Fried Rice

The kids requested pb&j for lunch today, but I just couldn't face it.  So I rummaged through the fridge and realized we had some leftover brown rice.  Fried Rice inspiration struck and I whipped some up.  Success!

Fried Rice is a HELFY all-star; my kids devoured it (so did I), it's very easy & quite healthy.  On the frugal front - hello cheapness.  It's a beautiful meat stretcher and uses up bits & pieces that may otherwise go to waste.

I didn't measure anything - just winged(?) it.  I used stuff I had on hand, but it's open to crazy variation.  Any veggie, frozen or fresh would work.  Same goes for meat - any leftovers in your fridge will do.  It would even be good vegetarian - just leave out the meat.

Here's how I made it:

• Dice up 3/4 of a carrot and 1/3 of a red bell pepper.  
• Put a little veg oil in a skillet on med heat, add above veg with a little salt and saute for several minutes with the lid on.  Stir occasionally.
• Dice up leftover pork loin (maybe 1/3 cup?), add to veg mixture and stir.  Saute for a couple more minutes.
• Add leftover rice (I had about 1.5 cups), stir.  
• Add soy sauce - like 1 Tablespoon, or to taste, stir 'er up.
• Crack 3 eggs in a bowl with a touch of salt and beat them up good.   
• Scooch all the veggies to one side of the skillet.  Dump the eggs in the empty side and cook until done, stirring pretty often (this will take several minutes).
• Chop 1 or 2 green onions, add them to the mix and stir.
• Season with additional soy sauce or salt if needed.  A teeny bit of sesame oil would be nice too.

That looks like a lot of steps now that I've written it out, but I promise it's easy!  And quick - it took me less than 15 minutes.

Finally, here's a little breakfast flashback.  Green pancakes look disgusting.

Green pancakes and green yogurt.  I'm glad the kids liked them, cuz EEEWWW.

p.s. I managed to write all this while my kids played together peacefully.  You have no idea how monumental this is.

HELFY Cupcakes and Hard Working Soup

For your HELFY pleasure today, I bring you two recipes...

Spaghetti Cupcakes

For reals!  These taste really good.  They're a great way to use up leftover spaghetti & sauce.  Bonus: they're quite portable - great for a lunch or snack.  The other night we made spaghetti pie - same ingredients, but you dump it all into a casserole dish rather than using a muffin pan.  Spaghetti Pie still tastes good, but definitely lacks the cute factor of the cupcake. 

And now, we have a contribution from our own MooMoo.  I haven't tried this yet, but I will, and soon.  It sounds delicious.  And my pantry could use a good clean-out (hey - know of any recipes that will get my laundry done??).

Clean-Out-The-Pantry Minestrone Soup CrockPot Recipe
From the Crockpot 365 blog.

• 3 cups chicken broth (canned or "fresh")
• 2 cans of whatever kind of beans you like (drained)
• 1 can tomatoes (and juice)
• 1 can corn (and juice)
• vegetables (e.g. roasted broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, asparagus)
• salt and pepper to taste

Drain and rinse beans; add to crock.
Add the juice and vegetables from the corn and tomato cans.
Cover with chicken broth. Unless you are vegetarian. Then I would imagine you'd not want to use chicken broth and opt for vegetable stock.
Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4.


In unrelated news, I made a web site!  Check it out. 

XOXOXOXO

We have HELFY!

I figured I might as well put these in a blog so we could keep better track of them.  For our first ever HELFY blog post, let's feed the Bab-E!  I mean, Moo was asking for ideas for feeding a one-ish year old.  Here are a few...

* Scrambled Eggs.  In my HELFY top 10.  They're so quick-n-easy, delicious, cheap-ola, and they make great finger food.  We'll mix in deli meat, cheese, diced veggies, leftovers... whatever's laying around.  A bit of toast (diced or "sticks") on the side, and you have yourself a complete meal.  Bonus - they refrig & reheat well.  I often make a bunch just so I have leftovers.

*  Pancakes.  Awesome finger food.  I used to dice them or cut them into "sticks" for my kids.  I like to make them from scratch because A) it's easy, B) you can get more variety, and C) I prefer to avoid weird ingredients.  We had these, with whole wheat pastry flour this morning, and they were GOOD.  You could not tell they were whole grain - really light, and the flavor was so great.  These pumpkin pancakes from my pal Paula are divine too.  Our favorite pancake topper/dip is plain yogurt mixed with a bit of maple syrup (not pancake syrup - that stuff makes me shudder).  Yum yum yummmm.
Since I've always baked (not cooked), pancakes have never been intimidating for me.  But if you're nervous about baking, pancakes are a great warm-up... some similar ingredients, but a bit less fiddly.

* Roast chicken.  I never realized how easy roasting a whole chicken is - it seems kinda fancy, ya know?  But it's so simple.  I don't love the part where you have to pull the guts out of the inside, but I was able to do it with my eyes closed in a matter of seconds - didn't even pass out (so proud).  Anyhoo, I recently used this recipe and it turned out great - I think I impressed Mr. Helfy!  Shred up a bit of the chicken, and dice up some of the potatoes - perfect for the kiddo (and everyone else).  And for future meals, leftover opportunities abound.
p.s. whole chickens are extra frugal when you make stock from the bones.  Another suuuuuper simple process that I was unaware of til recently.  Bones, bunch of water, chopped onion + other veg... crock pot on low all day... strain... voila!  Stock!

* Tortilla Soup.  This one looks intimidating because it has a long list of ingredients, and several "wait times" - but it's really not difficult to make.  Most importantly, it's delicious!  It's full of a wide variety of bits & pieces that are perfect finger food.  My favorite garnish is diced avocado - the mother of all finger foods. 

* Baking Bonus: graham crackers.  It's a stretch to call these healthy (graham cookies might be a more appropriate name), but they have some whole wheat flour, so we'll go with it.  Very, very yummy - they reminded me of shortbread.  The kids LOVED them like crazy people.  As for level of simplicity - they're similar to making a rolled cookie, but you cut out squares with a knife rather than using cookie cutters.  If you've made sugar cookies before, this recipe will be straightforward... if you haven't, you should try!  With this recipe, since it's healthy (we're still pretending here)! 
Notes: I subbed whole wheat pastry flour for all of the whole wheat flour.  And for the all-purpose flour, I subbed in 1/2 cup of whole wheat pastry flour.  I used 1/2 cup brown sugar instead of 1/4 brown and 1/4 granulated (regular) sugar - mostly out of laziness, but also cuz I like the flavor of brown sugar.  Next time I'll cut back on the sugar a tad... to up the healthiness a tad.  Our dough was in the fridge overnight, and rock-hard when I took it out to bake, so I let it sit 20 minutes before rolling.  When baking, these went from done to overdone QUICKLY - we had more than a few extra-brown (and yet still yummy) crackers.  Oh, and my crackers were far from uniform shape/size, but that did not detract at all.

OK, you guys send me your recent HELFY's.  I need new inspiration!

Happy HELFY-ing!