Stay tuned for the beef fried rice recipe below – it will be quicker than take out!

Hannah and Jacob had a friend over on Sunday for Sunday dinner.  I made ribs, onion rings and an apple crisp.  When I woke up sick yesterday morning, my first thought was “I hope it wasn’t the food!”  I texted the kadults later yesterday morning, and they were fine.  I didn’t eat or drink anything until about 11:30.  Not even coffee!

This hit the spot.  A slice of my everything but the bagel seasoning bread (3) with a hard boiled egg (2).

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My sister and I took a leisurely walk along the riverwalk at lunch.  She didn’t bring lunch so we stopped along our way at a hot dog place that smelled amazing.  As I was feeling better, I realized the ramen soup I brought might not be enough food, so I bought a cup of lemon chicken soup for $3, and added it to my ramen noodle broth.  I have no idea how to count the points for this – I used about 1/4 of the seasoning packet, but I am calling it 12 points to be on the safe side.  I added a bit of crushed red pepper to spice up the broth – this was suprisingly pretty good!

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It rained the whole train ride home last night, but started to clear up by the time I got home.  As I was walking to my car, I saw a double rainbow!  The second one is kind of faint in this picture, but I have never seen a double rainbow before.

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I made a stop at Trader Joe’s over the weekend when I was headed back from Oak Park.  These were only $1.99 a bag, so I threw them in my cart.  If you scan it, it comes out to 1 point a cup, but looking at the packaging, it’s just vegetables, so I am counting them as zero.

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I bought a family size package of beef stew meat at Sam’s Club on Saturday.  Hannah is making a crock pot beef stew today since she has the day off.  I seared off the meat for her to just throw everything else in the crock pot, set it and forget it.  My friend Courtney uses her crock pot all the time and I need to use mine more – thanks for the inspiration Court!

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I sliced up 4 ounces for my beef fried rice.  I know what you are thinking “Biz, that cut of beef you need to cook low and slow.”  And normally I would agree with you, but – if you just fast sear this meat for 60 seconds – yes ONE MINUTE – it will be medium rare, and super tender.  You may look after a minute and think “that’s not cooked!” but the residual heat will finish cooking – just slice it thin.

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I love this sauce – it’s 1 point a tablespoon, and a tablespoon is plenty.  Point breakdown: coconut oil (1), beef (4), rice (3) stirfry sauce (1) = 9 points.

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Beef Fried Rice

Biz
A super quick and easy weeknight dinner, and a great way to use up leftover rice.
Prep Time 3 minutes
Cook Time 7 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Servings 1

Ingredients
  

  • 4 ounces beef, fat trimmed, sliced thin
  • 1 cup frozen stir fry veggies
  • 1 teaspoon coconut oil
  • 1 tablespoon House of Tsang ginger sriracha sauce
  • 1 teaspoon sriracha - for garnish
  • 1/2 cup cooked rice

Instructions
 

  • Heat a non-stick skillet over medium high heat.  Salt and pepper the sliced beef.  Add the teaspoon of coconut oil to the pan.  Add the beef and cook for 1 minute and remove immediately to a plate.
    Add in the frozen veggies and ginger sauce and cook the veggies for about 6 minutes.  Add in the rice and cook for another minute, lastly, throw the beef back in, and toss until the beef gets coated in the sauce.  Put in a bowl and add additional sriracha if you love spicy shit like me. 

Notes

Don't saute in olive oil.  Like ever.  You should use coconut or grapeseed oil.  Olive oil tends to burn too easily and coconut and grapeseed oil have higher smoke points, which will be much better to saute.   Use olive oil, especially extra virgin, as a finishing oil - like in a vinaigrette, or drizzled over popcorn.
#themoreyouknow

Since I was feeling better, I decided to hit up the gym.  It had been 10 days since I was last there!

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I did this 30 minute circuit – I love it.  It has 20 stations and its one minute on, 30 seconds off.  I like to go in order 1-20, but there are people who just do it in no particular order, and Hannah and I just can’t do it. 😛  

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Then I just did a 30 minute walk at 3.0 incline. 

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It felt really good to break a sweat – it’s been too long.

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There is a Fresh Thyme next to the gym and I had to pick up a couple things.  Damn this aisle!  Seriously I walked up and down this aisle and was thinking of all the nuts, yogurt covered pretzels, gummies I should get.

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Hold up though – my favorite gummies for only $1.99 a pound.  I think I could eat a couple pounds of these a week if I let myself.  They are so flavorful and have the perfect texture.  Swoon.

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Cooler heads prevailed – which is why exercise is so important for me – if I work out I tend to make better food choices because I don’t want to negate the work I just did.

This is my new favorite way to cut watermelon.  I cut the outside skin and then just slice it up.  I think it took me a minute to cut this watermelon – I’ll have to do a quick video of this – hardly any waste!

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I finished the day with just over 22k steps.  After walking maybe 4k over the WHOLE weekend.  I was in bed by 11 last night and up at 6:30 this morning, and slept like a baby.  With Hannah and Jacob’s dogs.  They have taken to sleep with me, and I love it.  They sleep under the covers too – it’s just too damn cute. 

My sister is working from home today, so I’ll be getting my steps in by myself today.  One of my bosses is out the next three days, so that will be nice.  I have a couple projects I put aside for when he was going to be gone.

Happy Tuesday – make it a great day!