Cilantro Lime Rice

If you love Chipotle Mexican Grill as much as I do, you'll try to bootleg their recipes so you'll have an abundance in your refrigerator just for you to share.

One of my favourites, even though it's carb loaded, is the cilantro lime rice.  (pardon the photo above taken by my mobile)  Brought it to share for potluck yesterday.  I was practically the last person in line to get food and my dish was no where to be found.  Apparently it was forgotten inside the oven after being preheated.  When they finally took it out, the cilantro was wilted and had a dark shade of green.  Not fresh looking at all.  I was disappointed but we put it on the buffet table to serve anyway.  After about 15 minutes I went back to the buffet table and was surprised that my Cilantro Lime Rice was almost empty.  Not bad for a dish introduced late in the game.  It held its own deliciousness.  And yes, the recipe does taste like Chipotle's Cilantro Lime Rice.  LOVE IT!!!

Favourite Fonts

I have over 450 fonts in my computer - I just can't have enough.  Enough said.

How to install fonts - click here.

Download the Fonts (Alphabetical Order - Free):
Baroque Antique - Billabong - Budmo - Century Gothic - Champagne & Limousines - Coffee - Comic Zine - Easy Open Face - European Underground - Green Pillows - Impact Label - Jamaistevie - Lobster - Made With B - Maybe Maybe Not - Monbijoux - Rough Draft - Signerica - Snoopy Dings - The King and Queen

Chipotle Chicken

I LOVE Chipotle Mexican Grille!  I try to eat there every Sunday and order the bowl with: cilantro white rice, black beans, fajita vegetables, chicken, fresh tomato salsa, roasted chili corn salsa, guacamole, lettuce, and cheese.  Shame I can't find any of the pictures of the actual dish.

So here we are with a Chipotle Chicken recipe.  This version is still delicious considering it tastes nothing like Chipotle's chicken.  I still must search high and low for a recipe that comes close to Chipotle's Chicken.

In the recipe above, I used chicken breast instead of chicken thighs.  It still tasted pretty good.  I think next time, I'll try to add adobo flavouring to it as well.  All in all, it's not too shabby - but it's grilled chicken, so it still tastes pretty good.

Favourite Restaurants

I stumbled upon a food blog called, Food Stories the other day while searching for a recipe.  The blog is awesome - I love the writing.  It's maintained by a food addict (such as myself) from London.  She's pretty awesome and if we knew each other, life would be all the more a fantastic riot.  I am enamoured and smitten with her blog of colorful exotic food escapades.  My biggest regret is forfeiting to document my tryst with food throughout my travels - because looking back, it was utterly fantastic.

But I digress, her blog inspired me to make a list of my favourite chain restaurants, with the exception of the Trattoria Tiramisu Cucina Italiana, which is locally owned.

There are so many restaurants I've dined in that are far better than the ones listed above.  There was one charming little café in the thriving downtown district of Nikolaev, Ukraine where we ate al fresco.   The food was delicious.  They made the ordinary extraordinary.  For instance, their croissant was so damn good that it makes the fresh croissants here taste stale in comparison. There were also some street vendors (yes I'm that brave) in the Philippines that I've eaten at and the foods were bursting with flavoure.  And passing through certain states in the U.S.A. were some unforgettable experiences, like our run in run out of the Waffle House, or the ever exciting island food in Hawaii.  Good times.  I wish I wrote about all the experiences.  Darn those missed opportunities.

Below are some pictures from that little café in Nikolaev mentioned above.  They photos are from my brother's collection.  I'm glad he took pictures of the food.

My brother, Izzy, ordering from the gigantic picture book menu.

I think he is drinking a caffé latte here.

Mushroom soup - unlike any other canned mushroom soup I've ever tasted.

Their version of french toast.  YUM!!!

Caffé Mocha - unsweetened.

The best croissant I've ever tasted.

Style For Style - Summer

The summer months, ah yes.  The sun on my skin, the warm breeze combing through my hair, and the lightness that comes when wearing the perfect outfit is... divinely priceless.

I don't know what it is about this year but I've been obsessed with maxi dresses.  Even though it's long and out of the ordinary sun dress that shows a lot of skin, it feels good to wear and has this classy and elegant feel to it.  I've been voraciously trying on maxi dress after maxi dress trying to find the perfect fit and have actually FINALLY gone shopping for myself.  Wow, it only took about 6 months!  But I've also been nostalgic of the beach and walking a board walk since we don't have any here.  It's too bad.  But yes, I'm also in love with the color blue and its family (reminds me of the Florida Keys), orange, and gold!!! What a summery combination!

Spicy Thai Noodles

From A Small Snippet's Blog

I cooked this over the weekend and shared it with the family.  Although I loved the clean taste, it didn't go as well as I thought it would.  I got mixed reviews from, "I don't like it" to "It's not bad but not my favorite" or "It would be better warm and not so spicy."  Nonetheless, I still like how fresh it tastes... so kudos to that.

A few changes made:

• I used 1 tsp of crushed red pepper and left in the mix.  To me, it adds character and I like the spiciness to linger even though I only used 1 tsp.
• I didn't crush the peanuts.  It's still good that way. 
• Used low carb. pasta instead of regular pasta.
• Can be served hot or cold.

Evolution of Scent

Picked up my Miracle perfume by Lancome a few weeks ago, sprayed it on and was immediately taken back go my grad school days when tears, sweat, and blood was shed and spilled over my MBA text books.  Ah... those were the days when I finally proved to myself that I achieve a high GPA.

So the scent took me back to the time I first cared about how I smelled like and thinking what would lure the boys to me... ha ha.  Just kidding.  But it took me back to 5th grade - my middle school years to be exact - when I asked my parents to get me Malibu Musk.  During that era, I also wore Charlie, White Musk, and Exclamation.  Oh the good old days of innocence.  By 7th and 8th grade, I wore mens cologne because it was so hip hop and I wanted to be one of the fly girls from In Living Colors with the big hoop earrings, high bangs, and permed hair.  I don't know... it was a phase.  In high school I became more feminine and toned it down.  By college, I became obsessed with many other scents that didn't make the list.  Grad school was a whole new story since I got a full time job and could purchase the latest scents.  Now, I'm a little more reserved with my spending and actually just wear the scents I've purchased in the past or scents that have been given to me.  Having a child truly changes a person.