So here is a new recipe I invented. I am a huge fan of Asian food, but I don't want to go out to eat every night or eat loads of MSG. Besides, there is no good Asian food around here. So here is my recipe for healthy fried rice. This recipe works best if you start a day or two ahead.
You need:
2 cups long grain brown rice
live yogurt
water
a jar or tub about 1 or 2 quarts*
chicken broth (I used homemade bone broth)
then:
shrimp*
fish sauce ( you could probably use soy sauce for this)
teriyaki sauce
pepper
1/2 an onion
I like to put in a cup of mung bean sprouts, but it probably isn't necessary*
butter/ olive oil/ whatever grease you like to use.
Put your rice in the jug with the water and a tablespoon or two of yogurt. Put this in a warm place and let sit for 24 hours. You can put it in the fridge after this for a couple of days if you aren't going to use it right away. Then drain it, but save the water to soak your next batch in. (This removes phytates and anti-nutrients, according to Sally Fallon.) Put the rice in a pot of boiling chicken broth and/or water (1.25 to 2 cups, depending on how firm or mushy you like your rice.) Turn your burner down to the lowest heat, cover, and cook for 20-40 minutes, depending on your taste. After this, your rice is done. During the latter part of the rice simmering, heat 1TBSP of butter and 1 TBSP olive oil in a frying pan. Chop the onion and cook it soft but not mushy. Add frozen shrimp and thaw. Add rice, then pepper and about 1 TBSP fish sauce and about half that amount of teriyaki sauce. Cook while mixing until everything is hot, then add bean sprouts and cook until they just begin to wilt (about a minute). There it is: fried rice. My husband loves this recipe, and it is very nutritious. (You could make it even better by adding other vegetables.)
*My money saving tips:
This is a pretty easy and cheap meal, but to make it even cheaper you can do a couple of things.
1. I use empty yogurt containers for soaking and storing leftovers. They are convenient and free, and you don't have to feel bad about it if something inside turns into a science experiment and you want to just throw it away.
2. Wal-Mart (boo/ hiss from the Perfects who only shop at Whole Foods here :) sells 2-lb bags of tiny, wild-caught shrimp for $10. They are pre-cooked and pre-peeled. They have a stronger flavor than the big shrimp, but I like them (especially in pasta or rice or anything that benefits from a shrimpy taste to the sauce) and they are the ultimate healthy convenience food- just open the bag, throw a couple of handfuls into a recipe and reseal the resealable bag. I find about a handful and a half to be a serving for me, but I like them a LOT.
3.Mung beans- you can sprout your own or buy them from and Asian market. It's worth a trip if you have an Asian market around- I paid $3.50 for you tiny bottle of fish sauce at Martin's and then went to the market and found three times the amount for $2.50. The stuff from the market is probably better, though I haven't tried in. It's covered in Asian lettering. The international market around here also has wild-caught fish at great prices. An international market will have other good stuff cheaper, like produce and sproutable grains. Though if you have a Sharp Shopper of other bulk/ discount store around, you can get good deals there too, and they may have organic grains cheaper than you can imagine.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Welcome!
Hello and Welcome to my rant! I have created this blog to share my experiences as a new stay-at-home mom and homemaker (and student, but that is beside the point.) I love surfing the net, but I get tired of reading blogs by all those perfect people- you know, the people whose kid never cries because she's being worn in a sling while mother perfect whips up a low-fat meal with a salad. Father Perfect comes home from his office job and does the housework so Mother Perfect can stare adoringly into her baby's eyes. (GAG, PUKE, GREEN WITH JEALOUSY) So if you want to hear Mother Perfect talk about life witht he Perects, now would be the time to hit your BACK button.
I'm blogging about a real family. My family is me, the returning to college SAHM with a bad horse addiction, my hubby, the over-worked and working out construction worker, and the Bear, who is ten weeks old and a wonderful smiley snuggly who is still trying to figure out her world (can you imagine what a headache that must be? I'd want to scream, too!) I can't imagine how angry it must make her to be so helpless. She latches onto every chance to do things like a big person. She want's to sit up and play video games with her Daddy, and she grabs for that orange that Mommy is eating but just won't share (mean Mommy, not even a taste for the Bear!) My "other kid" is my horse, Sunday. He is the sweetest appendix QH gelding in the world. He's got a pretty good life other than being a highly trained and talented horse who is near bomb-proof saddled with a neurotically under confident owner who really likes the quest to fix his hoof problems more than riding him. (Success draws near.) We also have two dogs, the sweet and silly Grimmauldus (named after a Black Templar captain out of Warhammer 40K) and the Roka, my spitz-mutt. Their best friend is POY, a cat whose stripes spell P-O-Y and who likes to eat dog food and try to bark at stink bugs.
On top of starting college again, and probably re-opening the horseshoeing business, we have decided to embark on a plan of healthy eating, so I am going through a good bit of the Nourishing Traditions cookbook, by Sally Fallon. Again though, I lack the pseudo-religious devotion that so many have towards their food. I make bone broth and soak grains, but I also try to cut down on costs. A $250 a week grocery budget? Even with the husband making the big bucks, that's just excessive. So I don't buy everything organic. I buy meat from the local slaughter-house which is owned by a friend. He gives me liver and bones and heart for free. Most of his stuff is local, and to be honest, I think it is better than most "organic" stuff. My horse lives with his cattle, which are turned out to pasture 24/7. They get a little grain to fatten up for slaughter, but that's all. His suppliers are the farms in the area that I can't drive by and see cattle grazing or sleeping in the sun.
My eggs come from the woman across the street. Her chickens and ducks run around and pick bugs out of her Appaloosa horse poop and eat the grain that drips out of their mouths. Her eggs are delicious, better than the "organic" eggs at the store.
In the summer, I buy produce from the farmstand. In the spring I plan to start a garden, though it will be a bit of work because I have to go with raised beds. Veggies don't grow so well on hard-pan on the side of a mountain.
Well, that is what I will be writing about- my boring life. And my rants.
I'm blogging about a real family. My family is me, the returning to college SAHM with a bad horse addiction, my hubby, the over-worked and working out construction worker, and the Bear, who is ten weeks old and a wonderful smiley snuggly who is still trying to figure out her world (can you imagine what a headache that must be? I'd want to scream, too!) I can't imagine how angry it must make her to be so helpless. She latches onto every chance to do things like a big person. She want's to sit up and play video games with her Daddy, and she grabs for that orange that Mommy is eating but just won't share (mean Mommy, not even a taste for the Bear!) My "other kid" is my horse, Sunday. He is the sweetest appendix QH gelding in the world. He's got a pretty good life other than being a highly trained and talented horse who is near bomb-proof saddled with a neurotically under confident owner who really likes the quest to fix his hoof problems more than riding him. (Success draws near.) We also have two dogs, the sweet and silly Grimmauldus (named after a Black Templar captain out of Warhammer 40K) and the Roka, my spitz-mutt. Their best friend is POY, a cat whose stripes spell P-O-Y and who likes to eat dog food and try to bark at stink bugs.
On top of starting college again, and probably re-opening the horseshoeing business, we have decided to embark on a plan of healthy eating, so I am going through a good bit of the Nourishing Traditions cookbook, by Sally Fallon. Again though, I lack the pseudo-religious devotion that so many have towards their food. I make bone broth and soak grains, but I also try to cut down on costs. A $250 a week grocery budget? Even with the husband making the big bucks, that's just excessive. So I don't buy everything organic. I buy meat from the local slaughter-house which is owned by a friend. He gives me liver and bones and heart for free. Most of his stuff is local, and to be honest, I think it is better than most "organic" stuff. My horse lives with his cattle, which are turned out to pasture 24/7. They get a little grain to fatten up for slaughter, but that's all. His suppliers are the farms in the area that I can't drive by and see cattle grazing or sleeping in the sun.
My eggs come from the woman across the street. Her chickens and ducks run around and pick bugs out of her Appaloosa horse poop and eat the grain that drips out of their mouths. Her eggs are delicious, better than the "organic" eggs at the store.
In the summer, I buy produce from the farmstand. In the spring I plan to start a garden, though it will be a bit of work because I have to go with raised beds. Veggies don't grow so well on hard-pan on the side of a mountain.
Well, that is what I will be writing about- my boring life. And my rants.
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