Sweet & savory bowl with a dash of heat.

Growing up, I stayed away from pineapples as much as possible. It's all because of that one incident when I ate one too many of them, resulting in tongue burn. I was a kid so I was forever traumatized from that experience. So yeah, you could say that for years, I wasn't the biggest fan of Hawaiian pizza (not that much has changed, really.).

When I entered my twenties, I slowly welcomed pineapples back in my diet. Of course my first reaction to pineapples is a solid NO but I'd come around a few moments later. I like it in bread pudding and fruit salads and I'd sometimes get a piece or two in sweet & sour dishes. Hey, I'd even eat one slice of the fresh one! Whaddya know, I've made progress without realizing it. (Here's to hoping I won't jinx it, though!). So to "celebrate" that achievement, I decided to whip up something for NMM that includes pineapples. It's something easy and quick to prepare, requires minimal cooking, doesn't involve a bajillion ingredients, and has two ingredients I love: rice and hot sauce. Sounds cool? 

The Egg and Pineapple Bowl is something I prepared when I had no idea what to eat for a no meat day. When I saw a Pineapple Sriracha Bowl recipe on the Budget Bytes site, I knew I had to write it down and save it for days when I can't be bothered to cook the whole shebang. Thing is, it's so easy to make you can pretty much put your own spin on it. I stayed true to the recipe with a couple of modifications: instead of sriracha, I used Bans Chili Farms' jalapeno hot sauce which just worked  perfectly; and instead of green onions, I used chopped fresh basil leaves. I'm not the biggest fan of sriracha (sorry, sriracha fans!) but I do love me some jalapeno anything so it's still a win-win. For my vegan friends or non-eaters of eggs, you can always sub it with tofu, seitan, tempeh, or Quorn cubes.

Here's to lazy day cooking!

PS. Yes, I know my fried egg looks atrocious. Can you tell I'm that lazy to cook? :P

EGG & PINEAPPLE BOWL

(adapted from BudgetBytes.com)

YIELD: 1

1 cup cooked rice

1 tsp soy sauce

1 - 1 1/2 tsp hot sauce of choice

1 tsp sesame oil

1/4 - 1/3 c chopped fresh pineapple

about 6-8 fresh basil leaves, sliced to strips (or use 1 green onion, sliced)

1 egg, fried sunny side up

salt & pepper

1. In a bowl, combine soy sauce, hot sauce, and sesame oil. Mix until combined.

2. Season the rice with the sauce and add in the pineapple pieces and sliced basil leaves. Stir until everything is well combined.

3. In a pan, fry the egg. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Top the rice mix with the fried egg and add more salt and pepper, if needed.