White Girl Homemade Broccoli Beef

So I made some Broccoli Beef and white rice one night a week or so ago. It was DELICIOUS if I might say so myself, but my favorite part about the night was that Cousin (no his name is not "cousin" but that's what I call him--not sure if I've ever mentioned him on here, but he's our "roommate" and my cousin) had a buddy over that night, and I told them that there were leftovers in the kitchen if they wanted some. Cousin loves when I cook. First of all, because he moved from living with our grandma to living with me, so he loves a good home cooked meal. Second, because he's not the most independent guy so cooking is kind of outta the question for him (haha if he sees this he will NOT agree). Well, anyway back to my story, Cousin was glad I cooked and got a big plate, however, his friend whom I've never cooked for before said (and I quote) "No offense, but I'm kind of afraid of a white girl in Oklahoma making Chinese food at home." haha I've never laughed so hard in my life, but long story short, he ate it and so I guess this small town white girl is a better cook than I thought. :-)

 

Now after all that bragging here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

Vegetable Oil

Cornstarch

Baking soda

Low-sodium soy sauce

Brown sugar

Head of Broccoli

Sugar

Flour

White Rice

Flank steak

First you must marinade the meat. I purchased about 1 3/4 lbs of flank steak from the grocery store. 

I bought it home and sliced it thin AGAINST the grain into strips like this:

 Here in this pic I am mixing the beef with the marinade. 

The marinade recipe goes as follows:

• 1 1/2 - 2 lbs flank steak
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce (if not using low sodium I would use more sugar to counter ALL the salt)
• 1 Tbsp water
• 2 Tbsp Vegetable oil

Whisk together the ingredients then toss in beef. Marinade COVERED in the refrigerator for 45 minutes or longer.

While waiting on the meat to marinade, start preparing the head of broccoli by cutting into florets.

I used "boil in the bag" rice because it's quick and easy. I started boiling the water in a pot for the rice.

Then I started making the sauce:

 Sauce recipe (I prepared in a 2 cup measuring cup for easy pouring and less dishes) whisked together:

• 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar (pictured above)
• 4 cloves of garlic minced (pictured below)
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar (original recipe called for sherry. I did not have any on hand so I used an acid I had instead, and it was delicious)
• 3 Tbsp Vegetable oil

While the rice is boiling and now that the sauce is ready I started heating up 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil in a large skillet over HIGH heat. (Asian food is very quick cooking so all this prep needs to be done ahead of time so that it can be thrown together quickly to be prepared correctly.)

When the oil is hot and "shiny" or shimmering, put in broccoli florets. Saute about 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Broccoli will start to brown on edges quickly.

 

After 3 minutes it will not be "done", but remove it from the pan, and add another Tbsp of vegetable oil to pan and then add marinaded beef. 

Cook the beef with 1/2 of the sauce mixture and saute for 3-4 minutes or until beef is cooked through and no longer pink.

 Then, add the broccoli and the rest of the sauce mixture. Cook another 1 minute.

I then poured the rice into the bottom of a serving dish and topped it with the broccoli beef.

 It was THAT easy. Hope you all enjoy!

Busy, Busy Weekend

Did so much to our house this weekend, and I am one proud woman. AJ and a bunch of other helpers put a new roof on our house. Then I put a few helpers to work on some other exterior things. We took the ugly carpet off of our front porch, pulled weeds out/cleaned up the flower beds, painted the brick on the front of the house, painted the shutters, and then painted the front door. SUCCESS! I love how everything turned out. I am so proud of our house. I have been proud of the inside for awhile but never really loved the "curb appeal", but now that has all changed. Still indecisive about the front door color though. It turned out "Tiffany Blue" which wasn't exactly what I was going for, but it's some $5 clearance paint I found at Lowe's so I can't really complain. Going to post a few pics for you to enjoy then headed to bed for some much needed rest... hope you all enjoyed your Holiday Weekend and didn't work nearly as hard as we did. :-)

 The white trim on the door around the window is now black to match the doorknob. I haven't taken an updated pic yet...

Tie Dye Cupcakes

I made some baked goodies for a bake sale my friend had a couple weeks ago. She is raising money to go on a mission trip to Haiti this summer. Among these things, I made some Tie Dyed Cupcakes, and they turned out wonderful. I hope you enjoy them too.

I used a white box cake mix per the instructions and split it up into 5 different bowls with 5 different food coloring like this:

Then I poured the batter one scoop of each color into cupcake lined muffin tins until all 5 colored batters are in the the cups.

Then bake for recommended time according to the box. Let cool and ice and top with sprinkles...

Kristen's Chicken

I've really been wanting to add some of my recipes on my blog, but I always forget to take pictures of my food before it gets devoured so I never do. Today when I made my homemade chicken nuggets I finally remembered to take some pictures so I can share this yummy recipe with you.

These are HOMEMADE breaded chicken nuggets and breaded fried squash.

First, I made a breading station using 3 pie plates.

The first and third plates include the same ingredients.
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion power
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. Lawry's Seasoning Salt

The middle plate had an egg mixture containing 3 large eggs and approximately 2 Tbsp. of cold water.

I had 10 boneless, skinless chicken breast tenderloins. I cut them into 1" cubes. I first put about half of the cubed chicken into the first flour mixture to cover, then I shake off the excess flour and put it into the egg mixture and move the chicken around in the egg to cover. With a fork I pick up the chicken so the excess egg can drain off. Then, I put chicken into the third pan containing the flour mixture and coat it. I put the coated chicken into a separate plate, and continue with the second half of the chicken through the same process.

 (It's a little messy, but so worth it)

I then fry the chicken in 360 degree vegetable oil in my deep fryer for approximately 4 minutes per batch (do not overcrowd oil so chicken will come out crispy and will not stick together). When I pull the chicken out of the oil I place it on a paper towel lined plate, and I sprinkle salt on chicken as soon as it comes out of the fryer.

This same process can be used with whole chicken strips instead of nuggets, but will need to cook for 5-6 minutes.

**I use the exact same process for squash and zucchini and cook for 2-3 minutes. If I make it at the same time as the chicken, I bread the zucchini first to avoid cross contamination with the raw chicken.**

I serve this with Ketchup or Ranch Dressing. I make homemade ranch with 1 Buttermilk Recipe Hidden Valley Packet, 1 cup real Mayo, and 1 cup of buttermilk. I wisk it all together, then let it sit in the refrigerator covered for at least 30 minutes before serving.

It's my favorite! I hope you ENJOY! :-)

Plate Project

First of all isn't my new kitchen wall color so cute?!? Second of all I love my plates on the wall (would've taken a picture of the whole wall with the table and everthing in it to give you the whole picture, but there's still a mess from painting sitting on the table so I didn't lol).

I went to Target today and purchased 7 plates for approximately $2-4 each. When I got home (almost immediately because I was so excited that I couldn't wait), I tore off wax paper about the size of the area I wanted to cover in plates--I had to tape three long strips together--for the future I would use something thicker like craft paper instead though.

I laid the taped wax paper on the counter and arranged the plates the way I liked them on it. After I thought I had it all the way I wanted it, I traced around them with a black sharpie.

Then I took this picture so I would remember which designs I had where so that I would know how to hang them.

I then hung the wax paper to the wall and got the plates ready to hang.

This picture shows why I would use something heavier than wax paper next time.

Ok are you ready for the GENIUS way to hang these?!?! I hot glued old pop can tabs to the back like the next picture shows.

Once glue was dry on all seven plates, I put a nail in each circle on the wax paper about an inch and half or so from the top of the circles. Then, I removed the wax paper from the wall. And hung the plates by the glued pop tab on the back.

It literally took about 15-20 minutes for this easy and cute project for my kitchen wall. Can't wait for the silverware on canvas that I am going to make for the opposing wall--soon to come.

There's the completed project again! :-)

Change is Good

Today I woke up and went to a baby shower for a sweet friend of mine--an old co-worker. She's expecting a little girl. I am so happy for her and enjoyed catching up with friends I hadn't seen in awhile. Today was a reminder that change is good. Even though I have a new job now and we don't see each other often, I know that I still have true friends I can count on. In my opinion, those are the best kinds of friends--the ones that you don't have to talk to every day, but you know that they are there no matter what because they're that good of a friend--just a phone call away.

After all the baby shower festivities, my mom came over and spent quality time with me painting my kitchen. So excited! I love the new color and my kitchen looks SO much better (even thought it didn't look bad before it wasn't what I preferred). It's now a neutral tan (rather than bright red and sage green). So now I feel like the walls need something bolder on them. Now I see that the decor that was on the bright walls isn't bright/dark enough to be on the tan walls... Well guess that means I get to go shopping. Oh, darn. I guess I will take one for the team and go shopping for stuff for my kitchen--MY FAVORITE THING TO DO!

Also, this comes at a perfect time because I am having my first Pampered Chef party next weekend. I am also very excited about this. I finally signed up to be an Independent Consultant for Pampered Chef last week. My starter kit was delivered on Thursday, and it felt like Christmas at my house! I just kept opening more and more boxes of great kitchen gadgets and products. I cannot wait until everyone is at my house next week for my party so I can show off all these great products!

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend as much as I am... Tomorrow we're headed to spend time with AJ's family for his grandpa's 80th birthday--excited to get to spend time with his family and share in the joy of this amazing milestone of 80 years....

I made a quick salsa for the birthday party that is my favorite and so very easy.

Recipe:
2 cans original Rotel
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can chunky Rotel
half a bunch of Cilantro
4 green onions
4 garlic cloves
juice of 1 lime
salt to taste

Put one can of original Rotel, Cilantro, 2 green onions (green and whites), garlic cloves, and salt into food processor until smooth.

Open the other cans and put contents in a large bowl. Add the blended mixture from food processor. Add other 2 green onions (green and whites) sliced into small rounds. Add juice of lime. Let sit in refrigerator for at least a couple hours to let flavors mix.

Serve with Tortilla chips.

My Addiction--Pinterest

One of my biggest "addictions" right now is Pinterest--if you haven't heard of it or been on there, you are really missing out. It is the greatest site I've ever been on in my life, but it's also my biggest downfall. As with any other addiction in life--it may feel really good, but it can also get in the way of having a normal life. (It really made me laugh out loud to type that.) I warn everyone that I tell about the site, "You will be forever changed. This will consume your life now. You'd better be prepared to spend lots of time on Pinterest--You will love it." It is true; I could spend hours on there planning my home decor, future wedding, and dinners that I will cook someday.

With that being said, I would like to share with you the first project that I created based on an idea I got from Pinterest. It is so easy and has so many possibilities.


 I made these cute canvas quote signs for my living room.

To give credit where credit is due, this is the inspiration for my project: ORIGINAL POST

Side note: The walls in my living room are NOT the color of mustard as they appear in this picture. Yes, they are yellow but a much more mellow yellow than they look in the picture so please don't judge me on the outrageous color it seems to be.

Now that is out of way, and we can get started on the "how to" for this project.

What you will need to complete canvas quote project:

• 1 canvas (I used 8x10 and 5x7 and made 4)
• Enough fabric to cover the canvas (I purchased 1/2 yard of 4 different fabrics because I wasn't sure what I'd want to use, but print fabric will work better than solid colors)
• Can of spray adhesive
• Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks or Staple Gun
• Scrapbook stickers* (enough packages of different sizes/fonts to have all the letters you need to spell out your quote and color doesn't matter or need to match fabric)
• Black acrylic paint

First, you start with a blank canvas like this:

Second, you cover it with a fabric of your choice. I measured the fabric and cut it to size--it needs to be enough to cover the front and sides as well as having enough wrapped around the back to be able to be attached. Then, I sprayed the front of the canvas with spray adhesive. Next, I hot glued it to the back, but it could also be stapled and it would look like this:

 Third, you need to stick the stickers on the fabric to "write out" the quote you want to put on your sign.

*The thicker scrapbook stickers are a little more expensive but much easier to pull off after painting and do not slip in the wet paint when trying to paint over them. They are worth the investment for this project.

Fourth, after you like the way the words look on your canvas, start painting over the canvas. I didn't paint the sides because I wanted to let the pattern of the fabric show, but you could definitely paint the sides as well. I applied two coats of paint and let it dry. It looked like this:

Lastly, once the paint is dry you pull off all the letters. Now, the fabric shows through where the letters once were making a reverse stencil. After the letters are pulled off, the project is complete and ready to hang.