Through my lens

I’ve been snapping photos on my phone and I never share them.  Here’s what’s been happening this past week in my world!

What I see when I wake up:

Building the new addition for the chickens:

 

Ribs Benny made in the crockpot, soo yummy:

What I see when I’m headed to bed:

A sweet ‘thinking of you’ gift from a friend:

 What I’ve been wearing:

 

 

 

 



Me and my new niece!

Crockpot Mongolian Beef (updated)

I love this recipe.  I make it frequently because it makes a lot of food and we always have gobs of leftovers, and they’re good leftovers!  Last time I made it and posted about it I forgot to take photos.  This time I remembered, even though this is a hard food to capture without it looking like a blob of food.

I modify the recipe slightly every time I make it because I’m always missing something but the end result is always just as good.  for example the recipe calls for wine, I prefer to drink my wine if I have it so I never include it in the crockpot, but instead substitute water.

Mongolian Beef

Adapted from: A year of Slow Cooking

 -1.5 lbs of steak (or any beef really I used a round last time and it was just as good)

-1/4 cup cornstarch - to dredge meat
-3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 fresh onion, diced very small
-1/2 cup gluten free soy sauce (I used Trader Joes brand)
-1/4 cup white wine (psh! Just double the white wine vinegar or water)
-1/4 cup water
-1/2 T white wine vinegar
-1 t sesame oil
-1 t molasses
-1 t ginger
-1/4 t black pepper
-1 t red chili pepper flakes
-1/2 T almond butter (or regular pb, I think either would taste great)
-3 T brown sugar

 Cut steak/beef into cubes and dredge in cornstarch.  I like to drop all the meat into a ziplock as I’m cutting it up and then I just drop the cornstarch into the bag and shake it all up. Much easier cleanup, and I hate wasting ziplocks but this is one meal that I don’t care at all because I don’t want cornstarch all over my kitchen!

 

In a mixing bowl wisk together all the other ingredients.

Put meat into the crockpot and pour all the other ingredients over the top!  Turn crockpot on and let it cook on low for 6-8 hours.

 

I serve mine over rice and it’s just delish!  Leftovers I sometimes put in a wrap with some rice, lettuce, and sour cream and its fantastic. My mouth is watering right now just thinking about it!

My dinner concoction

I think that’s the first time I’ve ever written or typed concoction and I spelled it correctly!

On Monday night I took a beef eye round (I think that’s what it’s called) out of the freezer with the intention of looking something up online for a meal Wednesday.  Well this morning I was running out the door and realized I had forgotten about dinner.  So I threw the beef in the crockpot, smothered it in vegetarian stir fry sauce, 2 cans of ginger ale and set the timer.

We’ll see what it tastes like tonight and if its good I’ll need to come up with a name for it.  I plan on shredding it and if its needs it I’ll add BBQ sauce and Ben can make it into a sandwich.

Nothing like a last minute meal!

OMGosh how is it Tuesday?

Seriously. I think yesterday flew by and I’m sure today and tomorrow are going to do the exact same thing!  This weekend was amazing, relaxing, full of cleaning and reading.  My house is ready for guests and the first one arrives tonight!  It’s my husband’s best friend, the guy that introduced us, and I haven’t seen him in over a year.  I know my husband is super excited for his arrival.

And me, I just want to be at home. Cuddled up with the dogs and husband, waiting on the holiday to arrive! But I’m not. And I won’t be because I work full time.  But that’s OK because I’m going to take Friday off and we’re going to go to upstate New York for the weekend.

On Thanksgiving day I’m going to be a busy beaver.  We’re not having everyone over to our house, we’re going to the in-law’s, but I am helping my mother in law make quite a bit of food. 

The dishes I’m bringing are: (recipes included, clicky below)

Turkey – one of two. Mother in law is making the other one

Cheesy veggie casserole – quantity 2. They’re already made and in the freezer I’ll just need to pop em in the oven!

Mashed Potatoes – 10lbs. I actually even bought crockpot liners so that we won’t have to even clean the crockpot! I’m really making things as easy as possible for myself this year.

Stuffing – yummy my mouth is currently watering

one of the apps – brie and onion puff

And I’m certain it’s all going to be delicious!! Can’t you tell I’m a little bit of a control freak?  I mean I’m sure Mother in-law could have taken care of like the stuffing…but then I’m sure it would end up with like mandarin oranges in it. And while I’m not opposed to that, I like traditional food on thanksgiving not all mucked up with fruit.  If I’m going to eat stuffing instead of my midday apple I don’t want fruit in my stuffing. Know what I mean?

Something else I’m excited for on Thursday, a FREE workout class at 8am. And the class is 90 minutes long….for FREE!  That means I’ll wake up, throw the turkey in the oven, and get my sweat on….and then I’ll feel guilt free as I drink and eat the day away!

I hope to be back by tomorrow but If I’m not I hope everyone has a very happy holiday!

Mongolian Beef

Have I mentioned before how much I love the crockpot?  Generally I try to use it during the week, but this past Saturday was kind of a busy day and well I had a hankering for some beef! Ha. OK that’s not entirely true. We were supposed to leave town and stay at a friend’s beach house and I figured I would want to play on Saturday not slave in the kitchen. So I decided  I would bring my crockpot with me to the beach and we could have a nice simple/a bit fancier crockpot dinner waiting for us at the end of the day. But then our plans fell through and I couldn’t get Mongolian beef out of my head!

I had made this once before when we had friends over on a Friday night to celebrate their quickie wedding. I knew I couldn’t be slaving in the kitchen all day and I knew when I got home from work I would have other things to do besides cook a main dish.  And I really didn’t want to do chicken in the crockpot for a wedding celebration.

So I didn’t take any photos, honestly it isn't the prettiest looking dish. Hopefully you make it and can take photos for me! wishful thinking? OK..OK.. I’ll make it again, twist my arm.

Oh and I also want to note that I know this recipe has a lot of ingredients but the only thing I didn’t have in the house was the molasses. Who keeps molasses? Well not me.   I served it over rice with some steamed veggies, but you could certainly eat in a wrap (I totally did this like 3 hours after we had dinner, hey that’s why I work out so much, so I can do just that)

Enjoy! – Mongolian Beef

Carnitas

It is no secret that I love Mexican food. I also though really strive to make healthy meals. I came across this recipe and thought it was perfect for my family. I could eat it on a salad and my husband could have his in a tortilla with as much cheese as he wanted.

I should also mentioned (also not a secret) that at the end of the day after I've been in meetings with clients and have pushed myself to go to the gym the last thing I want to do is cook. don't get me wrong I love to cook, but i've also been known to feed my husbands brats, suggest a salad - this never goes over well, he's all, wheres the meat?! and I'm still hungry?!, or throw in a frozen pizza....enter in crock pot. I try to cook something in the crockpot once a week. this means dinner is close to being done when I get home and that we'll have leftovers. leftovers either get eaten or thrown into the freezer for an easy dinner when i'm not in the mood to cook (see above).

So our Wednesday dinner was a crock pot meal that came from William Sonoma’s website – Carnitas

So I didn’t exactly follow the recipe because well I didn’t actually read it through before I was preparing to throw it all into the crockpot, and of course I was running late for work and I STILL HAD TO GET DINNER IN THE CROCKPOT! Anywhoo you’re supposed to brown the meat and I didn’t and you’re supposed to use Mexican beer which I didn’t have….and I also didn’t have an orange. So considering I basically didn’t follow the recipe (I used a Coors light and lemon juice instead of a Mexican beer) it turned out awesome!

I just threw, poured, chopped, and into the crockpot it all went – on low for 8 hours.  Served in a hard taco shell with lettuce, cheese and sour cream::::drooll::::and we had plenty of cheese:)

before the shredding fest began

after it was all shredded! and thats a lot of meat!

And Ben liked it which makes everything happy in the end:)

p.s. as I re read this I realize I don’t sound like a very good wife. But hey, I try!

Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore

So..I love to cook.  Quite some time ago I thought that I would share my cooking adventures with you. But I’m terrible at remembering to take photos and explaining what I do when cooking.  So I think I’ll just share with you what we’re eating, a photo if I remember to take one, and our thoughts on the meal.

So Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatorie from SkinnyTaste.com is the first recipe I’ve decided to share (mainly because I remembered to take a pictureJ).  I love Gina’s food.  It’s healthy and yummy and sooo not boring.  A lot of healthy eating blogs are the same food over and over again, but Gina creates recipes that are your favorite foods but healthy.  So mac and cheese or  cheesy appetizersJ  you know all the stuff you want to eat but tell yourself you shouldn’t?  she takes the guilt out of it.

Overall we loved it!  I didn’t have a bay leaf so maybe that was missing?  And I used 3 chicken breasts instead of the chicken thigh….and I added garlic and a can of diced tomatoes to ours also.  That said there are a ton of leftovers! Holy moly. I’ll have to freeze some of them.  I served it over pasta last night, and today I  had some over a salad and both ways were wonderful.  I could actually see myself using the chicken to make a calzone too.  Hmmmm that sounds yummy…

So here’s my picture. Taken on my phone. So stop judging.   And try this STAT!

p.s. book update coming soon! It’s been soo long, sorry about that!