dinner on the cheap- volume one

Monday- Chinese Food Night!

Tonight's dinner was a huge success.  I made fried rice as planned.  Here's what I used:
1 large carrot
1 small yellow onion
1 cup mushrooms
2 stalks celery
2 eggs
1 bag uncle ben's brown ready rice
(the last three things i already had at home)
i sauteed the veggies in some olive oil and white wine. here they are looking all yummy:

while they cooked i fried up two eggs with the rice. i had a bag of uncle ben's ready rice that i had gotten at target a few weeks ago on sale for $1. then i combined everything in the big pan and added some soy sauce and let it fry! mmm.

i also grilled up three of the thin breast tenderloins after marinating them in some salad dressing for the afternoon.  i like to marinate chicken in italian dressing because it's really versatile and gives it flavor without fencing you in.  here they are looking all delish:

billy really likes different sauces, and i, like most people, have a refrigerator door full of various condiments.  i used some soy sauce, garlic chili sauce (sriracha), and some sweet chili sauce (basically the same as that sweet orange sauce they give you packets of when you get take out chinese) that i had to make a sweet and sour sauce to compliment the chicken and rice.

the result was a really yummy, healthy, and filling dinner that tasted exactly like chinese take out! it was kind of uncanny actually. we were both pleasantly surprised!

billy is always a happy camper when i save money on food! :)

and the good news is, i have this leftover for lunch tomorrow:

score!

i even had two mini clementines in the fridge that we ate for dessert, just like the orange slices they give you when you go out for chinese! so sweet!

hmm what will i come up with for tomorrow night? :)