This was so yummy and so easy that we had it two nights in a row!

I started by making 2 cups of rice and set it to keep warm.

I got all my ingredients ready to go. You need:

• sesame oil
• soy sauce
• rice vinegar
• frozen vegetables of your choosing
• 2 or more eggs, beaten

I used a wok but you can do this in a large flat pan too. Just add some sesame oil and vegetables to the pan and get it hot, medium-high heat should do it. I used half a bag of “Japanese Mix” which included broccoli, mushrooms, red bell pepper, and some kind of string bean. I actually added about a half of a fresh red bell pepper in too because this mix was really skimpy on it, but you don’t have to add anything.

Wait until the vegetables have thawed and are starting to sizzle before adding the rice, you may want to add a bit more oil too.

Toss everything every 30 seconds or so for several minutes or until the rice is smelling slightly toasty and you can see either sear marks on the vegetables, slight browning on the rice, or both.

Pour over about 3 tbsp. of rice vinegar and toss.  Swirl over a generous amount of soy sauce (probably almost a 1/4 cup) and toss until distributed. Now it’s starting to look like fried rice!

Turn the heat down to medium and wait a minute for the pan to cool down. Make a well in the center of the pan and pour in the beaten eggs.

Stir the eggs as they start to scramble. Use cutting and folding motions to break apart the egg and distribute it throughout the rice. When it’s cooked through, serve it up!

We topped ours with noritamago furikake (seaweed and dried egg seasoning) and super-hot sriracha. It really doesn’t need anything though.

This dish comes together in less than 20 minutes and doesn’t make a bunch of dirty dishes. It’s so much lighter than the stuff you get in a take-out box or thrown at you in a hibachi restaurant, as you can control the amount of oil and soy sauce.

This fresh-tasting and filling dish has quickly become one of my go-to meals when I don’t have a lot of time to make something. You could absolutely chop fresh vegetables and even saute a little onion in too, but the real magic here is that this dish allows you to get something healthy and filling in you without all the work, and I’m going to keep taking the shortcut because it makes my life easier.

And we have enough left over to have it again for lunch, yay!

Pancake. Sandwich.

Just imagine that for a moment.

Here, lemme help you with that…

Mmmm…pancake sandwich. Actually, these little guys are delicious and fluffy dorayaki, a Japanese confection consisting of a layer of sweet azuki bean paste sandwiched between two sweet little pancakes.

I had my first dorayaki ever on the plane-ride back from our honeymoon in Japan. It was a sweet I bought specifically so that I could take a little of Japan home with me, and I savored every pillowy bite.

I thought it might be interesting to use this green tea I picked up at Tomato and make green tea flavored dorayaki.

Here’s what I used to make them:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tbsp. honey
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp. green tea powder
• about 8oz. anko (sweetened red bean paste)

I started by whisking together the eggs and sugar…

Next I combined the baking soda with the water and then added that to my egg mixture…

I added half the flour and then whisked in the green tea and the rest of the flour, mixing well but not over-mixing…

The batter was super thick, I set it aside while I let my non-stick pan heat up…

I went ahead and sprayed the pan with non-stick spray, even though the pan is already non-stick, because there is a lot of sugar in the batter that could cause the dorayaki to burn.

In went three test dollops…

Just like regular pancakes, you know they’re ready to turn when bubbles start appearing on the surface of the batter. When flipped, they should be golden and crisp on the outside, like this…

I sat them aside on a tea towel to cool while I got my filling ready…

I used this brand of red bean filling, also from Tomato…

I love that stuff. I just spread a bit on one side of the pancake…

And topped it with another!

Pancake. Sandwich.

Good for breakfast or dessert.

Jeff and I both agreed that while absolutely delicious, the pancakes came out bigger than most dorayaki pancakes. Next time, I would definitely just use one pancake and cut it in half like an english muffin.

Soooooooo goooood though.

CHOMP!

Behold, the newest addition to my kitchen army!

I have been wanting and needing one of these for a long time! This little baby is a Zojirushi induction-heating rice cooker, we bought him with Christmas money we got from family.

Take a peak under the hood…

Yeah, tons of cargo space. This is my kind of hot-rod.

Before heading out to the gym today I filled my new toy with 1 cup quinoa and 2 cups water and set him to cook while I was gone.

That may look more like rice than quinoa to you because it is rice. That’s a shot of some rice I made last night that didn’t turn out too great because I had it on the wrong setting, but I forgot to take a picture of the quinoa before cooking, so this’ll do.

When I got back from the gym I had this waiting for me…

Perfect, fluffy quinoa ready to eat and still warm!

There was a ton of it so I decided to make two different preparations, one sweet and one savory.

For the sweet one, I added the following:

• handful of chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup or so mixed dried cranberries, golden raisins, and goji berries
• about 1/4 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• zest of a small orange

I then made a dressing with the juice from the orange and a spoonful of honey, and heated it in the microwave so it would be thinner and distribute better. I just tossed it all together for this delicious sweet treat.

That one will be awesome in the morning with some almond milk drizzled over, or piled on top of yogurt. I’ve made a sweet maple cinnamon breakfast quinoa before, but this one is even better!

For the savory one I added:

• half a red bell pepper, chopped super small
• one chopped scallion
• one carrot, grated
• a handful of spinach, chopped finely
• zest of a lemon

For the dressing I used the juice of half the lemon, a pinch of salt and pepper, about 2 tsp. white wine vinegar, 2 tsp. tahini, and olive oil whisked in.

To make I just grated the carrot directly over with a microplane to get it really fine…

And added the chopped spinach…

Having a quality knife has been so wonderful!

Mixed in the dressing and here it is!

Believe it or not, this one was even better than the sweet one!

I had both for lunch with an apple dusted in cinnamon.

The quinoa gave me a big dose of protein to repair my sore muscles after today’s workout. Both preparations were so delicious and I managed to whip up both of them in about 20 minutes total.

I am hopelessly in love with my new rice cooker. I can’t wait to try cooking millet, farro, oatmeal, and of course rice, in it!

Look for many, many rice cooker recipes to come!