Golden Fried Rice with Chili Crisp

What follows is my adaptation of this lovely recipe, which I came across a bit ago while wasting time on Instagram. I adapted the original to better fit my family's tastes. So far our favorite version has involved Chinese sausage, but it's a flexible recipe that can be made to fit both carnivorous and vegetarian tastes alike. I hope you like it as much as we have!

Sweet Potato, Black Bean, 'n Corn Stew

Necessity is the mother of invention, and in this case necessity was clearing out more of our pantry and freezer. And I sure am happy it was, because I stumbled across this great recipe and then realized it was similar to one of my favorite salad recipes. The resulting fusion is a gorgeous cold weather version of my salad recipe, and makes a hearty, excellent vegan, vegetarian, or meaty meal depending on how you make it!

Satay Soup with Buckwheat Noodles

This recipe is a bit 'northeastern China meets Southeast Asia,' but I'm so glad the two did meet, 'cause the results are delicious! I used Jeeca's lovely recipe as a base, but obviously made a few changes to bring forward some Thai and Chinese elements. Recipes are only ever guides, not laws, so feel free to play with mine as well if you like!

Tomato Salad with Fish Sauce

This is one of those generically Asian - maybe Southeast Asian? - recipes that came together when I was trying to make a meal healthier in spite of the unhealthy things I'd already done to the main...and also I wanted to use up the ridiculous number of tomatoes we had in the fridge at the time. Suggestions are very much welcome! It was a hit as is, but I feel like it's missing something...

Sweet 'n Spicy Tuna Salad

This is another short 'n sweet ('n spicy!) recipe, inspired in this case by this lovely original recipe. My recipe is an adaptation of the original to my family's preferences and tastes, and is gorgeous as is on toast or some rice. Play with it as you like though and find what fits your tastes best!

Bacon Cheddar Egg Bites

This is a pretty easy, straightforward recipe to make healthy (healthier? healthy-ish?) egg bites à la Starbucks inspired both by my love for Starbucks' egg bites and my sister's own experiments in egg bite-making. What follows is my favorite, but changing out cheeses and/or meats or even popping a bit of broccoli in likely would go awry. I'm very much looking forward to experimenting with this recipe myself. As it is, tomorrow's 5am breakfast will be a much less enervating affair than such things usually are!

Homemade Hamburger Helper

I think a lot of North American kids - from my generation at least! - grew up eating Hamburger Helper fairly regularly. I remember falling out of love with it by middle school, and as far as I can recall I haven't had it since. (Not voluntarily anyways!) Lately, however, we've been trying to clean out our pantry and when trying to figure out what I could do to maximize pantry and freezer-emptying I realized that we had all the ingredients for hamburger helper. I didn't expect to particularly like the results - made from an adaptation of this lovely recipe - but it was a hit and made for decent leftovers the next day as well. There are a million versions of this out there, what's below is my twist made for my family's tastes. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Speedy Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken pot pie is one of those things I've often craved and rarely made because of what a process making pie crust can be. What follows is my simplified approach (based on this lovely recipe) using store-bought crusts that has made this a dish I can contemplate making without the thought being followed by pulling up the DoorDash app on my phone. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Flexible Dog Food

I usually stick to posting recipes for one species on here, but I keep forgetting the template I've been following for my miniature schnauzer's homemade meals and having to recreate it, so I'm posting this as a memory aid for myself! It's super simple and straightforward, and a big hit with my fur baby. If your dog enjoys it too, then all the better! Mine is small enough that she gets about 2/3 of a cup to a cup per meal, but obviously that is for a dog of her size - adjust accordingly if you want to try this out with your own!

Unstuffed Peppers

As anyone who's taken a look through my recipes know, I'm all about keeping things easy. (Life's busy enough as it is!) This past weekend I found myself with plenty of time...for a nap. After that nap I rummaged through the pantry to see what we had on hand for lunch, and realized I could make two stuffed peppers...or try unstuffing them to make a proper meal.