Beef Lo Mein

If I could have found some way to avoid my kitchen this week I would have. It's been a long week and I've run the dishwasher more times then I can count and I've swept under my son's highchair the same number of times... This turned out pretty good, although the sauce was lacking... I can tweak it for next time I suppose. Oh, and for the veggies I found a veggie mix in the freezer section with everything I needed for this recipe. Bingo!! 

1/2 pound angel hair pasta

3 tablespoons hoisin sauce

1/4 cup chicken broth

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

1 teaspoon cornstarch

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger

1 medium onion, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced

4 to 5 shiitake mushroom caps, thinly sliced

1/2 cup thinly sliced carrots

1 cup broccoli florets

1 cup sugar snap pea pods, halved

1 (15-ounce) can Chinese baby corn, drained and cut in thirds

1 to 1 1/4 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-size strips (or beef in my case)

Cook the noodles according to the package directions until just tender. Drain out the water. Rinse the noodles with cold water, drain them well, and then set them aside.

In a small bowl, mix the hoisin sauce, chicken broth, soy sauce, sesame oil, and cornstarch. Then set the sauce aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil in a large wok or nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Stir-fry the ginger for 30 seconds. Then add the onion and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and carrots and stir-fry 2 minutes more. Finally, add the broccoli, pea pods, and corn. Stir-fry the vegetables for 2 more minutes, then transfer them to a plate.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in the pan. Add half of the chicken and stir-fry it until it's no longer pink, about 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer it to another plate. Stir-fry the remaining chicken, then return the first batch to the pan. Add the cooked noodles, vegetables, and sauce. Turn the heat down to medium.

Using two spatulas or wooden spoons, lightly toss the mixture until heated through, about 3 minutes. Serves 4 to 6. Or a 2 hungry adults and 1 hungry baby.

trying to plan a birthday party

I mean how cute are these?

Gut tells me to go with it. Practicality tells me to talk over every little detail with my hubby. And my hubby is not being helpful... at all. So many ideas floating around in my head and I am trying to decide how to execute a party for a 1 year old when all the other kids are going to be much older. Our budget is snug for this, as we have been traveling overseas, and paying out of pocket for most of it.
Want to guess the theme?
Travel!!!!

The party is going to be a month late anyways. I feel crazy for even attempting a party! Oh well, here goes something!

The second makeover- Kitchen Kerfuffle

These are probably the most familiar and the most embarrassing. Familiar because we've all been there, every. day. Embarrassing because we let it get that bad, though we would dare not let anyone see if possible. But alas, here it is!

So since this fateful day, 3 days ago, I've loaded up the dishwasher (named DW, ha ha!) and run it every evening, full or not. It feels good but kinda wasteful at the same time. Although if you knew the love/hate relationship I have with my dishwasher, it's not really that wasteful. It loves it, I hate it.

So the love/hate relationship is...

Soak dishes in the sink.
Load in DW.
Run the cycle. DW decides to:

turn itself off after I walk away,
not start at all,
run a partial cycle (though all the buttons are pushed),
run the cycle without opening the soap compartment,
get the spinners caught on something that's not in the way.

Re-run cycle in DW, which suddenly works fine.
Re-soak at least 25% of all dishes because they decided they didn't want to be clean.
Load pre-pre-pre-pre cleaned dishes and the start on the new pile that has accumulated during the previous 4 cleanings.

Annoying right? And it's a brand-new dishwasher. State-of-the-art. blah. I really want to go all paper and plastic. I recycle. no pun intended.

My ultimate finishing goal is:
1. to love everything above my cabinets. Its a smorgasbord of things I'm trying out to see what I like and what works for me.
2. Attack the pantry. It's scary.

Well, this is it. Makeover #2!

the start- Laundry - Drop your drawers here!

I was finally fed up. with everything.

Tripping over stuff every time I came in through the garage.
Shoes. Laundry. Boxes. Cords. Rugs. Brooms.
I was fed up with hearing my husband ask what I did today.
"here's dinner and your son hasn't been given up for adoption." What more could he want?!? 
My son isn't that bad, but I get 5-10 minutes in each station.
Each station being:
1. the highchair
2. the johnny jump-up
3. the dishwasher
4. the magnets on the fridge
5. the pool toys
etc.

So naturally whatever I could get done in each of those 5-10 minutes is all that really got done. I dedicated all of my son's naptimes plus folding the laundry during play time to accomplish this:

Minus sorting through my "fan" mail, which I never want to do. Shred, shred, shred, I don't need 20 credit card offers from the same place in 1 month!!!




Anyway, this is my start.

It can only get better from here, right?

my dining room

As some of you know, I moved into my house about 9 months ago. It took a little bit but alas there's only a couple of unnecessary boxes still unpacked and our storage room full of totes of stuff we can't decide what to do with. Did I mention we have hoarding on both sides of our family?

sigh.

I decided when I was packing that our hoarding tendencies had to change. I got rid of several boxes worth of junk before and after our move. Maybe I should clarify, my junk.
With some rearranging and sudden lack of walls, all my previous decorating items have found new homes. Always a good thing, I think. I realized I had a lot of unnecessary things and really... less is more...

Anyway, to the dining room.
Another room that has had some difficulty. Our dining table comfortably seats 4, in a pinch seats 6, and yes, you guessed it- uncomfortably seats 9 people. After that I run out of chairs anyway. Oh, and there's no room for food and plates after 6 people. Somehow our Brady Bunches have done it, and to me it looks like a clown car exploded in my dining room.

Don't tell my families I said that.

I just realized how pathetic my dining room looks. 

So I have been telling my hubby for about a year that we need to get a bigger table. and we need a bigger table. and we want a bigger table because we need a bigger table. Either he picked up on my hints or he heard me the first time and I've been nagging ever since. oops. 
Off we went to the furniture stores searching the clearance and/or dinged up section (who pays full price for something you're gonna have 3 kids hammering on in 5 years anyway?) I looked at the prices and walked away. All I wanted was some wood planks tongue and grooved, biscuit joined, or glued together with 4 legs or a middle stand.

Or so I thought.

And so started our project to make me a dining table. It's not just some wood planks with 4 legs. It's got planks here and there, outer edge planks, a disappearing leaf- which means it has those gear things so it expands, and some tricked out pedestal legs. In theory. 

It's taking forever. Hopefully we are still married at the end of this. Just kidding. But seriously someone is gonna die. Again, just kidding. Maybe. You see the sarcasm right?
The picture is our dining room, with the first half of the top of the table. Yup, 3 weeks after getting the walnut wood and that's what we have to show for it. Don't get me started on the last 3 weeks, but  at least we have a start. I can not wait to get new slipcovers for the chairs. Those slipcovers are so last decade. yawn.

Well, wish us luck. and by us, I mean me. I'm off to tackle the clown car clothes explosion in my laundry room.

my cute little man 

low-down two-timin' pasta.

ok, so not so "low-down", i love the two-timin' name. Like they're working against each other, but they really aren't. Who would have thought to mix Marinara and Alfredo sauce?!? someone on pinterest, of course.

So I found this recipe here.

The flavor was pretty good, my hubby is still waiting for a big flavor kick tho. (maybe I'll add red pepper flakes next time.)

I also added about 1 cup of cooked Italian Sausage.

1 box penne pasta

1 (15 oz.) jar Alfredo sauce 

1 (24oz.) jar Marinara sauce (i picked sautéed onion and garlic) 

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to directions and drain.  

Mix the sauces together in a large bowl.

Add the mozzarella and stir to combine.  Then toss in the penne and toss to coat.

Pour pasta into 9x13 baking dish and cook on 350 for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with shredded parmesan cheese and bake for another 5 minutes. 

Yup, that easy. We had it with a side of veggies and garlic bread.

Smothered Chicken Casserole

I love this recipe made with a few modifications. I put it in the crockpot, minus the flour. I used thin spaghetti instead of angel hair. I made the caesar dressing from a packet.
I wasn't able to let it marinade as long as I wanted so extra caesar dressing went in with the rest of it!

Ingredients

1/2 cup prepared caesar salad dressing
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts


4 slices bacon

8 oz. sliced mushrooms
1 cup onion, diced
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
3 tbsp butter
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup Gruyere cheese, grated

2 C fresh tomatoes, diced
1/4 C fresh parsley, minced

1 lb thin spaghetti

Instructions

Marinade chicken breasts in caesar dressing for at least 3 hours, up to overnight.
Cook bacon until crisp, remove from pan and drain off all but about 2 tbsp of the fat. Heat pan to medium-high heat.
Remove chicken from marinade and cook in bacon fat until well browned. You don't have to cook the chicken through, just get some color on it. Remove chicken from pan and place in casserole dish.
Drain off all the bacon fat from the pan and add 3 tbsp of butter. Once melted stir in the onion and mushrooms. Cook until soft and starting to caramelize- 5-7 minutes.
Stir 3 tbsp of flour into the onions and mushrooms and cook for 1 minute.
Stir broth and cream into the flour mixture, bring to boil -constantly stirring- for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
Stir in salt, pepper, lemon juice, cheese, and parsley and pour over the chicken in the casserole dish. Top with fresh tomatoes and bake, uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until the sauce is bubbly and chicken is cooked through.
While the chicken is baking, cook 1 lb pasta on the stove-top and drain.
Remove chicken from the oven, stir pasta into the sauce and serve topped with crumbled bacon and more fresh parsley.