Sun Bird delivers

If you're like me, you often find yourself craving Chinese food, but wanting to cook it at home. Instead of the dim lighting and poor ambience of many Chinese restaurants, I'd much prefer the quiet light at my own dinner table. Plus, I get to stay in sweats!

Here's my suggestion: Pick up the season and sauce packets from Sun Bird. In my grocery store, they're lumped together with other Asian ingredients like rice noodles, soy sauce and coconut milk, in some sort of politically uncorrect mish-mash that takes up only half an aisle. Check the back of the packet to see what ingredients they recommend you add, some necessary and others optional.

I was particularly impressed with their seasoning for fried rice. I was able to throw together a delicous pan of rice that satisfied even my picky, Asian-food-snob boyfriend. The result was a nicely balanced, not too salty side of rice that one could throw a variety of vegetables or meat in.

Recently, I used their stir fry packet to whip up dinner for a friend and myself. It was slightly sweet and also not too salty. The sauce reduced quickly, leaving us with a thicky, translucent sauce coating our vegetables and mixing nicely with the rice.

So if you're ever in the mood for some Chinese, be it rice, beef and broccoli or soup, stroll down the aisles of your grocery store and pick up some of Sun Birds products.