I miss my hubby.  He’s been gone for a week and a half and will be gone for another week.  I won’t lie, that sucks.  😦  We get into a routine with him being gone every weekend but these long stretches can be difficult.  Thankfully he doesn’t have to do them very often.

This is why I live for date nights.  I mean really live for them.  After almost 10 years of marriage to a travelling husband date nights are a pretty big deal!  When my husband is actually home on the weekends or random nights during the week we like to get spiffy and hit the town.  There are lots of new restaurants around that are getting rave reviews (which I’m sure we’ll check out at some point) but we tend to hit up our old favorites because our date nights are few and far between!

One of our go-to places is Suzy Wong’s House of Yum.  If you are in the Nashville area and want a cool place to grab Asian fusion before going to get cocktails (which is what we ALWAYS do on date night) this is the place!

So what do we do during those really looooong stretches of time with no weekends off and very little free time?  We have date nights at home!  I will say I am quite proud of this knock off version of my favorite dish from Suzy’s.  I first time we ever went there our waiter suggested it to me.  I was skeptical at first but now it’s all I ever get.  Lesson: listen to your server.  They know best!

Hope you enjoy!

Coconut Chili Fried Rice

Serves 2

• Vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup red onion, diced
• Garlic
• 3 cups cooked, cold white rice
• 1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup frozen edamame, shelled and thawed
• 1/3 cup toasted coconut (sweet or unsweet, your preference)
• 1/4 cup low-sodium tamari soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• Spoonful sambal olek (however much you like)
• 2 eggs
• Thin sliced scallions for garnish

In a small mixing bowl, mix together soy sauce, brown sugar and sambal olek, set aside.  Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Stir fry onions and garlic for about 30 seconds or until fragrant, stirring constantly.  Add rice and stir fry 2-3 minutes or until the rice starts to get crispy.  Add tomatoes and coconut, stir.  Add soy sauce mixture and stir fry another 2-3 minutes.  Portion into 2 serving dishes.

Heat a little more oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat (I usually just use the pan I fried the rice in, remove it from the stove for a minute to cool it off).  Crack the eggs into the skillet and cook until over easy.  You want the yolk to still be runny.  Place one egg on top of each bowl of rice.

Garnish with sliced scallions and enjoy!