Mongolian Beef Stir-fry

Good morning friends! 

This weekend I made a great dinner that I wanted to share with you. 

It's from a Good Housekeeping cookbook called Fast Weeknight Favorites. (Amazon says it's $24.95, but we only paid $5 for it at Kohls.)

For some reason, I get super sketched out cooking meat in my own home. It's one of my very favorite things to eat... if my mom's cooking it. But when Brian or I cook it, I don't trust it. But this meal was so good, I ate every single bite! 

Mongolian Beef Stir-Fry

Total time: 30 min

Makes 4 servings (it only fed 3 of us, but 2 of them are hungry grad students)

Ingredients:

1 beef flank stead (1 lb) thinly sliced

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon grated, peeled fresh ginger

4 tablespoons soy sauce (if this is gluten-free, the whole meal will be)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

1 medium red pepper, thinly sliced (I also added green pepper)

2 bunches green onions, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced (I'm sure I did more than this because I love garlic)

2 tablespoons dry sherry (I substituted Apple Cider Vinegar and it worked great!)

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Rice (5-minute white rice works great!)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, toss steak with cornstarch, ginger, and 2 tablespoons soy sauce until evenly coated; set aside.

2. In a nonstick 12-inch skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat until very hot. Add onion, red pepper, green onions, and garlic; cook, stirring frequently (stir-fry), until vegetables are tender-crisp (about 5 minutes).

3. While everything's cooking, start some 5-minute white rice. 

4. Meanwhile, in a cup, use a fork to mix sherry (apple cider vinegar), hoisin, sugar, crushed red pepper and remaining 2 tablespoons soy sauce, until blended. 

5. Transfer vegetables to bowl. 

6. In same skillet, heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add beef mixture. Stir-fry until lightly browned (about 2 min).   

7. Stir in mixture from cup; heat to boiling. 

8. Return vegetables to skillet and heat through. 

When it's all finished, put some rice on your plate with your stir-fry on top. It was delish! We finished the whole thing in one sitting... I was stuffed and the boys were super impressed. 

Tonight, I'm trying to make some homemade sausage balls... I'll let you know how it turns out! 

Linking up:

Recreate Into Something New

Chocolate Granola

Last week, I told you about the rolled oats I bought and that I was planning on making some Chocolate Granola. Sooooo.... yesterday I made it and I've already eaten 2 bowls and I have a feeling it'll be gone by the end of the week! Good thing I have enough stuff to make another batch! 

The recipe I'm sharing today was adapted from Lynn's Kitchen Adventures. I halved her recipe, used rolled oats, added some coconut and in the future, would add a little more brown sugar... really, she has an amazing recipe and I just changed/added a couple very small things. 

Chocolate Granola Over Vanilla Yogurt

Chocolate Granola

Ingredients:

1/6 cup brown sugar (although I'll be adding a little more next time!)

1/6 cup canola oil

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup cocoa

3 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup shredded coconut

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and wrap a 9x13 pan in foil (this helps with clean up!).

In a small sauce pan, combine brown sugar, oil and honey. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in cocoa. 

In a large bowl, stir oats and sugar/cocoa mixture together until oats are well coated. 

Spread oats into foil-wrapped pan. 

Bake for 10 minutes. 

Remove from oven and stir in chocolate chips and coconut.

Turn off oven and return granola to oven. (Yes, you turn the oven off an place granola back in). 

Leave in oven for 1-2 hours. (I ended up leaving in there for 2 1/2 hours.)

Remove from oven and let cool. (Mine was pretty much cooled by the time I took it out of the oven.)

Store in sealed containers. 

I eat mine over vanilla yogurt... 

Making homemade granola was SO much easier than I had anticipated. It was probably 10 minutes of work and then you just leave it in the oven!

Do you have any good granola recipes?? I've found a couple others I'd like to try... but regardless of what kind of granola I have, I ALWAYS add a few chocolate chips! 

Spicing Things Up

Hello Friends!

If you read my post on Tuesday, you may remember that I said I bought a ton of spices for super cheap at the Dekalb Farmers Market, here in Atlanta. I don't know if you really believed me... but they are seriously SO cheap. 

I remember when I first moved here my roommate asked me to pick up some spices there for him... he said, "I don't know, just buy like $30 worth." Well, when I got there, I realized that $30 worth could be DOZENS of spices and I ended up buying him 10 or 15 different spices. 

Anyhow, Brian and I headed over there last Saturday specifically to buy spices (although I picked up a lot of fruits and veggies too!). 

Let me just give you a little idea of HOW awesome these prices are... 

Check out the bay leaves we picked up vs. what you can get at Publix.  

Yes, that says $0.57, while the little jar from Publix was $2.00. I have no idea how I'm even going to use all the bay leaves I have now!  

Here's a picture of all the different spices we got. They range in price from $0.27 to $1.45. 

Oh! And the oats!! I bought some oats to make a yummy Chocolate Granola recipe that I pinned! I spent $1.81 (total) on the oats and I can't wait to cook them up this weekend. 

 Our final dilemma was where to keep all of our new spices in our small apartment kitchen. I headed to IKEA and picked out a cute black shelf (that I've not-so-secretly wanted for months) and some little spice jars. In a perfect world, I would have 12 canisters, but I only bought 8 because of lack of space.

I want to make cute little labels like these for each one. We'll see how it progresses.... I'll let you know! 

Hope you're having a great week! 

Lavender Tea

I'm not gonna lie friends... lately I've been feeling a bit of writers block. Maybe it's lack of time, or maybe it's because the holidays are over and I'm not gearing up for anything anymore... but regardless, the last few weeks I haven't felt like I have much to write about. I have some fun things coming up, so hopefully that'll get me back in the swing of things! 

Today, I want to share with you something I'm lovin' right now. Generally speaking, I am a coffee girl. I drink at least one cup in the morning, and usually one or two throughout the day and evening.

However the last few days, I've been making myself a little treat! It's super inexpensive and just as good (if not better) than any drink you can get at a coffee or tea house. 

I don't really have a name for it... I just kinda made it up. Let's call it Lavender Tea.

Anyhow, here's what you do. Make a regular cup of tea. It can be any kind really, but I would probably stay away from really fruity teas, because you may put your taste buds into overload. I just used whatever tea was in our house.

Then pour in a little half & half and honey and stir it together. (I'm sure you could substitute milk and sugar since I'm just making this up as I go.) 

After it's all mixed up, put a pinch of lavender on top. I recently scored a ton of lavender at the Dekalb Farmers Market for $0.94! I'll be doing a post on all the spices I got later this week. 

Anyhow, the lavender adds a flavorful twist to regular tea and cream. BUT you have to watch out to get it in your mouth. I don't think it's bad for you, I don't think it's ideal to get it in your mouth. 

Brian said he was afraid of the lavender, but I convinced him to try it and he commented on all the different tastes it brings out. 

Do you like coffee or tea better? Have you ever experimented with what you put in coffee or tea? I'd love to hear your fun ideas! 

Okay, I'm off to play outside with the kiddos! It's been rainy here for the last 3 days, so we're going to enjoy the sunshine while we have it! 

Linking up:

Primp Your Stuff Wednesday
Get Schooled Saturday

Yummy Pinterest Finds

We're having a sick week... Is anyone else? Brian is getting over a cold while I'm fighting one and the kids I nanny for are passing around a stomach bug... It's totally lame. 

We're currently watching a cartoon about wolves that has a lot of political undertones about wolf relocation... and there's my Natural Resource Tourism degree at work. HA! 

ANYHOW, I thought I'd share with you some Pinterest finds that we've made and loved. The funny thing about Pinterest is that with 951 pins (and counting), it's virtually impossible to actually do everything you'd like to do... But we try to actually make new recipes fairly often. 

So here are some that we've like and I would highly recommend!! 

Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff

Cilantro Lime Shrimp

Garlic Mushroom Bruschetta

Roasted Garlic Brussels Sprouts

We absolutely LOVED this 

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

 Or maybe you're hungry for some sweets???

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cakes

The best part of this dessert is the raspberries inside... Next time, I would put even more! 

Angel Bites

Christmas Egg Nog Cookies

I really like both these recipes,

 but if I had to choose I would probably choose Sugar and Spice.

Sugar and Spice Almonds

Cinnamon Vanilla Almonds

Martha's Pecan Pie

Simple Fudge

Almond Shake

And OMG we recently tried a new chicken curry recipe that was to DIE for. I'll type up the recipe and give it to you guys sometime soon... although, I'm not sure I took any pictures! 

If you want to check out others that we've liked, I've written about them here and here. 

I have these Crock Pot Baked Potatoes cooking right now at home. I'll let you know how it goes! 

Source

So tell me, do you make the things you've pinned? Have you had success with any of them?? Failure with any of them?? I'd love to hear any recommendations you may have! 

P.S. I've spent a little time looking at this website today.  If you're bored today and feel like dreaming of relaxing in a deserted cabin somewhere (what, am I the only one thinking that?), you should check it out.

Chopping Onions Without the Tears!

Good Morning! 

I have something crazy to tell you about. I don't even know if it's real, but we'll discuss it and see....

Have you ever read The Help? If not, you totally should. Or see the movie. It was really good too. Really, you should read the book and then see the movie... 

Anyhow, in the movie, Aibileen tells Skeeter the secret to chopping onions without tears. 

Aibileen: Shoot! That's easy. You tell to hold a match stick between her teeth.

Skeeter: Is it lit?

Aibileen: No, ma'am. 

(source)

So last week I decided to try it. I was about halfway through cutting some onions when my eyes started burning and watering. I thought back to that line in the movie and grabbed some matches... I swear, it worked! 

I mean, it didn't work 100%, but they were already burning when I decided to try it, so that probably played a part. It definitely got better once I started using the match and made it totally manageable to finish the task. I really think it works! Could it be just in my head?? 

I did a little research, and found some other (crazy/silly/strange) ways people recommend to avoid tears:

Hold water in your mouth while you chop

Chop near an open flame

Sticking onions in the refrigerator for a few hours before cutting them

Peel the onions under water

Put a piece of bread in your mouth and let it hang out while chopping

Use a sharp knife

Spritz the cutting board with vinegar before cutting

Cut the onions underwater

How do you avoid tears??? Do you have another crazy idea or have you tried any of the ones listed above?? I'd love to hear your secrets! 

Linking up to:

Spencer's in Town!

Good Morning!

I'm writing this from my nice cozy bed right now. Lately, it's been looking like a creepy horror movie outside my window every morning...

Not to mention that it's 25 degrees out there and not supposed to warm up... and the wind. Man, I hope one of those trees doesn't fall on me! (I'm only half kidding... less than a year ago, someone was killed in our neighborhood walking to their car when a GINORMOUS tree fell on them.)

Anyhow, my little brother, Spencer, is in town visiting until Monday. I am so happy to have him here, I have to tell you that blogging has been the last thing on my mind. He hasn't had the best week, so spending quality time with him, showing him love, and momentarily distracting him has been such a blessing.

The kids are totally obsessed with him. We took them kite flying yesterday. It was their first time and they LOVED it. I just sat with our belongings and took pictures/video while Spence had to untangle them a billion times. But he was a trooper and helped them. They told me he was their new best friend... I think I've been replaced. 

As we strolled through Piedmont Park, I snapped this photo on my phone. Not too bad for a windy winter's day...

Today, we'll most likely be spending lots of time inside. I was hoping to get some spray painting done. Like I've said before, Spencer is super artistic and crafty, and I've enlisted him in helping me redecorate my dining room.

Pictures to come!!

How to fix a disposal

A couple weeks ago, Paige and I were cooking away in my kitchen - peeling potatoes, I think - when our garbage disposal stopped working. 

It was a disaster. 

Naturally, we called for Brian and asked him for help. 

He tried plunging. 

It did not work. 

So then Brian decided to go underneath the sink and fiddle with it. This made me incredibly nervous so I asked him to stop. I won't go into details, but he nearly broke the whole thing. 

I'm pretty sure I said, "Vinegar would probably fix it!", as I've learned through reading so many blog posts on home remedies. 

I googled "How to unclog a garbage disposal", and found this blog post and decided to try it. 

All you need is baking soda and vinegar.

I don't know if we really measured the baking soda and vinegar, but I think it's supposed to be 1/2 vinegar, 1/2 baking soda. 

We put it in the sink and after a few minutes it looked like this:

And then plunged again... after that it looked like this:

Then we just stuck a hand down there and took out all the peels.

AND we learned a big lesson on what a disposal can and can't handle. Have you ever had any mishaps like this?? Or thought your significant other was going to destroy your disposal?? 

Welp, now we know how to fix it!!