Chicken Fried Rice

I am not a big fan of Asian food. No sushi for me, either. However, I do like fried rice. Now that I've learned to make it, it makes an easy lunch or leftover for me to have during the week.

I have made it with chicken and without. It is better than chicken if you have it on hand. We had it without chicken and added frozen egg rolls to complete our dinner.

Easy Chicken Fried Rice

recipe from Rachel Schultz.com

4 cups rice, prepared½ pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked (I recommend using slow cooker teriyaki chicken)1 cup peas & carrots, frozen1 white onion, chopped2 cloves garlic, minced2 eggs3 tablespoons sesame oil (I used canola)¼ cup soy sauce

Prepare rice according to package instructions to yield 4 cups cooked rice. Heat oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add onion, garlic, peas, and carrots. Stir fry until tender. Crack eggs into pan and scramble, mixing throughout vegetables. Add rice, chicken, and soy sauce to pan. Stir in soy sauce and remove from heat.

Paulina's Asian Butternut Squash Soup

I love soup in the fall and winter months, but I can honestly only eat so much chicken tortilla, taco soup or chili. I was excited when Paulina recommended a Butternut Squash Soup. 

Start with a large butternut squash, peel it, cut it in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Without Paulina, I would have had no clue what part of this vegetable you eat!

Give it a rough chop, cubing it and boil it in water until soft like a potato. In the meantime, with a little butter and olive oil, saute 1 onion with equal parts celery and carrots. You want the celery and carrots to be an even amount to the onion. Saute for about 5 minutes and add to soft squash.

Next, add some garlic and fresh ginger, about the size of your thumb. You can easily peel ginger with a spoon- I had no idea! Add some salt, a spicy pepper (like a habanero) and lemongrass! To open up the flavoring of the lemongrass, beat it with the back of a spoon or a knife. You want the flavoring of the lemongrass, but eating it can be too much. Pull it out of the soup before you blend it all up!

Doesn't it look so pretty! Next, you'll want to add a little coconut milk to the soup. We bought canned coconut milk in the Asian, not the cold milk found in the dairy section. Add about 1/3 the can. You can always add more to taste.

Your soup is now ready to be blended up. We used an emulsification blender which can be placed right inside the soup. Without it, you have to ladle all the soup into your food processor! 

We garnished our warm soup with more coconut milk, cilantro (my favorite) and bacon. Paulina recommends it with crab meat also. Delish- this soup is beautiful, impressive, and tastes great!

I love all the real ingredients in this soup- it is full of vitamins and that helps with my 2013 resolutions! For more resolutions, click on the button on the left.