Semi-homemade.

I've been so kitchen-productive the past couple of weeks!
These are some of the stuff I've made these past couple of weeks:
- (top left) fried rice with Trader Joe's Thai Curry Sauce, Joe's plain rotisserie chicken, one egg, green beans, onions, carrots. Wasn't a life-changing recipe, not trying this again any time soon until I figure out where I went wrong...
- (top right) macaroni&wheat noodles, Joe's rosemary rotisserie chicken, Joe's organic sweet peas (so cute; super small!), celery, and mushrooms cooked in alfredo sauce, topped with Kraft's Monterrey Jack cheese and SensiblePortions'garlic & chives pita crackers. Was all right; should've added less veggies and more alfredo sauce since I like it creamy.
- (bottom left) more fried rice. Tried to keep it more normal this time and just used the curry sauce, sweet peas, celery and eggs. Added fish sauce too, but came out sort of weird. I can't make good fried rice for some reason! :'(
- (bottom right) Hahaha, the ultimate comfort food: plain rice with dried&shredded pork (which my mom bought for me). The simplest food to prepare always taste the best!

I made some chicken wraps the other week too, but forgot to take a picture. I've also been really into the whole salad thing lately since I bought a bottle of Litehouse's Honey Mustard, which is SERIOUSLY THE ANSWER TO LIFE OMG.

Went to the asian supermarket near my house to buy some short-grained rice to make sushi, and omg rice brands are so confusing! "New crop!" "Premium!" "Harvested using new technology!" they all scream. WHAT DOES THAT BLOODY MEAN? Anyway, ended up buying Shirakiku's premium short-grained rice (because I could actually see the content) after spending like, 15 minutes debating between the brands. Then went home and read other people's reviews on the brands (hrmm, maybe should've done this BEFORE I went?) and apparently Nishiki medium-grained (slightly cheaper) would've worked out fine, too. Despite currently taking a social psychology that covered sales tactics just two weeks ago, I still get suckered in by packaging, sigh.

Attempted to cook it in a pot today since FoodNetwork does that, but came out so weird I just ended up adding more water to make rice porridge. -__- [Short-grained rice isn't very good for making rice porridge, btw; does NOT produce porridge consistency at all.] So for second batch, cooked it in the rice-cooker and it came out pretty decent! Some other stuff that went in:
- Mizkan Rice Vinegar
- Shirakiku toasted sesame seeds
- Chicken of the Sea tuna salad (I added Sriracha Sauce)
- some made-in-China roasted seaweed
- Persian cucumbers
- organic green bell peppers
I topped it off with Trader Joe's Cilantro & Jalapeño Hummus (from the other week!), honey mustard*, and Marukai's pickled ginger. I guess maybe because I had really low expectations of how it would come out due to the troubles with the rice to begin with, but maaaan it came out loads better than I expected! The cucumber I bought was kind of bitter, though; should buy the Japanese variety next time. Also bought imitation crab when I went Marukai Market today; am really looking forward to making the next batch of sushi! :)

*Had some mashed sweet potatoes with honey mustard for "desert". Did I already mention how obsessed I am with honey mustard??

I've yet to figure out what to do with that weird rice porridge, urgh. Suggestions?

- Jeanne