Asian Ginger Beef

I spend most of my early twenties drinking lots of coffee and not eating all that healthy. I blame the combination of running, working and taking a full course load at University of Washington. Add to that I had the brilliant (not) idea of double majoring and a commute that took at least 1 1/2 half and food always seemed to take a back seat. I literally had very little time to prepare pretty much anything so I relied on large amounts of caffeine and the occasional meal out. Luckily for me Seattle is full of great restaurants that when planned well can be reasonable on a limited budget. One dish that I loved throughout college was stir-fry. Whether made at home or restaurant bought it was always full of flavor and delicious. Most importantly it contained a large amount of vegetables, which with my food habits was probably the largest amount of vegetables I consumed every month. Luckily after I moved and met my husband I also discovered that vegetables are delicious and should be eaten daily. My two boys have grown-up with a very different relationship with food and eat more fruits and vegetables that I think I ever did. Last week I tried a new recipe for Asian Ginger Beef from All You magazine, which looked very simple and full of vegetables.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 14 minutes of cooking time, 10 minutes of prep, and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. Since I can no longer eat gluten I use gluten-free soy sauce. I also make my own beef broth, since I believe that it tastes better than store bought. Instead of serving this recipe over white rice, I used brown rice. I stopped serving white rice approximately 6 months ago and after an adjustment period my two boys prefer it over white rice. The recipe suggests to allow the mixture to cook for 1 minute after adding the sauce. I did things a little bit differently. My veggie mixture was a little watery from the frozen veggies so I increased the cornstarch to a full tablespoon and let the mixture cook until almost all the liquid was absorbed. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two kids really enjoyed the beef in this recipe and ate all the beef out of their serving. My husband and I thought that the dish was a decent beef stir-fry recipe, but neither of us thought the title ginger beef was accurate. The flavor of the ginger was not overly noticeable. In order for this recipe to be ginger beef I would suggest increasing the amount of ginger to suit your taste. As written, the dish was a nice beef stir-fry, but was light on the ginger. With an increase in the amount of ginger I think that it could be a quick and child friendly ginger beef recipe.

For the recipe go to Asian Ginger Beef.

Honey Cashew Chicken

Living far away from your family can be hard. When I first moved to West Virginia from Washington I was in graduate school and I was able to fly home every break. However, the summer after I moved I got married and the number of times I was able to fly home diminished. Then I graduated and my mom got sick with cancer. I flew home when I found out she was sick and then I got pregnant with my son. Regrettably I wasn't able to fly home before she passed away. Another kid later my father and the majority of my closest friends still live in Seattle. Most days everything is fine, until home sickness hits me. This has been one of those weeks where it seems home is very far away. It probably has something to do with the fact that the holidays are coming up and that was always my mom's favorite time of the year. She came from a large family and the holidays were something she reveled in. The parties, the gifts, the wrapping, she loved it all. While I love the holidays, I have never been as good at all the prep as my mother was. However, I carry on all the traditions from my mom for my two boys. I am a big believer of carrying on family traditions and work hard to maintain these connections. As I've stated before one of the main ways that I remember my mother is through cooking and baking with my two kids. Last month we tried a new recipe for Honey Cashew Chicken from All You magazine which 38 grams of protein looked like a great high-protein option for my family.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes 25 minutes of prep and 10 minutes of cooking time and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. Since I don't eat gluten I used gluten-free soy sauce. A lot of brands of cheap soy sauce use wheat as a main ingredient, so I always check labels. I used homemade chicken broth so I had to add more salt for this recipe than if I had used store bought. Make sure to take the strings out of the snow peas. The one time I forgot to string my snow peas I quickly learned that they must be completely trimmed or they are almost uneatable. My family likes our food on the spicy side so I added more crushed red pepper than the recipe suggested. I would estimate around 1 teaspoon. Finally, I allowed the dish to cook for approximately 3 minutes after adding the sauce to ensure all ingredients were fully cooked. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two boys loved this recipe. Snow peas are always a hit in my house and this recipe was no exception. They literally picked all the snow peas out and ate them first. The chicken had a great flavor and the dish was perfect over brown rice. Definitely a recipe I would make again.

For the recipe go to Honey Cashew Chicken.

Apricot Lime Glazed Shrimp

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I decided to paint my house this week and of course, I started out with wanting to just paint the living room. This quickly evolved into more paint and more rooms. I'm almost done though and it looks so much better, so I am happy. There's nothing like a little bit of paint to completely transform a room. So back to the food. One of my kids favorite foods is shrimp. They could literally eat two pounds of shrimp all by themselves if I let them. Since shrimp is on the expensive side I limit our shrimp consumption to approximately twice a month. I also like to try new recipes as often as possible so each shrimp dish feels and tastes like something completely new. My taste buds seems to get bored very quickly and variety is key, especially with shrimp since we eat it so frequently. Recently, I tried a new recipe for Apricot Lime Glazed Shrimp from the July issue of Family Circle magazine, which with 5 grams of fat and 33 grams of protein per serving looked like the perfect healthy dinner option.

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 15 minutes of prep and 15 minutes of cooking time and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and I made no ingredient modifications. Since I eat gluten free I buy gluten-free soy sauce, a lot of cheaper brands use wheat as a main ingredient. Instead of white rice I served the shrimp over brown rice, we only eat white rice in limited amounts. Brown rice also cooks great in the microwave which I love! To grill the shrimp I used an indoor grill. I love my indoor grill it is so much easier than going outside, especially in the winter. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two sons really loved this dish. While, I like snow peas I would have preferred sugar snap peas in this recipe. The additional sweetness would have been delicious. This recipe only makes 6 shrimp per person, so I would suggest doubling the recipe if you want larger servings. The best part of this recipe was the quick prep and cook time. With only thirty minutes of total time, it makes for a great weeknight meal.

For the recipe go to Apricot Lime Glazed Shrimp. (registration required)

Three-Pea, Cashew and Tofu Stir-Fry

My husband has decided he's on a health kick. In the last couple of months he has started walking every night and cutting down on the amount of fat and calories in his diet. I have been trying to get this to happen for years, but apparently lately he has had some sort of change of heart in regards to his bad habits. This is a welcome change and he has embraced eating less red meat and more vegetarian meals. Tofu has been the hardest food to add to my family's diet. They will willing eat beans, lentils and soups without meat, but tofu has been more of a problem. Luckily I have discovered that my kids in particular love stir-fry using tofu and the May/June issue of Eating Well magazine had a recipe for Three-Pea, Cashew and Tofu Stir-Fry which looked perfect.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 50 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I had to go to two stores in order to find both snow peas and sugar snap peas, but that is normal for my area. My tofu took slightly longer than the 8 minutes suggested by the recipe in order to fully brown. I also made sure to let my tofu drain for a full hour to ensure that all the water came out. Finally, I let the peas cook longer than the recipe to ensure that they were soft enough for my two boys to eat. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I was surprised by how much my two boys loved this dish. They were particularly fans of the sugar snap and snow peas and ate their servings, plus part of mine. My husband and I enjoyed this stir-fry as well. The only draw back that I found was that the tofu wasn't salty enough and needed a little more flavor. I would suggest adding some of the sauce to the tofu after it is browned and letting the tofu sit and marinate while the vegetables are cooking. This would greatly improve the flavor of the tofu. Overall, a great way to add more vegetables and tofu into your diet.

For the recipe go to Three-Pea, Cashew and Tofu Stir-Fry.

All You Pork Lo Mein

After my husband and I finished graduate school, we had very little money to spend on entertainment. When I say very little money, I mean very little money. We had gotten married our second year of grad school and then traveled to Europe for me to finish my master's thesis. Due to both of these things, plus schools expenses we had very little extra money. So I learned to make as many recipes as I could, so we didn't miss eating out at restaurants. Two kids later, my frugal ways haven't changed, we still rarely eat out at restaurants, maybe once or twice every two or three months. Luckily I have become quite efficient at making most dishes. My two boys have fallen in love with noodle dishes, so I was I was excited when the September issue of All You magazine had a recipe for Pork Lo Mein.

This recipe has 14 ingredients and take approximately 15 minutes of prep and 20 minutes of cooking time. I was pleased that I was able to find soba noodles and didn't have to make any modifications to the noodles. I did make a modification to the pork. Instead of using bone-less pork chops, I used pork tenderloin that I already had in my freezer. I followed the remainder of the recipe as stated.

I made this recipe when my in-laws were over for dinner and it was a big hit with everyone. My two boys loved the noodles and I liked that it was easy to put together and made enough for a crowd. I would suggest eating the dish the day it's made, it didn't re-heat very well the next day. Overall, a great family friendly recipe that makes enough to feed a crowd.