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Szechuan Beef with Veggies

We tried our first recipe from February’s cookbook this month … Szechuan Beef and Broccoli which I adapted based on what we already had, namely the GIANT bag of stirfry veggies that we buy at Costco and pretty much always keep on hand. The kids already know and love them (they are BIG fans of the baby corn, water chestnuts and carrots) and it’s an easier sell than just broccoli. Tabby is probably the only kid I know who doesn’t like the tree part of the broccoli, but rather the stem. Same with asparagus.

In some ways I’m kind of bummed that I selected this recipe to try. I wish I’d read through it a bit more. It uses bottled sauce and is really really close to what we already make for our weekly stirfry night recipe, just different sauce. But it is a good recipe and it’s a good lesson to me – read these recipes before picking them for the cookbook challenge.

 

Szechuan Beef with Veggies

adapted from The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook

Ingredients

  • frozen veggies in as large a quantity as you like (we use about 2 cups per person minimum) – onions, broccoli spears, snow peas, baby corn, carrots (smaller pieces), water chestnuts all stirfry well and I’m sure fresh would be good too
  • 4 oz steak per person, cut into thin strips or bite-sized chunks; we opt for leaner meats
  • stirfry sauce of your choice for the kids or spice scaredy cats
  • Sezchuan sauce for spice lovers
  • a small amount of cooked rice to serve alongside
  • 1 tsp olive oil or cooking spray

Directions

To make this SUPER quickly, I pre-cook the veggies somewhat. If they’re frozen, I microwave them until they’re about half defrosted. If they’re fresh, it’s less necessary, but you can still steam them in the microwave a bit. I pour off the excess water as well to speed it up. While the veggies are getting defrosted, spray a big skillet with cooking spray or use some olive oil. Heat over med-high heat. Once the veggies are done, throw them in the skillet and hear it sizzle. Keep them moving as they cook. It doesn’t take long.

When the veggies are cooked, set them aside and make sure your pan is nice and hot and add a little more oil/spray if needed. Place the steak in the pan in a single layer. Cook, stirring around a bit until all browned, about 2 minutes. Don’t over cook it or you will be rewarded with tough beef. Ick.

Return the veggies to the pan and warm everything a bit. If everyone likes the same amount of sauce, add your sauce and stir it up. This is easiest to do in the skillet, but if not, put everything into individual bowls and add the sauce there. Not too much sauce! You can always add more.

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Blueberry Buttermilk Muffin Cake

This weekend, post Zone, during the midst of our snowstorm, we had a very nice family breakfast. We don’t do leisurely breakfasts very often. Weekdays the kids are at their sitters, I’m at the office and Matt … I’m not sure Matt even eats breakfast most days. But on Saturday, we had no place to be at any certain time. So while Matt shoveled the walk and the kids played outside (again), I made Blueberry Buttermilk Muffin Cake (original recipe from Alexandra’s Kitchen). It came out super light and fluffy and browned on top and everyone absolutely loved it. We ate it with a side of bacon and some yogurt and of course, tea.

I picked up these darling little teacups for the kids at Fishs Eddy while we were in NYC. I think they’re technically espresso cups or something, but they make great little people teacups. I love the charming NYC skyline pattern and they’re a really fun souvenir. The size is great for the kiddos because even if they get spilled, the amount of liquid they hold is pretty small.

So we ate breakfast. We talked about our trip to NYC and Ben talked at length about what a funny movie Home Alone is and how Kevin smacks the burglars with paint cans, etc. Of course I only understood about half of what he said. That makes it all that much better.

Ingredients

  • ½ C butter, at room temperature
  • 2 t lemon zest or more
  • 3/4 C + 3 T sugar
  • 1 egg, room temperature
  • 1 t vanilla
  • 2 C flour
  • 2 t baking powder
  • 1 t coarse salt
  • 2 C fresh blueberries
  • 1/2 C buttermilk

Directions

Heat oven to 350. Cream together butter and all but one tablespoon sugar. Add egg, lemon zest and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Meanwhile, sift together 1 3/4 C flour, salt and baking powder together. Toss remaining 1/4 C flour with blueberries. In alternating batches, add buttermilk and flour to sugar/butter mixture. Gently fold in blueberries.

Lightly grease a 9×9 (or 8×8) square pan) and spread batter in. Sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of sugar and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

This was wonderful warm from the oven and just as yummy cold the next day.

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The New Fridge is Chilly

The new fridge is EXCELLENT. It’s bigger than the old one, so much so that we can fit most of what was in the garage fridge + the old indoor fridge (the new garage fridge) all inside. I also like it because it is pretty shallow, especially up top and very well lit and things don’t seem to get lost as easily. We’re all loving the in-door ice and water. Everyone at our house is very big on the water and it gets used constantly.

The bottom drawer is super great to use and somehow really good to find things in despite the fact that it’s deep. But by far, my favorite thing it does is store wide things. Any pizza, big or small … fits right in. An entire cookie sheet of freezing bananas fits right in.

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Cookbook Challenge … Month #2

So I’ve had the Biggest Loser Family Cookbook sitting on my shelf for … quite a while. At least a year, but probably 2 or 3. I like the ideas around the cookbook – healthy REAL food for families. They skimp on the carbs and use lots of veggies. I’m sure I’ve made SOMETHING out of it, but honestly, I can’t remember what at this point.

Well that changes. Like TODAY. This month I’m tackling this as my cookbook of the month for my Cookbook Challenge. I will make 8 recipes from this book over the course of February and if I like them, the book stays and if not, it’s a goner.

Recipes I will be tackling:

  1. Grilled Chicken Parmesan
  2. Szechuan Beef and Broccoli
  3. BBQ Bacon Meatloaf
  4. Edamummus (dip made from edamame)
  5. Tuna/Hummus English Muffins
  6. Strawberry-Limeade Smoothie
  7. Broccoli and Cheddar Mini Frittatas
  8. Buffalo Chicken-Blue Cheese Meatloaf

I may toss in one or two more if I feel like it. It was pretty hard to get down to just eight I wanted to try, but I took some from each section of the cookbook and I’m excited to try them.

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Blissful Blizzard

You may have heard we got a little snow. Heck, if you live W of the Mississipi and E of the Rockies in the USA, there’ s a pretty good chance you saw some snow yourself. Here it started going around 8PM on Thursday and didn’t let up until noonish on Saturday. Our area saw about 24 inches, but parts of the state saw about double that. If only my favorite ski resort had been in that second category. Ah well …

At our house we passed the time happily, playing games, reading books, napping, watching TV, shoveling and playing in snow and cooking. Matt ended our 4 weeks in The Zone on Friday and it was good timing we made some tasty treats and indulged just a leetle bit. The kids loved playing in the snow and also watching the various vehicles that were unleashed on our area to combat it. We had a little bobcat that cleared the alley and a giant front-end loaded that took care of our streets.

Despite the fact that the snow is kind of inconvenient and it kind of messed up some of my favorite running spots, I enjoyed the storm and having some nice slow days to play with my kiddos. They are way fun.

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My Favorite Spot

We’ve been doing a lot of work around the house the past month or so, but there is one spot, not too glamorous that I wanted to show you. It’s our height timeline wall. A couple of years ago, I don’t even remember why, I started marking the kids heights on that little section of wall in our kitchen. I just use a sharpie and a little, sometimes not too straight line, and mark their name and age. And slowly, the marks have piled up. We don’t mark regularly, maybe twice a year or so, but there they are, proof that my kids are growing.

Sometimes, when I would have sworn it was Ben who did all the growing, the wall surprises me and shows me that in fact, Tabby has made the biggest leap over the past six months. It also reveals that age for age, Ben is trending quite a bit taller than Tabby. It’s not a huge surprise and I always wonder when he’ll catch up to her. Months? Years? Not too soon, I hope.

Every time I see the wall it makes me smile, even if it’s a bit nostalgically. It’s one of those things that, were we ever to move, I would want to take with me, no matter how unrealistic that is. I absolutely love it.

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Chicken Minestrone

Well the month and our experiment with The Zone is almost up as is my whirlwind tour of Zone Meals in Seconds cookbook. It’s been … interesting. I’ve done well on The Zone, losing about 9 lbs, which for a month is pretty good (and technically, I still have ’til Friday for my four weeks to be up, and I’ll be Zoned until then). I can’t say it’s something I feel like I could live with permanently. I like a bit more wiggle room in my life … I like food, good food, way too much to be this restricted, but I think it put me back on track with what I know to be healthy and reinforced some good lessons. Lean meat, healthy vegetables, less starches, little sugar, good fats.

The cookbook itself was a meh. Let’s say a 4 out of 10. This book had two kinds of recipes … one was real recipes as we think of them, the other, just thrown together ingredients. They were both a mix of awesome and blech! with a few meh … thrown in there. My samplings:

  1. Tex Mex meatloaf – seriously tasty; I’ve recommended this to a few people and it was very well received
  2. Salmon Tagine – loved the spinach, but the Salmon was just so-so
  3. Apple Spice Oatmeal – protein powder completely screwed up the texture; edible, but not yummy
  4. Moroccan chicken stew – ICK. Way too much of the cream of soup.
  5. Zoned Apple Muffins – These were good, but not great. Not a ton of flavor/taste.
  6. Mexican chicken chili – not so much a recipe, just a list of things to throw together in a bowl; pretty tasty though
  7. Blueberry and banana creme freeze – pretty tasty, even liked the sour cream in here – may post this one later.
  8. Chicken Minestrone – quite good!

Anyhow, more about Chicken Minestrone. This is one of those recipe that I don’t even really consider to be a recipe because there’s just not much to it. Just a couple of raw ingredients, the rest from cans or the freezer section, but I know a lot of people struggle with even this and it could be a gateway recipe, so I will post it. It really is tasty and super healthy. This makes 4 4-block meals (a TON of soup)

Ingredients

  • 3 cups of cubed frozen chicken
  • 1 10 oz package cut green beans
  • 1 can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 qt low sodium chicken broth/stock
  • 1 jar marinara sauce
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2-3 zucchini quartered and sliced
  • 3 T EVOO
  • dried oregano and basil

Directions

Heat the EVOO in a dutch oven. While the oil is heating, cook the green beans to about 75% done in the microwave. Add the chicken, garlic, zucchini, green beans and herbs to the dutch oven and cook until all are warmed through and fragrant. Add the kidney beans, broth and marinara. Stir to combine and bring to a boil and simmer for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

 

I really enjoyed experimenting with this cookbook this month. It’s not one that I expect to turn to often but it gave me a couple good new recipes. Next month will be The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook.

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Paradise Falls

One time my dad made the comment that Matt and I reminded him of Carl and Elle trying to save for their trip to Paradise Falls. We are very good about putting away money, but something always seems to come up and we have to smash the jar.

I know I’ve mentioned our ING accounts more than once. We tuck away a lot of money every month for retirement and college savings, but also for a host of other things including, but not limited to: car-related expenses, insurance premiums, home improvement, Christmas and Loki.

Many months in a row, the money goes in and we just leave it there and let it accumulate. But eventually, we have to smash the jar. This month, the money in our home improvement fund which I had sort of ear-marked for work on Tabby’s room or our master bath (still has the dreaded carpet) went to buying a new fridge. It didn’t cover it all the way and we’ll have to take the balance from the small cushion in our budget. And we haven’t even priced the fix on the floors yet. We also had to smash the car-expense fund. Matt’s car needed new brakes. And we have plate renewals for both as well.

I know it’s not unique to us and I’m realistic enough to know that we’re very lucky to have money to tuck away for these eventualities and I even feel somewhat victorious when we use these funds and our budget doesn’t have to take a hit. But I also do not like seeing two of our most often-used funds almost at $0.00. Ick.

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Weeeeekend!

You’ll hardly ever hear me complain about a weekend. I love my job but man, I’m always so glad for a weekend. This one was particularly CHILL. Friday we didn’t leave the house at all (so so rare). We watched the snow. We took naps. I finished up a freelance project (and yelled at the kids because they were disturbing me). My family came over.

Saturday we had great plans to take the kids to the Zoo (the big reason I finished up my freelance work on Friday), but on the way to the car dealership to drop off Matt’s car for service, Ben screamed the whole way there, saying he had a stomach ache. Tabby was tired too and the weather was less than stellar, so we headed back home. The kids had naps and lunch and quiet time. I worked on my site (like the new look?) and we attempted to go to dinner (Ben’s stomachache had disappeared) which was thwarted by a 40 minute wait (at 5:30!!). After a tossed together homemade dinner the kids went to bed, Matt and I tore apart the kitchen and reorganized it and got rid of a bunch of junk. We finished off the evening watching old eps of How I Met Your Mother.

Sunday we started off the morning with a run on N Table Mesa with some friends. It wasn’t long, but it was a good tough run and we both enjoyed it. Then we took the kiddos to the zoo – everyone had a wonderful time, even though it wasn’t really warm. After a stop by Starbucks for tea for me and a donut for the kids, we grabbed a few groceries and headed home. The kids settled in for quiet time while Matt and I FINALLY took down Christmas. I made some Crack Broccoli and Quinoa Mac ‘n’ Cheese for dinner – both winners, I HIGHLY recommend!! While the mac was cooking, we installed Ben’s new tree decal on his wall. I wasn’t sure about it before we put it up, but I love love it!

Now the kids are in bed and so are we … dueling laptops, getting this and that done before a busy week starts. Can you believe it’s almost February???

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Tabby’s Turn

It’s been all about Ben this week and though the kids don’t read the blog yet, I didn’t want Tabby to feel left out in the future when she reads the archives (because I’m oh-so-sure she’ll be fascinated, right?). A quick rundown on the happenings in Tabby land.

  • All of a sudden, she gets the reading thing! she can sound it out and figure it out and put it all together! It’s slow, but it’s happening!
  • She is eating us out of house and home and I anticipate a major growth spurt soon.
  • She is super excited for her 5th birthday, coming up in about a month (?!?!) she has all sorts of plans. We probably need to get on a few of those, right?
  • We have started teaching her to use knives for dinner prep after her begging us to let her try. My sister read about a chef who taught his kids with one hand tied behind their back at first and that is how we’ve been doing it. She’s doing pretty well.
  • She has mastered the art of the high-five (her system for routine in the mornings and evenings) and is well on her way to earning a trip to the movies or a new DVD.
  • She is a wee bit jealous of Ben’s new bed and she will soon have completely outgrown the darling toddler bed Matt made her before Ben was born, so we are making plans to upgrade her room a bit. Here are the ideas so far on Tabby’s New Room Pinterest board.
  • She has been begging us to let her take dance lessons, but thanks to our rec districts short-sided scheduling policies (nothing after 4:30 PM), we can’t get her into dance classes. So she is happily starting ICE SKATING at the end of February (after another round of swim lessons). She’s totally excited. Which reminds me – I need to figure out about a pair of ice skates for her.
  • She’s been learning all about the months of the year and the days of the week at school, so we have been looking at her calendar together. She’s excited for her upcoming events (Valentines Day, her birthday, etc.), visits from her Nashville family and our friends and their baby, our upcoming trips (FL in May, Sand Dunes in May) and the big one … KINDERGARTEN!
  • The questions are getting harder to answer: Who was the first mommy? How does the music get in the car and to our ears? Why can’t babies talk and walk when they’re born (horses do)? I find myself babbling about evolutionary advantage and tympanic membranes way more than I ever thought I would. It’s hilarious.