all about color - fried rice and other good for you essentials

One trend that seems to be consistent in all good and good for you food is the presence of color. You see red tomatoes, orange carrots, yellow peppers, purple radicchio, golden beets, and a myriad of other flavorful accouterments intermingled with leafy greens, beige quinoa, bright orange sweet potatoes. Whenever you are putting something good in your body it's healthful benefits seem to be recognizable in the colorful display your food shows. I often use this rule when putting together a dish; if I am uncertain or it just doesn't quite look "pretty enough" I start to think of what color, what nutrient, what garnish is needed to finish my creation. 

Do you have soy-balsamic glazed chicken in front of you? maybe it needs a few scallions or a sprinkle of sesame seed on top. Did you make creamy butternut squash soup? maybe it could you a few Gorgonzola crumbles and a sprig of fresh sage. How about a quick salad you put together on the fly for lunch? It's got leafy greens, tomato, carrots, red onion... maybe add in a scoop of sunflower seeds.

Those are just a few examples, really the possibilities are endless. So try it out! add color, add flavor, mix it up and get creative and see what kinds of fabulous you come up with. Feel free to comment and let me know what ways you find to add color to your favorite meals, and best wishes in your culinary creations.

Healthful Fried Rice (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 1 tbls olive oil
• 1 large carrot, cut into 1/2" pieces
• 1/4 large red onion
• 1 bunch green beans, cut into 1/2" 
• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 1 egg
• 1-2 oz cheddar, shredded
• salt and pepper to season

Directions:

1. Heat oil in medium saucepan over med-high heat. Add carrot, onion, and green beans and saute 4-5 minutes.
2. When vegetables are sauteed and still slightly crisp, add the brown rice and mix into vegetables until the rice is heated through.
3. After rice is heated through, crack the egg over the the top of the mixture and immediately stir to combine. The egg will integrate throughout the rice and vegetables as you stir; you should not have any big pieces of egg in the pan.
4. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle the cheese over the top. Cover the pan for 1-2 minutes while the heat from the pan melts the cheese; when the cheese is fully melted, serve hot and enjoy!

Soy Balsamic Glazed Chicken Legs

I have realized the reason I have never been successful at making a blog before. When I'm indulging myself in food blogs, seeing what's new and tasty out on the internet, I always see these wonderful step-by-step photos that look incredible and give such an amazing description of how the recipe is put together I think Pioneer Woman started this. It's so handy to see what the ingredients should look like as you go "Did I reach the softball stage yet? Should I have bought a thermometer? What does 'softball stage' mean anyhow?" and this is something I've greatly appreciated about Halmost every blog I frequent. How on earth do they get such wonderful photos as they go? When I start cooking there is no time for photography. I find a recipe most fitting for first my cravings, and second what I already have on hand, and then I turn my brain on to partial capacity and let my senses take the wheel. I begin with a general idea of the process and a definite hunger in mind. As I work through the recipe things slowly come together and I make changes based on what my instincts tell me: more seasoning, more bite, more heat, more BUTTER, etc, and most of the time it's pretty incredible (not to toot my own horn or anything..)

So within this process, this aimless culinary safari, I usually completely omit the documentation step. I become enthralled with the end product and by the time the creating is done, I am beyond hungry. I am starved, excited, anxious, RAVENOUS. And hell if I'm getting a camera to take some fancy photo before indulging in my plate of delicious. 

I sit down and I enjoy every bite. I contemplate, I analyze, I quench, and oh man is it good. By the time I'm done eating and my plate is clean the thought usually dances through my mind, "Oh wow, that was really good. I should have taken pictures and put them in a blog or something." And then I just go for seconds and move on with my life. 

There have been countless meals, quick breads, snakes, and treats where this situation has replayed itself and, seeing that it's a habit I am powerless to shake, I give you Soy Balsamic Glazed Chicken Legs.

Soy Balsamic Glazed Chicken Legs

Ingredients:

• 6-8 chicken drumsticks, skin on
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tbls chili paste or Sriracha
• 1 tbls molasses or honey
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger (you can use 1 tsp of fresh if you want)
• 2 tbsp scallions, chopped (optional)
• 1 tsp sesame seeds (optional)
• White rice (sub chicken broth for water)

Directions:

1. In a heavy saucepan, brown the chicken on high for 3-4 minutes (use oil or butter if using skinless legs). While legs are browning combing water, vinegar, soy sauce, chili paste, molasses, garlic, and ginger in a separate bowl.
2. When legs are browned, add the soy-balsamic mixture to saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered for 20 minutes. Remove the cover and allow the sauced to reduce down for 8-10 more minutes, turning the chicken occasionally. 
3. Once the sauce is reduced to a glaze and the chicken is cooked through, transfer the legs to a serving platter and pour the glaze over the top. Garnish with scallions and sesame seeds or completely forget this step because it was so tasty at this point that you forgot the garnish and just started stuffing your face.
4. Serve over white rice.

i love food.

I love food. I truly do. The biggest struggle I've had in my life is most surely how to make food a career that involves just as much variety and exploration as my heart desires. This may seem obvious, "Why don't you open your own restaurant?" but any successful restaurant can only take so many risks and make so many menu changes before people start needing some consistency "Do you still make that risotto I had in November, that was incredible".

Regardless of amount, quality, hunger, meal, or ethnicity, food is essential to life and absolutely necessary to continue day in and day out. There are no doubt a myriad of struggles and successes all of us will face in our journeys but one thing is true among every being on the planet and that is the necessity of food. This requirement has always held some amount of beauty to me: this one element unites us all and gives us something to come together over. I can't help but think there is purpose in this design and pleasure in it's realization. If the pure bliss of high quality chocolate or crippling sensation of fall-off-the-bone ribs or simple pleasure of a homemade apple pie was not enough, the fact that we all need food to survive is enough to make me want to taste and learn more.

With this deep passion for food and desire for widespread variation I've decided to start a blog. My knowledge of cooking and baking is ever growing and there's no sense in keeping all this good information to myself. So here it is, this is my food, my passion, and my love. It will fill your bellies, warm your soul, and help surround your table with friends, family, and love.

Best wishes and happy tummies to all who find time to enjoy my blog.