on the mend finally.  I wouldn't mind one more good snowstorm this month before spring actually hits. Last year we went from a very mild winter right into summer during March (by that I mean from 30's to 80's overnight). I'd really like a spring with days in the 60's and nights still in the 30's.

So, that had nothing to do with our menu :-)  This weekend I'm working on giving a slight make-over to my recipe binder - I'll share photos next week (you can't wait, can you HA!).  For now, here is our menu plan:

Tuesday:  Korean Taco's, Chips and CHeese and Roasted Green Beans.  This is a recipe that got bumped from last week.  I thought my husband had a concert Sunday so my plans changed but he didn't, so plans changed again :-)

Wednesday: Apple Stuffed Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes and Carrots.  This was also on the plan for last week but didn't happened due to the change in meeting friends for dinner.

Thursday: Crock pot Pork Loin with apples, Homemade Mac and Cheese and Peas.  I've been trying to make this for weeks and want to get it done this week to see if it is a keeper :-)  I need more crock-pot recipes to use in the summer!

Friday: The kids will have Mac and Cheese for dinner; Darryl and I will order in - we haven't done this in awhile since the past few weekends that he has had off, we've had other plans.  Maybe we'll rent a movie too!

Saturday:  We have no plans today! (What??)  If the weather is nice, maybe we will introduce geocaching to the boys if not, we'll just hang out at home.  I happened to catch a Rachel Ray episode last week while Darryl and the boys were out running errands and saw this recipe for Monte Cristo Stuffed Chicken that looked really good.  I'm going to try that tonight and serve it with rice and broccoli.

Sunday: Slow Cooker Pesto Ravioli, green beans, and garlic bread.  Darryl DOES have a concert tonight so we will grab something to eat after the concert.

Monday: Stuffed Meatloaf (a family favorite) mashed potatoes, corn and biscuits.

I have a couple of different cookie recipes in the plans for this week and I think I'll make a Peach dump cake for our dessert this week.