Recipe of The Day: Pork Broccoli Stir Fry

I had no idea what I would cook the kids for dinner tonight. I made them BBQ meatballs last night. They told me they were the best meatballs ever! They had fried chicken on Monday.

Scanned the freezer and saw pork steaks. I grabbed them still not knowing what I was going to do. Didn't feel like grilling. Pan fry? That would be boring. I finally had an idea! Stir fry! Yay! This was going to be easy and quick. I could certainly whip this up in no time. Tomorrow will be the kids first day of school. So, there is much to do. I was pressed for time. I didn't follow any recipe. Just threw some things together. You could use any meat you want. I chose pork. Chicken and beef would work great too. I will get back to doing step by step pictures when I have more time.

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Servings: 4-5 people

Ingredients:

1 or 2 pork steaks chopped (can substitute with chicken or beef)
1 teaspoon ginger finely chopped
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
3 teaspoons sugar
flour for dredging
salt and pepper
oil for frying
1 1/2 cups frozen or fresh broccoli

Lightly season meat with salt and pepper after it is chopped. Then lightly dredge in flour. You do not want it heavily coated. Heat a large skillet or wok on medium-high heat. Toss meat in the pan. Start to brown meat. When meat is lightly browned you can add in your ginger. Keeping stirring around in pan. Keep it moving! After a few minutes add in your Oyster Sauce. Then soy sauce. Keep stirring. You can also add in your broccoli. Keep on stirring! Finally add in your sugar. Make sure everything gets coated well. It might get a little sticky. So just kind of scrape the bottom of your pan with your spatula, and keep it moving. Once everything is nice and browned and mixed you can remove from heat.

As always we had a fresh pot of hot rice. I served it to the kids like this.

I tried to show them how to use chopsticks. They actually did pretty well. Considering they never really used them before. For some reason they kept calling the meat chicken. lol My son kept asking for more chicken. He would have eaten the whole pan if I let him. He's only 6! I'm scared to see what 16 is going to be like! I told him everyone in the house has to eat too. He asked me to cook some more. I said, "Do I look like a restaurant?" He replied, "Yes!" Kids I tell ya.

Hope you enjoy!




~Feather
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Spicy Chicken Chili

It has been really ugly around these parts for the past week. I even got rained on during my jog! I wanted something warm and delicious to eat. So I whipped this up.

I bought a bag of dried pinto beans. Not knowing really what I was going to make with them. So after sitting around thinking, I decided on chili. I have made turkey chili before with kidney beans, and that was good. I remember other people telling me they use pinto beans. So I decided to give it a try. Didn't have any ground turkey, so I used boneless chicken breast. I did a quick soak on the beans. Then after they were done soaking, I added in my veggies and simmered them for a few hours. I added in my chicken and let it simmer another couple of hours. I pretty much let this thing cook all day long. I could have just thrown it all in a crock pot, but the stove worked just fine. This dish came out so yummy. I topped it with some sour cream and threw down! JP topped his with extra hot sauce, muenster cheese and sour cream. It was perfect for a rainy day. Yum! To keep it as healthy as possible I did not add in any rice (although I really wanted to deep inside). Cornbread would have been good with this too. Even crackers! You could really top this anyway you like. I didn't follow any exact recipe, but I'll try and list what I used at the bottom. It's more of a taste as you go thing. Some people may like their chili spicier then others. Here in our house the spicier the better!

Spicy Chicken Chili

Ingredients:

3 medium sized boneless chicken breast
3 small red bell peppers
1 green bell pepper
1 large onion
1/4 cup jalapenos
1 small tomato
2 cups dry pinto beans
Goya Adobo Seasoning to taste
Chili Powder to taste
Black Pepper to taste
Cayenne Pepper to taste
Garlic Powder to taste
Cumin about a teaspoon

Soak beans according to package. I did the quick soak. You bring the beans to a rapid boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat cover and let sit for 1 hour. Then drain beans when you are ready to cook.

Chop your veggies and add to pot. In a large pot cover beans and veggies with about 8 cups of water. Add in a decent amount of the seasoning and stir. Bring to a boil. Let boil a few minutes and turn heat down to medium-low. Simmer for a 2-3 hours. You can start to check your flavor. Taste and see what needs to be added. Chop your chicken breast and then put that in the pot. If you need to add anymore water you can add some. Cover pot and let simmer another couple of hours. Taste again to see if anything needs to be added. Remove from heat. Beans and chicken should be tender.

That's it. Serve by itself or over rice. Add any topping you like. This is a nice dish to have on a cold or rainy day. Enjoy!

~Feather

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Sunday Dinner

Here is what we ate over at my in-laws house on Sunday. Yummy! Bul Go Gi, Kimchi, Cabbage and Rice. JP's Mom is an excellent cook, I love it when she makes Korean dishes. They are soooo good! It's always a treat when we get some good home cooked food.


Here is a close look at the Kimchi, pretty fresh and spicy. Yum! She gave us a big jar to take home. I actually made myself some Kimchi soup today with some chicken.


This is the Bul Go Gi close up. It's basically a marinated beef. Very delicious with rice!

Then a couple of weeks ago she made us some Bi Bim Bap. Excuse the phone pics we had no idea she cooked this for us. This stuff was sooo goood! Far better than what we had in a restaurant! It's basically an array of different Korean style vegetables, rice, meat, fried egg and red hot chili sauce! It's all placed in a bowl and you eat! The flavors are soo good and mix very well with each other.

Here is the spread! Yum! Those are pork chops on the right side, and they weren't a part of our meal! LOL The kids actually ate those.


Here is our bowls before we started adding all the ingredients. We started off with rice and a fried egg. Then we went around the table and started adding in our veggies.


Some of the veggies. Not sure exactly what their names are, or what they are really. But, I do know they tasted really good!


Here are some cucumbers and the chili paste! After you get all your veggies in your bowl you top with some meat, I think we had Bul Go Gi. I could be wrong. Then she put some sesame seed oil and chili paste on top. Then you mix it all together and eat. Man! Let me tell you! I could eat this everyday! It was sooo good. We enjoyed these two meals a lot! Thank goodness for cheat meals! lol Thank goodness for Mom's who can cook! We are truly lucky, because both of our Mom's are excellent cooks. :)

I'll be posting food pics from our road trip next. Check back to see those!

~Feather
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Not My Mama Biscuits!

I love that episode of Martin where he tells Gina, "Not my mama biscuits!" LOL

Don't ask me how I married a southern man and never made him homemade biscuits. Especially since my husband almost every Sunday before Church rides to Bojangles and gets the whole family sausage biscuits. On the weekends JP and I allow ourselves to have cheat meals. This weekend I decided I wanted a good ol' homemade meal. I cooked some cube steak with homemade gravy and onions, rice, Brussel sprouts, and homemade biscuits. This was acutally my first time EVER making biscuits from scratch. I know, I know I'm a bad person. :( lol Not sure why I never attempted these. I guess I'm really not that fond of them. I searched the net for recipes and I actually found one to try out. It sounded fairly easy. I followed the recipes with some suggestions from others attempts. Guess what? They actually came out really good! I was proud of myself. The recipe was pretty good. I definitely will be making these again. My family loved them. I'll have to find one that is close the Bojangle recipe for JP. :)

Link to the recipe: Biscuit Recipe
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Quick Food Review

First of all let me tell you that eating healthy is really hard! Especially when you are someone who loves to eat and cook! Since February, JP and I have really been focused. People like us really need tons of variety in our diets. So, I have been trying out many different healthy alternatives in order to stay on track.

Lately I have been finding myself at Kroger's organic food section. I it find to be a lot cheaper than going to Earth Fare or some other specialty health food store. I had know idea they even had a organic/health food section. It's not a huge variety, but they have a decent selection. They best thing is they always seem to have things on sale. Which is great for me, because other specialty stores like Earth Fare can be costly. I wanted to review three items that I have tried over the last few weeks. Some organic baked cheese curls, organic whole wheat tortillas, and flour less sprouted bread.



Okay, so chips aren't exactly the most healthiest thing to have. But, if you are going to have some you might as well try and get something that won't hurt you to much. There are a ton of organic and low fat chip varieties. Like I said I have already tried a few. On my last visit to the store I spotted these. Michael Seasons Reduced Fat Baked Cheese Curls. They are are also Chili Pepper Flavored. Well right off that appealed to me, and I knew it would appeal to JP. Cheese and Spice! These are organic, no preservatives, wheat free, gluten free, low cal and low fat.


They are 130 calories per 1 cup. Which is actually a decent amount. I would probably say the equivalent to a small snack bag of chips. Now let me tell you something! The flavor says Chili Pepper, and they mean it! OMG! (ha ha using internet lingo) These things are sooo good! I'm serious if you like flaming hot Cheetos, these would be a great alternative. Probably a lot more cheesier than Flaming Hot Cheetos. But they are cheesy with a kick to it. Not just a slight kick, but a nice I need to drink some water kick. I got two bags for $4 which was an okay deal. I got one bag for JP to take to work and one for myself. JP had already finished his bag before the week was over. lol I still have about half of mine left. JP told me he threw a few them on his chicken wrap and it really kicked it up a notch. Overall I like the flavor of these. It is pretty spicy, but it does have a nice balance with the cheese. So if you can I would highly recommend these.




The second thing I would like to review is Food For Life's 7 Sprouted Grains bread. Food For Life makes tons of products and one of their popular items is the Ezekiel 4:9 bread. All of their products are Organic. They have things such as tortillas, English Muffins, Raisin Bread, and other types of breads. Over the last couple of months I have been eating their 7 Sprouted Grains bread. It is a flour less bread. Therefore it will go bad quickly. So you have to keep it refrigerated or frozen. This bread is a bit pricey at $3.99 per loaf. But it is absolutely awesome if you can get some!

At just 80 calories per slice and only 5 grams of fat this bread is some good stuff. It's packed with vitamins. I personally love it. It's the only bread I eat as of right now. It taste like a really good wheat bread. What's crazy is, it's not made with any flour! I have toasted it and ate it with Peanut Butter. Made Turkey sammiches and have not been disappointed yet. JP has also agreed that this bread is fantastic. So if you are looking for a good wheat bread I highly suggest trying this one or any of their other products.


The last thing I will review are Garden of Eatin's Whole Wheat Organic Tortillas. I am already a fan of their Greek Isle Pita Chips. Those are sooo good! So I decided to give these a try. You get 6 tortillas for $1.99 at Kroger. Not sure what they cost elsewhere. I was getting tired of those Low Carb Tortillas. Not even sure how anyone could call that tortilla. Those things are awful. As much as JP and I love burritos I need something that is going to be a little bit more tortilla like. This is another item that needs to be kept frozen or refrigerated. A lot of this Organic stuff goes bad quickly.

These are 110 calories per tortilla. Which isn't to bad. The carbs a bit high than I would like, but it's still better than eating a regular tortilla. These I must say are actually good. Waaaay better than those low carb things. They actually taste like a tortilla. The wheat taste isn't overpowering and the texture is good. I have made grilled chicken wraps with these and they were awesome. I heated them in pan with a bit of Olive Spray and they tasted great. Again, this would be another product I would suggest if you are looking for a tortilla alternative.

So that concludes my food reviews. I would also like to add that I am a very budget conscience person. I only spend about $200 a month for a family of 5 on groceries. So I really try to get things that will not break my wallet. I will have links to these food items. You can check your local grocery or health food store. If you have any questions or want to suggest some things for us to try shoot us an email. Thanks for stopping by! :)

Michael Seasons Baked Cheese Curls

Food For Life 7 Sprouted Grains Bread

Garden of Eatin Organic Whole Wheat Tortilla


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Trying to get back in the swing of things!

It feels like it's been an eternity since I last posted something. I am in fact still cooking daily. I have been cooking a lot more food too.

I have been experimenting in the kitchen with healthy meals. I have made a whole wheat pizza from scratch, which was great. Whole Wheat chicken burritos, and other things. I know I should be taking pictures and posting recipes. I've been so busy it's crazy. So hopefully I can start getting back into the swing of things. I still plan on doing some reviews of the healthy things I've been trying. I can say that I absolutely love Ezekiel Bread and Cliff Bars. I also have just tried Garden Of Eatin's Whole Wheat Organic Tortillas which I love too! So check back for some new stuff. I am trying my hardest to get it done. Thanks!

~Feather
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