No Backup Plan

Do you know what a typical Product Manager does -

1. Creates a kick-ass product road map
2. Prays hard that all ducks line up
3. Creates a back-up plan
4. Creates a back-up plan for the back-up plan

Having spent about a dozen years in product management, I let my tendency to create backup plans at work creep into my personal life too...when we were buying our home, even though we had a solid mortgage broker, I talked to a second mortgage broker and lined up a second approval...and guess what! the first loan fell through and it was the backup plan that came through for us. One thing is obvious though, as much as the idea of planning and over-planning (think financial goals, personal goals, grocery lists, to-do lists, meal plans, etc.) was comforting -- there comes a stage in life when one wants to kick the habit - live for the moment as they say and damn the consequences. We will see how this thought process conceptualizes in my head and actions.

Today was a long and rainy sort of a day and to perk up the sniffling K2 I served him homemade mini-pizza (with Turkey Pastrami and Mozzarella Cheese with a baby carrot in an orange plate to cheer him up for dinner. For myself,  I made a quick broccoli fried rice which will also serve as lunch for K2 tomorrow...in the background my mac book was playing Karen Carpenter's Rainy Days and Mondays

Sending out my Easy Broccoli Fried Rice to "Vardhini's Kitchen" for the event  Healthy Lunch Box Ideas : Broccoli and this event was concepted by Kalyani from the blog "Its Not Madrasi"

Truth be told 50% of the time the lunch box comes back half eaten - K2 does not relish his broccoli as much as he does Amy's Toaster Cheese Pizza or the Blue Horizon Salmon sticks  (or sour cream or cup cakes :( )....but hey! I have learnt which are the important battles to fight with a 4 year old and I try to let him have his occasional sugar rushes.

Easy Broccoli Fried Rice

You need :

1. 1 cup (or two) Cooked Brown Rice (I cheated, I had a carton lying from the Thai take-out)
2. 1 Head Chopped Broccoli (I use the stems too) - from my local farmer's market
3. Soft Tofu (add as much or as little as per taste)
4. Red Onions, Garlic and Ginger (all finely chopped)
5. Vegetable Oil
6. Soy Sauce to taste, Rice Wine Vinegar to taste

Add the oil to a wok...when it's shimmering hot - Add in the Onions, Ginger and Garlic (if you want it spicy now is the time to add in your Jalapeno, Serrano, Habenaro...as per your taste. I was making this for the kiddo, so I added the Habenaro Hot Sauce from the top later on). When the Onion Garlic and Ginger mixture is cooked through, I added in the chopped brocolli, when it is half way cooked I added in the soft tofu and scrambled it up with the brocolli - the mixture resembles scrambled green eggs :)
Now add in the Brown Rice and season with soy sauce and rice wine vinegar.

This is a kid friendly version and lacks the normal kicked up spices- like an overdose of Sriracha or Sambal...yet in some ways this is a very satisfying one pot meal.

Did you do anything fun this weekend? We saw huge life-size dinosaurs on Saturday that scared K2 speechless...ate Ethiopian food -- it was almost like a race to the last morsel.On Sunday, A left for India and we will miss him but as K2 says but Ma his plans are back and forth (meaning he will be going back and forth between US and India). After we dropped A in the airport, we picked up grilled chicken burgers and a Ham and Cheese Croissant for the little guy and sat by the waters and had an impromptu picnic....the simple pleasures in life are the most memorable ones...so what's your backup plan...wait a minute...you are smarter than me ...you don't have one...do you?