Quinoa Fried Rice for One

I LOVE fried rice. I love quinoa. I thought I was such a genius when it occurred to me to combine the two, but it turns out this idea has already been thought of (most notably for me here - comprehensive!). Either way, I always feel like there's a little more difficulty in making a meal for one when you're sure you won't want the leftovers. Given that my fridge was full of so many other recent cooking adventures, this was one of those times.

Delicious raw ingredients

Hence, many tiny piles of vegetables. I like my fried rice with some serious variety and was in no way planning to deprive the quinoa of this treatment. I chopped up tiny amounts of onion, cauliflower, broccoli, green onions, celery, carrots, bok chuy, garlic and ginger. I made a simple flat omelette in sesame oil (so it would taste Asian :)) and then chopped it into little strips. I stir-fried all of these veggies together in sesame oil, added a little veggie stock mixed into water, and then the quinoa, omelette and a handful of pine nuts*. Once the liquid evaporated, everything was ready and delicious, and waiting to be eaten with chopsticks and admired for it's prettiness. No tupperware for leftovers required.

Veggie fried quinoa goodness!

*yes, these things are crazy expensive and are like gold! Fortunately, Wonderful Boyfriend of Mine is a Costco impulse shopper and bought a huge bag of them a while back, so I get to feel fancy and rich sometimes...

The best things in life are free: having friends stay

I love my alone time, but there's something so wonderful about having friends come to stay. It's built-in entertainment, especially if they're good friends and you haven't seen them for a while.

Cynthia came to stay for 2 nights on her way through LA from one exciting adventure to the next. We sat up late talking about her travels, my travels, our plans for the future, our ideas about life and love and what it all means. We spent the majority of her one full day here walking for hours on end with pretty tenuous goals. We shopped for a dress for her at Crossroads and Goodwill (it's super fun and free to shop for someone else at one of these places, as you get all the fun of looking and satisfaction of finding without the regret of spending!). We went to a salon and got mani-pedis with Erin for under $20.  We took fun birthday photos for another far away friend.

It's so easy to have no-money fun with another person around!