Panda Express Today

So after spending a whole lot of meal prep time trying to be Cafe Rio, today I decided to be Panda Express. This all happened because I had some extra ham around that needed to be used up, and of course the only logical thing to do with leftover ham is ham fried rice. As much as I love ham fried rice, it just isn't a meal (at least not with Jack living here) so I decided to do Sweet and Sour pork to serve with the ham fried rice. Naturally that meant that I had no pork in the freezer. So we had sweet and sour chicken instead.

Here is all the good stuff ready and waiting to go into the rice. I've always been told that ham fried rice is something you make from leftover rice, but that begs the question: Who ever has leftover rice? NEVER around here. So while I cooked up the rice, I got my onions, ham, eggs, mushrooms (not shown) and peas (also not shown) ready to go. It sure looks pretty all piled up.

Rather than using my bottled sweet and sour sauce, of which I only have one quart left, I went ahead and made new. I found a recipe on the Taste of Home website that sounded just like what I wanted for the chicken breading, etc. Since I was using twice as much chicken as in the recipe, I decided I better make twice as much sauce. Whoa! It made ALOT of sauce. I bet we didn't even use all that was in the original recipe. That's ok. It's in the freezer for next time since this is a recipe I will definitely make again.

Mmmm . . . I AM Panda Express. Except it's chicken, not pork. The breading turned out perfectly crunchy, the chicken was tender (4 minutes per side in the oil, not 3 like the recipe said) and it was just heavenly. I have never battered and fried anything in my life, so I'm really delighted (and surprised) that it turned out so well on the first try. So much for healthy eating, but in my defense, I did use canola oil for frying.

I went to get my hair cut and colored today, and told Katie that last time she colored it it was a little more orange-y than I liked. So she fixed me up red, Red, RED! You'll see me coming from a mile away. You know that commercial where the ultra boring lady says, "I've been told that beige and predictable suits my lifestyle"? I am totally beige and predictable about just about everything EXCEPT my hair. Bring on the color - the bolder the better!