Four More Pounds....

I'm four more pounds to my pre-pregnancy weight but I'm struggling to find the time... so when Pinterest gave me some ideas for quick cardio reps, I took it and modified it (in purple) to the following:

1. 50 jumping jacks
2. 5 real push-ups
3. 5 girly push-ups
4. 30 seconds at the lowest of push-up hold
5. 20 sit-ups (arms crossed on chest and all the way up, can use a couch or coffee table to tuck your feet under)
6. 25 swimming paddles (on your stomach, feet up and alternate right hand and left foot up and left hand and right foot up)
7. 20 climbers
8. 30 second plank
9. 10 burpees (jump up in the air, down to touch your feet, jump your feet back into a plank, do a push-up and then jump back to your hands and up into the air and repeat)
10. salsa for 3 minutes
11. hip-hop pump your stomach 16x left and 16x right with knee to stomach standing straight up, alternate legs
12. pick up your son and dance with him for 5 minutes

Repeat twice. Three if you have time.

Panda Express Orange Chicken

Am I the only ABC ("American Born Chinese") girl who does not know how to cook rice?! I never had a reason to learn (mom or dad always put the rice in, we set the table and cleaned up) and my rice knowledge only goes as far as being instructed by my grandmother the proper way to serve rice (mix it in the pot and then serve it loosely). It's a bit disgraceful ... but true.

So when I got married and my mom gave me a rice cooker, I called her on a few occasions to ask for the proper water to rice ratio. After being scolded one too many times, I started googling it. But google only explained how to cook rice without a rice cooker. So then I started doing it on a whim without instructions. To date, I have not cooked rice successfully even once (and I try to cook Chinese food once a week). Fry rice - now that is different because you make it with old rice (and nasty old rice is fine) but normal rice, not so much. Today was no different. I put the correct rice ratio but forgot to put some water outside of the pot in the rice cooker so it could steam. Smart.

So I boiled some egg noodles instead. Still Chinese. Pretty good for the Panda Express orange chicken I made (cheated and bought the $4.99 Panda Express sauce) that Andy fried (while I fed Jordan!). Now I will never forget how to bread Chinese chicken:

1-2 pounds of chicken cubes

white pepper

black pepper

salt

sesame oil

1 egg

mix 1/4 cup of flour with 1/2 cup of corn starch and mix in with the chicken, cook in hot oil and wala - Chinese breaded chicken!

Then, cook some garlic, ginger and green onions, put the chicken back in and pour the sauce in.