Oh, Solangeee.

People amaze me in the most remarkable way. Minutes ago, I heard on the news that a lady was attacked by a cheetah. A CHEETAH! AND there are photos. Who lets a cheetah loose?!! Now I ask you, if you were watching someone get mauled by a wild animal, would you help them, or would you decide “oh this is such an opportune moment to get some wicked pics of that lady getting eaten by an animal!” Like I said, remarkable decision, really. I am in awe. Luckily she lived, but lets be serious now… As I ponder this further, I wonder what it would be like to witness that event and if I would even dare fight an animal. This just got real scary in my head. I need to go look at something yummy and feel better.

Some recent news, in no particular order…

I’ve realized that my parents are trying to feed my addiction, unwillingly. FiOS guy comes to the house one day, parents chat, some papers are exchanged and BAM we have a new TV/internet/phone provider. Ta ta Cablevision. It’s been real. Hours later, I am perusing the contract (but really the TV listing), I realized their fatal error in this decision. I’d basically stopped watching TV altogether by this point, until I came across the Cooking Channel. Wasn’t it bad enough that my TV didn’t change from the Food Network, ever? Suddenly, an additional cooking channel was at my disposal. Honestly. This was a gross oversight on their behalf. They really should know better by now. I’m almost disgusted. 2 weeks later they call up FiOS because the 500 channels just isn’t enough. Now I have every channel on the planet. Anyone care for a movie night? I’ll bake.

Now for some other news that’s also pretty relevant. I’ve realized many things about myself lately, but one trait in particular - I’m driven on impulse. I think I get it from my parents. This sort of thing just rubs off, right?? Sooo, I flat out quit my job. Then I ended up at a friends house baking margarita cupcakes with a TON of tequila. May is starting out nicely. I want to thank my friends (you know who you are) and parents for supporting me in this decision. Good news is now I have time to watch more of the Cooking Channel and bake to my hearts content.

…somehow those loans will get paid.

I have grand plans for myself, including eating my way through Long Island and NYC. Watch out LA Foodie, I’m about to tackle the East Coast, in style.

I shall begin a segment where I post about various different oatmeal dishes I’ve tried. Not sure how long this will last, but I have a plethora of recipes, so brace yourselves.

I found this to be neat. As soon as I strayed away from old fashioned Quaker oats and learned that there’s more to life than rolled oats, I discovered steel cut. Secretly, I blame Jamba Juice for this.

Make-Ahead Steel Cut Oatmeal

I discovered this recipe as I learned about steel cut oatmeal and wanted to good recipe to start out with and then grow on. It doesn’t require much work and with a little planning you can have 4 breakfasts (or more) made in no time. I love what the banana does to the oatmeal, both as a sweetener and makes creates volume. However, if banana’s aren’t your thing, other fruits will work too. Be creative with it!

Yield: approx. 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 cups water (or 4 cups if NOT using milk)
• 2 cups milk (or other dairy/non-dairy milk)
• 1 cup uncooked steel-cut oats
• 1-2 large bananas, sliced or mashed
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp ground flax or wheat germ (optional)
• 2-3 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• brown sugar to taste (but may not need it)

Instructions:

1. In a medium-sized pot, bring the water almond milk to a boil. Add in steel-cut oats and a pinch of salt and reduce heat to low.

2. Stir in the banana or fruit of choice and ground flax or wheat germ. Simmer on low, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes, stirring every 5 mins or so. (Sometimes I want it really tender and cook it for 35-40 minutes.)

3. When the oats are creamy and tender and to your liking, remove from heat and stir in cinnamon to taste and pure vanilla extract. Serve immediately or allow to cool before transferring into air tight containers in the fridge. In the morning, add a splash of milk and reheat in the micro or on the stove-top.

**As something else to note, I sometimes add cinnamon also during the cooking process, in addition to the cinnamon at the end. I find it gives it more flavor. Some mornings I’m under the impression that cinnamon and ground nutmeg are sole mates, so I add a bit of ground nutmeg along with the cinnamon. I don’t always use vanilla, but feel free to use it if it’s something you love. Raisins and cranberries are GREAT in this too. Add a handful while cooking and they will absorb some water/milk and plump up a bit - also another great natural sweetener. Nuts are fabulous, but i’ll get into that more.

If you want to try a very basic steel cut recipe, just go with:

4 cups water
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup steel-cut oats

…then add anything you want. oatmeal really is a blank canvas.

(Source: ohsheglows.com)

When I was in high school, the mother of a good friend would occasionally make a ridiculous amount of fried rice which would feed a large army… aka my group of hungry friends. Here is the magic rice we ate. Feel free to add meats like pork, chicken, or beef.

Fried Rice:

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups uncooked white rice
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil

Instructions:

1. Cook your rice however you usually prep it. Or, if you have leftover rice, take that out of the fridge and warm it up a bit to get it soft.
2. In a large skillet, cook your eggs (break them apart like scrambled eggs), corn, peas and onions in vegetable oil until the onions are translucent. Add in a couple pinches of salt and pepper. If you have meats in your fried rice, you can cook them with this step. Just make sure they’re small cube/bite-size pieces to keep the size of the ingredients relatively the same.
3. Add in the rice. Keep folding it with the veggies until well-combined. If your rice is hard (from the fridge), try to let it sit in the warm skillet for a little bit and then break it up. You want to make sure there are no big lumps of rice.
4. Pour the soy sauce over the rice. You might want to do this slowly in case it gets too salty for you or in case the rice doesn’t soak up all the soy sauce (at this point, it would mean you need more rice). I’d pour it in 1 circle around the skillet at a time and then mix it altogether and see if there is any rice that’s still white.
5. Continue mixing it together until all incorporated and you see no white rice kernels. Sprinkle pepper on top and mix together one last time. Taste it to make sure it’s to your liking.
6. Serve hot and enjoy!