Here's to New Faves

I am terrible at making side dishes exciting. Usually, all my energy is spent on the main course, and by the time I think, "Hey, I might need a little somethin'-somethin'," it's late and I'm starving. So I'll forgo the side dish completely in favor of stuffing my face immediately. On this particular occasion, I was intent on making a thank-you dinner for my sister and brother-in-law, so I figured it was a meal that was side-dish appropriate. After some pretty intense Googling, I found this recipe from The Kitchenista Diaries: Chicken & Mango Fried Rice. Color me tickled, I was all in!

There were a couple things that thrilled me about this recipe: First, all the ingredients are crazy fresh, it was like there was a little rainbow of healthy on my cutting board. Second, this was my first time cooking with Coconut Oil, which I'm now completely addicted to.

I used Boil-In-Bag brown rice, which helped speed up the entire process immensely. While the rice was chilling, I started working on the Bulgogi main dish, with the help of some pretty classity Pinot Grigio which may or may not have come from a box. :)

I was amazed at how the Coconut Oil lent a subtle coconut flavor, and I omitted the chicken since we were having beef as the main dish. I half-expected to hate this recipe since I'm not a huge fan of coconut; but I could seriously eat this every single day. Plus, it was a hit with the fam. Amazing!