Ginger Beef Stir-fry

I've been experimenting lots with my wok lately. We've had Chicken General Tao, Honey Garlic chicken, Lemon Herb salmon, Orange Ginger chicken, all with veggies and basmati rice, jasmine rice, or egg noodles. They were all great sauces but the one thing I wanted to try and make was Ginger Beef from scratch. Looked up a great recipe from www.allrecipes.com and for the first time picked up some ginger root at the market. As usual, I like to put my own spin on recipes so I changed mine up a tiny bit. I sliced up my steak and marinated it in a VH Honey Garlic sauce, didn't have any cornstarch and instead of peanuts and sesame seeds I used slivered almonds and flax seed. You can add any veggies you want to your own liking. The sauce was very good and had lots of flavour. Here is the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ginger-Beef-Stir-Fry/Detail.aspx


Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1/4 cup plum sauce
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 pound boneless beef sirloin steak, cut into thin 2-inch strips
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 medium sweet red pepper, julienned
• 1 1/2 cups fresh broccoli florets
• 2 medium carrots, thinly sliced
• 4 green onions, chopped
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 3 tablespoons salted peanuts, chopped
• Hot cooked rice
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted

Directions

1. In a small bowl, whisk cornstarch and cold water until smooth. Stir in the plum sauce, ginger, soy sauce and pepper flakes; set aside. In a large skillet or wok, stir-fry beef in oil until no longer pink; remove and keep warm.
2. In the same pan, stir-fry the red pepper, broccoli, carrots, onions and garlic until tender. Return beef to the pan. Whisk the plum sauce mixture; stir into skillet. Cook and stir until slightly thickened. Stir in peanuts. Serve over rice if desired. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Candied Nuts

Want to spice up your traditional Carrot Cake/Cupcakes with cream cheese icing a little more? How about by adding some candied nuts! I found the perfect little recipe to top off my cupcakes. It called for walnuts but I used pecans as well. This is definetly the perfect way to celebrate the coming of Fall so treat yourself once in awhile!

Ingredients

• 1 pound walnut halves
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spread nuts in a single layer over a baking sheet. Roast for approximately 8 to 10 minutes, or until the nuts start to turn brown and the smell of roasting nuts fills the kitchen.
2. Stir together sugar, cinnamon, salt, and milk in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat for 8 minutes, or until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage of 236 degrees F (113 degrees C). Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla immediately. .
3. Add walnuts to sugar syrup, and stir to coat well. Spoon nuts onto waxed paper, and immediately separate nuts with a fork. Cool, and store in airtight containers.

Good Morning, Glory!

I love a hearty muffin. They're filling and give you lots of energy which is something I've needed these past couple of weeks. Having lots of fun chasing my walking 13 month old and also meeting the needs of my 2 week old. These muffins are a great grabber. The only difference in the recipe I changed was using whole wheat flour and Splenda. I also used chopped up walnuts instead of pecans. It's one of those recipes you can have fun with!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Morning-Glory-Muffins/Detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup flaked coconut
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 medium tart apple, peeled and grated

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the first five ingredients. In another bowl, beat the eggs, oil and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the carrots, pecans, coconut, raisins and apple.
2. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

Muffin Mania!

So apparently most women who are nearing the end of their pregnancies go through a `nesting` stage. The last few days have been great and I`ve been able to get lots done around the house and even some light baking. I`ve had this desire to want to get in the kitchen lately and now have the energy at the moment to do so... barefoot and pregnant! I found a couple muffin recipes while hanging out at my parent`s place in my mom`s Land O`Lakes cookbook. What an amazing cookbook! I was in the mood to make muffins for freezing for when I`m recovering from post-pregnancy. They`ll be something quick to grab and eat when hunger strikes.

So the first muffin recipe I tried are the "Award Winning Blueberry Muffins"
What you need:

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 butter/margerine softened
1 cup of sour cream
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
1 egg
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup blueberries (thaw first if frozen)
1 tablespoon of sugar or brown sugar
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for 20-25 mins.
Makes 1 dozen

Mix sugar and butter, add sour cream, lemon juice, 1 1/2 tsp. of lemon peel, and the egg. In another bowl mix the flour, baking soda then add the dry ingredients to the other bowl of wet ingredients and add the blueberries. Once mixture is in the tins, add some sugar or brown sugar on the top with some lemon peel.

To tweak this recipe you could use whole wheat flour,  fat free sour cream, Splenda, and flax seed as a topping.


Next I tried the "Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins"
What you need:

3/4 brown sugar
1/2 butter or margerine softened
1 1/2 cups (3 med) mashed ripe bananas
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for 20-25 mins.

Mix sugar and butter, add bananas, eggs, and vanilla. In another bowl add both flours, baking soda, and salt then add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and add the chocolate chips. And if your like me and you like chocolate, go ahead and add a bit more chocolate chips!

Strawberry Spinach Salad

There's nothing better than fresh out of the garden strawberries. Usually the ones you buy in the grocery store have no flavor and come from the states and are grown in a greenhouse. My parents have put in a great garden this year and the strawberries were first to be harvested. They also have raspberry bushes which will be in season in the next couple of weeks which would also go great in this fantastic salad as well!

It's an easy summer salad to put together. Just take baby spinach, cubed up feta cheese, sliced avocado, sliced almonds, and sliced up strawberries into your salad bowl and you are done! Pair it up with a nice poppy seed dressing or vinaigrette. Or go all out and use no dressing at all. There is lots of flavor in this easy salad, enjoy!

Mini Tacos with Homemade Guacamole

This is so easy and fun! Take your ordinary taco kit and make something great from it. Choose any toppings you desire as well.

Start off with browning your beef up and adding the taco seasoning that comes with the taco kit as directed. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Grab a cooking sheet and place out your tacos. Take spoonfuls of beef onto each mini taco (or you can use tortilla chips... the ones in the picture are Charra's) then add shredded cheese and bake in the oven for no more then 5 - 6 minutes (just until the cheese is melted and the taco is crisp but not burnt). Then add your toppings!

Homemade guacamole is so easy and a healthy topping to your tacos! You can also buy guacamole seasoning packages where avacados are sold which add lots of flavor. Take 2 ripe avacados, remove the seed, and scoop out the fruit either into a bowl or pureer with a touch of lemon juice (so that it keeps it's nice green color and doesn't go brown) and even some minced garlic if you prefer with some sour cream for texture. Then mash it up to your liking. It's great add-on to this perfect appetizer! Enjoy!

Brainy Brownies & Pasta Sauce

So I picked up some ingredients the other day so I could try out some of the 'sneaky' recipes and so far I am very pleased! Today I made Brainy Brownies and my own version of pasta sauce with help from the cookbook. Both turned out very well and not a hint of veggie was noticed!

I had to substitute some things like the unsalted butter to margarine and unsweetened cocoa to just regular stuff for the brownies but that would be the only change. I made up my purple puree (spinach and blueberries) and froze what was leftover and had to make up the flour blend and put the leftover in a ziplock bag. At least they are all done for next time or recipe to use. I also had to make the orange puree (sweet potatoe and carrots) for the pasta sauce and just added it to my Ragu pasta sauce with other seasonings (chili and red pepper flakes). I added my lean ground cooked up beef to it along with whole grain spaghetti noodles. It tasted just like the usual spaghetti we eat. The brownies turned out great for being my first time trying them. No taste of spinach at all but had more of a blueberry flavor to them.

Overall I am satisfied and proud I was able to accomplish all this cooking with a 10 month old! We had a great supper and a great dessert!

Brainy Brownie Recipe:

http://www.thesneakychef.com/free_recipe_brainy_brownies.php