Impromptu Crab Fried Rice (or Crabby Rice...as my Mom called it)

First off, let me apologize for having basically disappeared over the last few months.  Life has definitely gotten in the way... and I wasn't feeling all that inspired.

But, I recently discovered a service here that delivers organic produce to your house (fabulous!) and got a few boxes with some weird stuff in them (nothing for this recipe specifically), but the need to go out and figure out what to do with things like Swede (or Rutabaga), Kumquats and Jerusalem Artichokes, made me feel inspired to cook again.  Which for me, right now, is pretty impressive.

So... I also got some crab meat in the magical package of food delivered to my house and decided I would make some crab fried rice. 

It ended up being kind of a non-traditional stir fry, just because of what ingredients I had in the house and had to use up, but it was really good! Not great with measurements because I kind of just threw everything in the pan, but this is a recipe that is meant to be experimented with, so go crazy!  This made enough for 2 servings.

Ingredients:

• Crab Meat (about 100g)
• 1 zuchinni (shredded)
• 2 carrots (shredded)
• Garlic
• Fresh Grated Ginger
• Hoisin Sauce
• Brown rice, cooked (about 1 cup)
• 1 green onion, sliced
• Olive oil

1.   Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Saute the garlic, ginger and spring onions until fragrant (30 seconds or so).
2.  Add carrots and zucchini and saute, stirring occasionally.

Cook until the carrots are tender (1-2 minutes).  Add the cooked brown rice and the hoisin sauce.  Stir to incorporate and heat through.

3.  Add the crab meat to the pan, stir and cook until heated (1 minute or so).

Voila... crabby rice!

Salsamole? Guacasla? Avosalsa?

I was craving fresh salsa... the chunky kind that just tastes like summer...

We had gone to the market and ended up with some ripe avocados, which never seems to happen to us - we always get the ones that are hard as rocks.

So I wanted to combine the two - but we couldn't decide what it should be called.  The hubby voted for Salsamole - which I'm a little partial to, but maybe not totally accurate.

Anyway, it ended up being pretty great - and easy to make!

Salsamole

Ingredients:

• 2 large tomatoes (or a bunch of cherry tomatoes - more flavorful, I think)
• 1 large white onion
• 1 ripe avocado
• Chopped fresh cilantro to taste - I used about 1/4 cup but I like cilantro
• 1 jalapeno - if you like it spicy, leave the seeds in, or if you're like me and you're not too big on spice but just want some flavor, take the seeds out
• Juice of one lime

1. Chop the tomato

2. Chop the onion and add it to the bowl

3.  Chop and add the cilantro

4. Chop the avocado and jalapeno, add them to the bowl.  Squirt the lime juice over the bowl and mix.
5. Dig in and enjoy!!!

Recipe Recommendations

I thought it might be good to share some of the recipes I tried from other sources recently, without modifications, that I found to be really great.  You should give some of them a try too!

Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken Wings from Steamykitchen.com.  These were awesome, amazing yummy goodness and I can totally understand why she made them one of her favorite recipes.

Chicken with Shallot-Apricot Sauce from CheapHealthyGood This ended up being really good - something a little different with a savory bite from the balsamic vinegar.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic from whiteonricecouple.com.  If you've never been into Brussels sprouts before, you haven't tried these.  Tangy from the balsamic, and super-easy.  These will definitely become a staple in my recipe book!

Golden-Crusted Brussels Sprouts from 101cookbooks.com,
I had some leftover Brussels Sprouts from the recipe before and on the spur-of-the-moment, trying to come up with a veggie to go with dinner tried this out.  They were pretty awesome too! Hubby liked these better and I liked the balsamic ones better.  Try them both and let me know what you think!

What do you think of this kind of post? Interesting? Helpful? Should I keep doing these?