Quickie!

Ashley, way to blow some dust off the good ol' Domestic Blog! Hi ladies! It's been a while.

Cooking has taken on a whole new dimension now that I am working. It now must fit into TIME. Before I entered this wonderful world of employment (and I truly am loving it), I could go ingredient shopping during the day...chop and measure before hand, then cook at my leisure. If we didn't feel like doing dishes that night, I'd just do them in the morning. Oh not anymore!

Now I'm pretty beat when I get home at 5:30. Tired but STARVING and if we leave pots and pans out overnight, they will remain dirty for the entire week! So what's a hungry ameteur cook to do? Plan ahead, I suppose! The past month or so now Matt and I have figured out a new cooking routine that has been working pretty well. We cook two days a week, usually Monday and Wednesday. Other days consist of leftovers and usually one night of some random thing we decide to make ourselves. It has been working out pretty well! It just takes some planning ahead to get ingredients over the weekends and get things ready as much as possible beforehand.

This is a really simple recipe. And the picture looks really good! And measurements can be eye-balled, depending on preference!

Fast Chicken and Rice

1/2 - 1 cup frozen peas
minute rice- about 4 servings
vegetable oil
about 1 pound chicken breast tenders, halved crosswise (I used chicken breasts and just sliced them)
1/3 cup bottled Stir-fry sauce
Toasted sliced almonds

1. Stir frozen peas into rice and cook rice according to stove top directions.
2. Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Add chicken to skillet; cook and stir until chicken is no longer pink.
3. Stir in rice/peas mixture. Stir in stir-fry sauce (eyeball it so it's enough). Heat through. Sprinkle with almonds.

Very simple and takes less than 30 minutes! My original thought was to make my own "stir fry sauce".... like a sweet and sour sauce or something (one of my recipe books has several sauce recipes), but when I was at the grocery store I spotted the bottle of "Stir Fry Sauce" and just couldn't pass up the simplicity.

The most creative side dish I could come up with was a salad. You may be able to come up with something more exciting than that, and if so, let me know! :)