Fried rice with broccoli

Aynaria 5 Comments

One morning this week, I made fried rice with broccoli. The day before, I’d told my daughter that I’d make her vegetable fried rice in her zojirushi lunch jar, and that morning I realized all the fried rice was gone. Whoops!

Vegan.Broccoli and carrots.11.18.13

Fortunately, this dish didn’t take too long to make. I had a steady supply of vegetables in the fridge and so I pulled out my trusty hand hammered steel wok and started cooking. I didn’t have to worry about preparing the brown rice, since I’d pressure cooked some a few days before.

I really loved the above photo, it was so colorful and I was tempted to just leave it as it was, with only a light saute, but since I promised my daughter ‘vegetable fried rice.’

Vegan.Veggie stir fry.11.18.13

I added the most important ingredient… rice and a few other things were added, such as the freshly ground herbs/spices you see in the above photo. I’d just tossed them in the wok.

Zojirushi stainless lunch jar; Veggies, rice and meatballs

Aynaria 5 Comments

As you can see… discovering, the hot lunch jars has definitely expanded the types of homemade foods that I can add to my 10yo daughters lunches. As I already mentioned, the lunches I prepared before were homemade, but I was limited since she wasn’t using an insulated lunch box.

This week my daughter had a variety of hot meals in her lunch such as; egg rolls, vegetable fried rice, chicken breasts, pasta, black beans and rice and a few other hot lunches also. I’ve included some photos below.

Zojirushi hot lunch jar meatballs n rice_1.11.17.13
Zojirushi hot lunch jar meatballs and brown rice

Earlier this week I made meatballs, brown rice and vegetables to put into my daughters Zojirushi stainless lunch jar.

Zojirushi hot lunch jar - cheesy broccoli
Pressure cooked broccoli and cauliflower with shredded cheese.

 

Towards the end of last week, I picked up some Japanese ‘bento decorations’ and have been having fun adding cute little touches to my daughters hot lunches. I definitely won’t be spending a lot of time in food the design department, but I don’t mind adding a few moments to dress up my daughter’s lunch a bit. I’m sure my skills will improve the more I play around with the cute little bento tools.

Zojirushi hot lunch jar meatballs n rice_3.11.17.13

A close picture of the meatballs swimming in a fragrant mushroom sauce. I added a few cute animal tooth picks to dress up the dish. Aren’t they adorable? It sort of looks like they are resting on mounds of earth.  My daughter loved seeing these decorations in her Zojirushi lunch jar.

Bento - food cutters
Grapes and carrots… I used cookie cutters to make animal shapes with the carrots.

 

Yesterday (Thursday) marked a week that my daughter has been using the zojirushi insulated lunch jar, and each day she’s brought home an empty lunch. It only takes about ten minutes to pack leftover foods into her lunch in the morning. The rewards are having my daughter bring an empty lunch box home.

Pets on kitchen countertops

Aynaria 6 Comments

A sure fire way to ensure that I never ever eat in a persons house is to see someones pet sprawled about the kitchen counter-top and they don’t do a darn thing about it.  Eww, gross!

Let’s face it, animals can pad through all sorts of junk. I’m not even going to think about a cat trotting in and out of a litter box and bringing those same filthy paws anywhere in our kitchen.  No matter how awesome I think pets are, I draw the line at having them lounging anywhere in the kitchen or licking my face.

I’m not sure how that topic of pets and cooking came up at work, but it did. Interestingly enough, that’s something that none of us liked.

House of the Rising Sun

Aynaria 6 Comments

Earlier this week, I heard this song.

I’ve heard it a few times but never caught the name or the group until this week. I’ll definitely be adding Animals, House of the Rising Sun, to my iPod.

“House Of The Rising Sun”

There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I’m one

My mother was a tailor
She sewed my new bluejeans
My father was a gamblin’ man
Down in New Orleans

Now the only thing a gambler needs
Is a suitcase and trunk
And the only time he’s satisfied
Is when he’s on a drunk

[Organ Solo]

Oh mother tell your children
Not to do what I have done
Spend your lives in sin and misery
In the House of the Rising Sun

Well, I got one foot on the platform
The other foot on the train
I’m goin’ back to New Orleans
To wear that ball and chain

Well, there is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I’m one

Cooking Adventures: Sausage making

Aynaria 2 Comments

This afternoon, after work, I’m giving my daughter a class on sausage making.  Yes, I won the Vintage Griwold meat grinder. It arrived on Tuesday, and it appears to be in excellent condition. The only thing left for us to do is start grinding. I’m looking forward to making homemade sausage with my daughter. I have many fond memories of making it with my mother and brother.

The internet is still down at home. A technician will be out tomorrow to fix the issue. They wanted to send someone out today,  but I was not available during the times offered. Somehow my daughter and I are surviving, imagine that! 😉 To be perfectly honest, we are fine without the internet, so we aren’t going through any withdrawals. At home, there’s so much for us to do that often times the internet is something we do in our down time.

Last evening, I finished a knitting a scrunchy for my hair. I meant to wear it to work today, but it’s still sitting on the kitchen table at home. Oh well… maybe tomorrow, right?

Modem went kaput

Aynaria 5 Comments

Yesterday, my daughter and I were running around in the virtual environment of World of Warcraft, when we lost our internet connection.

wow-battle-chestThis past Friday, I converted her trial account to a regular WoW subscription. Over the weekend, we spent a total of three hours running around in the gaming world.  Because of a Recruit a Friend, it does not take long to level. We’re currently level 15.  We could have gone a lot farther, leveling wise, if we online long. But as I told her, everything in moderation. More on that in another post.

But back to my internet connection, Initially, I thought thaWestell modemt the DSL service might be down in our area. It does not happen much. It’s only been out twice in the past six years and that was only a few hours? After chatting with one of the Verizon technicians it looks like it might be our modem. I’ve had the modem for at least ten years. I guess it’s high time I upgrade, right?

The good news is Verizon will upgrade the modem for free. We should receive it tomorrow. And what an upgrade it is. The technician told me that the modem can be connected or wireless.

 

When you’re strange…

Aynaria 4 Comments

Perhaps one of the reasons I like this songs so much is because I’ve been called strange a lot. I don’t take being called ‘strange’ an insult.

 

When You’re Strange is one of my favorite songs by The Doors. Jim Morrision (lead singer) died in 1971 from drug complications, the year after I was born.