Free the Fridge Fried Rice

My actual stove with my concoction. YUM!

There are a lot of odds and ends in my fridge right now. What to do with all that? MAKE AWESOME FRIEND RICE!

Bowls had frozen veggies, scrambled eggs,
and cooked onions in it. I added them
right in just like in those cooking shows. 

1. Cook about 2 cups in a rice cooker, or boil it, no big.


2. Anything you want to put in that is not cooked yet, cook that first. So scramble an egg for lots of protein, bake that single chicken breast left in the bag, or pull the last bits of ham off that pig leg your roommate's dad bought you a week ago. Once cooked, cut it into bite size peices.


3. Collect random left overs. Get together the last of the bags of frozen peas/carrots/broccoli/green beans, pretty much any veggies you have will go great in your rice. Maybe fry up the other half of the onion left over from last night's dinner.


4. Put it all in the pan. The meats, egg, veggies, and then rice on medium heat.


5. Push it all around and warm it all up. Add soy sause.... maybe like a 4th cup? I usually just eye ball it till the rice is the right color. But just test it along the way and make sure it doesnt get too salty.


6. Season to your liking. Onion powder? Garlic powder? or better yet some chopped garlic. Dash of pepper? Go with what ya feel and just keep tasting it after you add the new ingredient.

Rock those chopsitcks!

7. WAHLAH! once its all heated up, enjoy with chopsticks if you are into that. Now your fridge is cleaned out some and there will probably be some left overs and that means you have lunch for the rest of the week! SUPER!








What recipe do you use to free up room in the fridge? Do you end up throwing a lot of left overs away? Ever tried mac and cheese in a rice cooker? I did :D

You know you're in College when...sday

You know you're in college when you spend all your 

food money on cute spring dresses

 and then have to pay for a sonic shake in dimes and nickels. 

I couldn't use quarters, I need those 

for laundry. :P

Curious for some tips on doing laundry in commumity washers? Trying to pinch pennies? How about saving on water?

You know you're in College when...sday

When you have to make strange substitutes when it comes to completing a recipe.

 JT and I had our hearts set on noodles with alfredo sauce for lunch the other day but we had no milk, which the alfredo powder recipe required. Franticly, we texted neighbors and friends searching for a 1 1/2 cups of milk with no avail. We didn't want to run to the store so searching the fridge, we found rice milk and used that. It turned out great! :P

It reminds me of the time I used margarita salt on my mac and cheese because its the only kind of salt we had.

Lets eat peanut butter- or a guide to basic healthy eating by adding protein to your diet.

I am no expert on super healthy eating, but I like to think my mother is and she has passed onto me a ton of knowledge about easy healthy eating.  Here are some tips that I follow and hopefully they can give y'all some good ideas to help you eat healthier and live better.

The way your body processes food is that protein gives you long term energy and carbs give you short term energy. So if you eat a bag of chips you will stay full for like 20-30 min. But if you eat a scrambled egg you will stay full for like and hour or two. When you combine protein and carbs in a meal, they work together to keep you full for 3-4 hours depending on how much you eat. But the kind of protein/carb you eat can also be a large factor. The more complex the carb, the better it stays with you and the more protein in the item, the longer it keeps you full.
Here are the steps/information to eating and staying full till the next meal and what to do if your hungry before dinner!

1. Know what carbs are great for you and which are empty calories. Starches and sugars are carbs.

So bread/rice/pasta/potatoes ect. are starches. The whiter the starch, the less great it is for you and the less complex the carb is. So eat brown rice instead of white, get whole grain bread to make your sandwiches with and use whole grain noodles for pasta.

Fruit/some veggies/juice and other things with sugar in them are sugars. The sugars in fruit and stuff are good for you, but the sugar in juice/lemonade/candy/snacks are simple sugars and don't stick with you as well. So you will be hungry soon later.

2. Eat high meals with high protein so you will not need to eat as much through out the day.

Things high in protein: eggs, beans, nuts, meat, fish, cheese, PEANUT BUTTER (a big staple in the waking up in waco household)

3. Your meals should have a protein, a starch, and a veggie. When my roommates and I plan our dinners for the week we make sure these three categories are represented. So brown noodle pasta with meal sauce and green beans heated in the microwave and covered in lemon pepper is easy and great for ya. Frozen veggies you steam in the microwave are our favorite because they are quick and crunchy when they are done (if you don't over cook them). Unlike canned veggies that are...less crunchy and fresh seeming.

4. Snack Healthy. If you are hungry between meals, my rule of thumb is drink a big glass of water. If you are dehydrated your body may try to tell you by making you feel hungry. So after a glass of water, if  you are still hungry and not just bored, have a piece of whole grain toast with peanut butter and a bit of honey. Or an apple with peanut butter. Maybe a handful of almonds/granola and some yogurt. Or a turkey and peanut butter sandwich (i like it, though i only know one other person who doesnt think its gross). Or you can just eat a spoonful of peanut butter. (Can be good for on the go) :P

Oh and don't buy junk food anymore, or just buy a small bag/box/can of your favorite junk food and  only eat it occasionally to make it last all week. Instead put that money toward fruit, whole grain stuff(a bit more expensive the regular) and nuts to snack on. If there is no junk food to snack on, then you can make a healthy choice easy!

5. Eat sweets if you really want to. I am totally over this whole feeling guilty for having a piece of that cake covered in sprinkles on the counter. It's there, it looks delicious, and if I have been making healthy choices all day it should not be a big deal.

This is not an exhaustive list. Nor an I any kind of expert, this is the rough guideline I follow when I put meals together for myself and my roommates. Meant to be helpful and not absolutely scientifically accurate, and you can tell from all my technical jargon.

What things do you do to eat healthy? Do you eat peanut butter almost every day?

All that work for a sandwich

Since I don't know what kind of college advice you could need while back home, I thought I would share some of my ridiculous end of semester experiences with you. This one occurred while we were slowly running out of food and not planning on buying more because we were leaving for home in a few short days.

So there I was, searching the kitchen for something to eat for dinner, but the options were slim. In the fridge I spotted some strawberry jam and PB&J sounded like a possibility. As the search for bread began, the first loaf I pulled out had only 4 pieces left, but after checking carefully for mold, I decided it was fine to eat. 

All of a sudden something terrible happened. I saw a sugar ant crawl out of a hole in the bread and move across the first half of my planned sandwich. Of course I yelled angrily and threw out the whole bag. But never fear, I told myself, there is more bread in the pantry. Sure enough I found another bag similar the previous one immediately. It contained two heels and a few middle pieces. But this bread was stale and hard as my microeconomics final. So I tossed that in the trash as well.

Next I discovered a few stale hamburger buns and another bag of stale bread. With the trashed count at four, I was getting worried, but also more determined to eat PB&J for dinner. After some rummaging, the final bag of bread was under some uncooked noodles and bags of chips. It was pretty soft and my hopes were high for this loaf. I pulled out one piece and did the preliminary check for mold, examining one corner carefully that looked like it was beginning to get fuzzy. It seemed fine but once I had begun to unscrew the lid to the peanut butter, I yelled and startled my roommates simultaneously. There was an ant on my bread! AGAIN! I killed the ant with an angry pinch and checked the bread for any more intruders. 

It’s a good thing SH knows me so well, because she could see the look in my eye, saying that I was debating using the bread anyway. 

“Just toss it,” she asserted. Trying to talk my down. 

“Its not worth it.” She insisted again. Well my good sense returned and I grudgingly threw away the last of our bread. I wanted PB&J soooooo bad that no sooner had I dropped the bread into the trash did my creative juices kick in and I went straight to the fridge. 

I used a flour tortilla. 

Step One: Peanut Butter

Step Two: Jelly

Make sure to have good ratios

Step Three: Fold

Step Five: Cut into your favorite shape

Thanksgiving Eating-Its wonderful but can Lead to Unhappiness

I got home the other day and in the first three hours home, I had already eaten more then I probably did the whole week previous. I love the coming home and being able to enjoy my mother's cooking and baking along with all the goodies Thanksgiving brings. This brings me to talk about body image and people being worried about body size and gaining weight over the holidays. I would love for all people to realized that all different body types are beautiful. It is important to enjoy what you are supposed to be enjoying on thanksgiving: your family, friends, and what you are thankful for. Hopefully these tips can encourage that.

Move your body for at least 30 min each day. This can be a brisk walk, a jog on the treadmill, or dance around the house with your cousins.

Don't starve yourself waiting for dinner. This leads to over eating and eating way to fast. Snack here and there leading up to the big feast to prevent tummy aches and guilt.

Drink a big glass of water. This is my mother's remedy for almost everything. But it's probably because its a great idea. When you are bored hungry this week, before you eat a huge handful of chips and salsa, drink a big glass of water and wait a few minutes. Sometimes when we are dehydrated we will confuse the feeling with being hungry.

Don't talk to people about being unhappy with your body. This negative self talk won't help anyone and certainly won't help how you feel about yourself. If people bring up how fat they look or how much they hate how much they just ate, leave the conversation, change the topic, or flat out tell them that you don't want to have those kind of conversations. Keep things positive and focus on what is great about you!

There is an amazing blog that I found recently that is all about loving your body and fighting those media images of what we are "supposed to look like". Medicinal Marzipan has some great tips on how to stay healthy during the holidays and if you want to read more about this topic you should definitely check her out!

What's your favorite part of Thanksgiving? How do you stay positive during the bombardment of unattainable body images from the media?