My husband and I recently moved over 800 miles from our last home and in the process gave away most of our furniture. Smart move until we realized we didn’t have a table to eat dinner at. Solution? An $80.00 IKEA table. Solid wood, but only enough room for the two of us…. Small enough to fit in our not-enough-room-for-a-table kitchen, but large enough for two place settings and to eventually put a highchair at the end (not for awhile though!).
*In this picture is also Overstock.com’s microfiber parson side chair set.
4 cups dry rice (cooked as directed, usually best if its a day old)
1/2 Bag (1 1/3 cup) Krogers Frozen Peas & Carrots
1/2 Bag (1 1/3 cup) Krogers Frozen chopped Onions
3 Tbs Peanut Oil (vegetable oil will work)
3 Tbs Low Sodium Soy Sauce*
Cooking Oil Spray (I used Pam Olive Oil)
2 Baked Chicken Breasts diced
Tools
Wok, or large non-stick frying pan
Wooden spoon
Mixing Bowl
Measuring utensils
Directions
Toss diced chicken into a wok preheated on medium heat, cook until warm. Remove chicken and place in mixing bowl.
Spray cooking spray in the empty wok and toss in onion. Stir regularly until it starts to brown.
With onions still in wok, toss in frozen peas and carrots. Continue cooking until heated through. Empty contents to mixing bowl.
Turn heat to 75% power (I set my stove between the 7 and 8 dial), add rice all at once. Pour oil on top of the rice. Pour soy sauce on top of the rice. Stir the rice in a folding motion. Do your best not to smush the rice. Stir as often as needed as to not burn the rice, but don’t go stir crazy.
When the rice right to you (some like it softer (less ‘fried’), others dryer (more ‘fried’)), remove from heat and stir in contents from the mixing bowl.
Enjoy!
*Try to use just low sodium soy sauce. Regular soy sauce has so much sodium! A tablespoon has 920mg sodium (38% of recommended daily intake), light soy sauce is a bit better with 530mg (22%).
As a breakdown of the caloric intake of the entire dish:
If made with
instant white rice (I do not recommend using instant, but I don’t have my rice bag around to find out the calories in it) = 1444
Kroger brand Frozen Chopped Onions = 60
Kroger brand Frozen Peas & Carrots = 120
Peanut Oil = 360
Kroger Low Sodium Soy Sauce = 45
Pam Cooking Oil Spray = 0
Tyson Boneless Chicken Breast (two 5 oz servings) =220
Grand Total= 2249 calories
A 2 cup serving will be about 450 calories**
**According to CalorieKing, P.F. Changs Chicken Fried Rice has 606 Calories per 14 ounces (1 cup=8 ounces).
While I’m all for spending money on some absolutely great key items, the majority of the items I purchase today are all about here and now: cheap, stylish and affordable. And nothing symbolizes that more to me than IKEA. I love a lot about IKEA. It has been my number one go to home furnishings store since I moved to the twin cities region five years back. While I am not entirely enthusiastic about all their designs, I’m always sure to find something new to dream about.
My latest inspiration was developed online with the help of a blog called Aubrey and Lindsay and their very stylish Rast bedside tables. Ok, its not entirely about the Rast bedside tables (IKEA refers to them as a three drawer chest), but the entire room itself. How picturesque? I want my bedroom to be picturesque too! And although I may not have a house of my own that I can paint and modify to fit my personality, I can at least do a little furniture ER to develop my style in the meantime.
Here is a breakdown in the cost:
2 IKEA Rask three drawer chests $60
Hardware at $23
Stain & Polyurethane: $12
Paint (Behr Ultra in Silky White): $3
Total: $98.00 for both side tables
We used Minwax Provincial stain applied 2 coats, both coats sat 8 minutes. I purchased a wipe on poly (Minwax brand) to apply after the cold chill passes (right now we’re -25 degrees F without windchill). I chose a satin finish instead of gloss. The paint was purchased super cheap at Home depot. I purchased a sample sized Behr brand paint/primer in one for only $3, which was enough to do two coats. I painted by brush and went with the grain to prevent brush strokes.
The hardware I picked was the same kind Aubrey and Lindsay has, except I ordered a different color on accident. It is Lee Valley’s Old Brass 43mmX51mm Plain Ring Pulls (item #01X40.61)-they have a more rustic look that matches the stain perfectly. Since the closest store is across the boarder in Canada I decided to sign up online for their emails and waited until I got a free shipping promotion to keep the cost of the side tables even lower. The drawer fronts aren’t that thick so I plan to add a washer to each of the pulls to give it a strong hold on the wood.
When deciding if we should go with the Rast bedside tables as our option we had a lot to consider:
The Pros are obvious: Solid wood, easy to customize, great added storage, inexpensive and the fact that the ready-to-assemble boxes easily fit in the trunk of my small 2001 Mazda Protégé without taking up much space.
The Cons are a little more tricky: The wood, although solid, has a few circle cut in pieces placed inside which leaves the wood flat but looking somewhat flawed. The cost of purchasing hardware and supplies to finish the wood can increase your total price quite a bit. And depending on your personality, having to assemble the side tables might be a negative.
This Christmas I got something I didn’t really expect to get: a card and cash from my husbands grandfather. I was really taken back by it (after all I’m only related by marriage and my husband received the same amount). After we talked about what we should do with the gift it reminded me of having a long conversation with him about building and how I really want to learn how to build my own furniture… and after discussing it with my husband we decided that the money should be best put towards building a special piece of furniture in order for us to take photographs to send to him along with a thank you so he can see exactly what happened with our gifts.
The sketch up looks a little funky because I left all the measurement marks in.
This image is just the first step on figuring out my project… I’m leaning towards building a desk with matching shelves that are found on Ana White’s website. I think I may try to figure out how to add a drawer before finishing the project but here is a quick sketch up of what the project will hopefully look like. The majority of the wood is 1×3′s with 3×3′s as the legs and 1×2′s as the bars along the bottom of the legs. This isn’t the final plan, just an idea so far. I want to plan this project right and have a list of all the projected costs before I get to work but so far I love it and it looks like it’ll be fairly easy.
This site is just a random mix of whats going on in my life at the moment. From my husband and I trying to pay off all our student loans, to dreaming of a new home, to my attempts at being cook, baker, and crafter.
