Orange Garlic Rice

Happy Halloween! I was hoping to take Lindsey out for some trick or treating to get to know our neighborhood a little better tonight, but her Sock Monkey costume is still packed away over at Kenneth's grandmother's house. Below is Lindsey in her costume a couple months ago when we took some pictures, and the other two are her dressed up at her very first Halloween a year ago (she was 1 1/2 months old) - she had 2 costumes, a Baby Lady Bug and a Sweet Pea in a Pod. :)

We are still getting settled into our new house and I haven't been doing a whole lot of cooking yet; today actually marks 1 full week in Lilburn! So far I have made a Dinner A'Fare meal (the chicken you see pictured above), some chili (for a Chili Cook-Off we had at work on Thursday), and stove top meatballs and sweet n sour sauce (that didn't come out the way I wanted it to because I was winging the recipe to use what I had available in the pantry). That is all the cooking I've done. I decided when I was fixing the Dinner A'Fare chicken the other night that I could at least "fix-up" some flavored rice to go with it and based on the flavors in the sauce (it was Orange Chicken) I went with orange marmalade, soy, and some minced garlic. The result was very yummy! It wasn't super flavorful, just enough to complement the flavors in the chicken since there wasn't a bunch of sauce to pour over the rice.

We all really enjoyed this, and I will DEFINITELY be making my rice like this in the future to accompany Asian-flavored dishes! I think I would add some ginger next time as well.

I have to figure out the new house and where the best locations are for taking pictures and getting some decent natural light. Our house is surrounded by trees, so it's hard to get good natural light when you're inside - but I think taking things onto the front porch is a good option for now until I get settled. I'm hoping to make the extra bedroom upstairs my new photo studio (read grown-up play room), and am looking forward to getting my active 13 month old captured in some photo shoots soon - it's been awhile since I have had the chance to do that with her so maybe after we finish getting everything over from the other house (hopefully this weekend - fingers crossed), I can think about working on the photo room!

Orange Garlic Rice

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups uncooked brown rice (rinsed)
3 cups water
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 TBS minced garlic (jarred)
2 TBS orange marmalade

1 - 2 TBS low-sodium soy sauce

Directions

1. Place uncooked rice, water, and chicken bouillon cube in a medium sized pot and bring to a boil, reduce heat to a low simmer, cover and cook for about 30 minutes, or until most of the water has been absorbed and rice is getting tender.
2. Add in the garlic, orange marmalade, and soy sauce (to taste) and continue cooking until rice is tender. Adjust seasonings to taste.