Rice-a-Roni: What not to do.

When making easy boxed meals, read the directions.

I'm going to say that again.

Read the directions.

And then follow those directions.

Yup.

Follow them.

If you're dumb like me, you glance at the box to check the ingredients, shrug and say to yourself, "how hard can it be?" and toss that box into the recycling bin.

Then you put all the ingredients together, turn on the heat, feel guilty for not really paying attention to the directions, fish the box back out of the recycling bin, and realize that you did it wrong.

When making Rice-a-Roni, the water and spices go in AFTER you've melted the butter and browned the rice. (I know, not the same as Ramen noodles. Whodathunk?)

The end result really wasn't terrible, it just wasn't as good as Rice-a-Roni I've had in the past. Which is saying something cause, well, it's Rice-a-Roni.

My new nemesis

Luckily, there are no instructions on marinading meat so I did that much right. Since I was making stir-fry flavored Rice-a-Roni, I decided on a teriyaki marinade. I cut the cheapest piece of steak I could find at the supermarket into strips so I could get as much surface area exposed to the sauce as possible. (Note: I didn't only buy cheap steak cause I'm cheap, also if you're marinading the cut doesn't matter as much. Marinated meat is less likely to be dry and you're messing with the natural steak flavor anyways. Alternatively, marinading a filet mignon is a crime).

I let my steak soak in the marinade for probably about an hour, but that's not a scientific time. Mostly I was ready to eat an hour after I put the marinading steak in the fridge. I would definitely say you should give it a 30 minute minimum though. If you're obsessive compulsive like me flip the pieces every 15 minutes or so.

Because I don't believe in meals that lack vegetables, I decided on snow peas. They tend to really only show up in Asian cooking, but they're one of my favorites so I buy them just for snacking a lot of the time too. For a unique flavor, I recommend sauteing them in sesame oil. I really love the richness of it--much more flavorful than olive oil--but it doesn't overpower the flavor of whatever you're cooking.

Once the oil was hot I tossed in the beans, stirred them around and then added some salt and pepper, nothing too fancy. How long you cook them depends on your preferences. I like my veggies crisp so I took them off pretty quickly. The best estimate is trial and error: just keep grabbing one and eating it until they're how you like them.

While this was going on I turned on our George Forman and once it was hot, tossed on the steak. If you're in college like me and live in university housing, you probably can't have a grill (rats!). In that case, definitely buy a George Forman. They're just so easy to use and grilling is one of the best ways to cook something. 

Look at those grill marks! Beauteous!

Toss it all together in a bowl and I've got a dinner of champions!

The best part is that there was enough for me to fill a tuberware to take to work for lunch tomorrow! Three cheers for not eating Hot Pockets!