Friday, September 30, 2011

P.F. Chan's Mongolian Beef

My family LOVES P.F. Chang's so I can't wait to see if they like this recipe or not.


P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef
serves 4, prep 45 min, cook 10 min, adapted from KSN TV



2 lbs flank or skirt steak
1/4 cup corn starch
2 tsp vegetable or peanut oil
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2-3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup vegetable or peanut oil
8 oz button mushrooms, quartered if large
1 bunch green onions, green part only, cut in half




Trim all fat and silver skin from meat. Lay steaks out horizontally on the cutting board. The grain in running vertically. Make several vertical cuts to slice the slab into manageable sized pieces. Then cut the meat opposite the grain (horizontal) into two bite-sized pieces. Cut with your blade at a 45° angles to get wide diagonal slices.

Dust steak pieces lightly in cornstarch and set aside while preparing the sauce.
In a small sauce pan heat oil over medium high heat. Add ginger and garlic.Add soy sauce and water to the ginger and garlic before it browns. Add brown sugar and whisk until dissolved. Bring sauce to a boil and simmer about 10 minutes or until slightly reduced and thickened. Remove from the heat and reserve.

In a large skillet or wok heat 1 cup oil over medium high heat.Working in batches, add the steak a few at a time to the hot oil. Cook about 1 minute without touching the
meat then flip each piece and cook 1 minute more. Remove meat while still rare inside, and continue with next batch. Once all meat is browned, pour off oil and wipe out skillet.

Heat skillet over high heat and add mushrooms.Cook without stirring a couple of minutes or until mushrooms are slightly softened and browned. Reserve.

Add steak to the hot pan and cook about 1 minute. Add sauce to the pan and simmer and toss meat and sauce about 1 minute. Add mushrooms and green onions. Toss with steak and sauce and heat 1 minute.
Use tongs to remove meat and veggies to a serving dish, leaving excess sauce in the pan. Serve over rice.

Be sure to use a very light dusting of cornstarch when you bread the steak pieces. If there is too much cornstarch you will get a Swiss steak texture instead of a good sear.

This looks like a lot of steps, and it is, but it is really not hard and not even that lengthy of a process. You basically cut and bread the meat, make the sauce, fry the meat, cook the mushrooms, then toss it all in the sauce and serve.

I'm sharing this yummy recipe over at a few of my favorite blogs!!



October 2011 Meal Planner

Sooooo I've worked all morning putting together this cute calendar for this months meal plan and wouldn't you know I can't get it to post right. O well maybe next month. Hope you enjoy this months meals!!
October 2011
1st-P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef          
2nd-Loaded Baked Potato Soup  
3rd-Taco Salad                                 
4th-Crockpot Smokey Honey Barbecued Chicken sandwiches
5th -Creamy Chicken Enchiladas 
6th-Leftovers
7th-Calzone Rings
8th-Chicken Salad sandwiches
9th-Rolled Up Chicken Dinner
10th-Cowboy Stew
11th-Stuffed Bell Peppers
12th-Double Dave’s (Eating out)
13th-Ham and Cheese Sliders
14th-Leftovers
15th-Grilled Hamburgers with Baked beans
16th-Homemade Chicken and Dumplings
17th-Crockpot Shredded beef tacos
18th-Navajo Tacos

19th-Crockpot Meal Green Chili Burros

20th-Breakfast for Dinner
21st-Crockpot Black bean soup
22nd-Fajita’s

23rd- Restaurant Style Carne Asada Soft Tacos with Guacamole and Corn
24th-Grilled chicken and bacon spinach salad
25th-Crockpot Orange Chicken
26th-Leftovers
27th-Sub sandwiches
28th-Grilled Cubed steak rollups

29th-Chili Beans with Corn bread and  Mac-n-cheese
30th-Grilled Pizza
31st-Crock-pot Ravioli Casserole

I will be adding all of the recipes soon

-Kristina-

Friday, September 23, 2011

FALL IS HERE

Today is officially the first day of FALL....... I LOVE this time of year, however my family is usually summer people. We love the long days, barbequing outside with Friends and Family, camping, fishing and hanging out at the lake. But I must say, I have NEVER been so ready to see some cooler weather. With tempeatures here in Texas reaching heighs of 112 F, the drought and the wildfires close to my home.







Here is a picture from my boys school, you can see the massive wildfires just miles from our home. Pretty darn scary!!


The next day on our way home from a friends house we saw this huge plane flying really low. My husband and I thought it was fixing to crash but come to find out it was helping to put out another wildfire that had started in the back of a neighboorhood right down the road from us.

This was the scariest thing I've ever seen we had wildfires buring on both sides of us just a few miles away. We are SO SO blessed that they were able put the fires out before making its way to our home. Thanks to all of the Firefighters that put their lives on the line to help save others. My heart goes out to the families that lost their homes due to the wildfires in the Texas Hill Country and Magnolia area. Here are a few pictures I found on the internet of those wildfires.





God Bless

-Kristina
















Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Wow where did the time go

I'm such a bad blogger it's been forever since I've posted a blog. My life is crazy with an 11 almost 12 year old, 8 almost 9 year old twins, a husband, a new puppy and a full time job (but wouldn't have it any other way).... I have made myself a promise that I will post at least one blog a week, since I really love blogging (I know it's hard to tell) but I Do!!!... I find so much joy in sitting down and showing others what I've created and hope to inspire others to create as well. I love it when we have family and friends over and they ask where did you get that and I can say "I made that", such a great feeling.

I recently have found joy in blog hopping and finding recipes of all sorts easy ones, hard ones, crockpot ones and healthy ones. I will be sharing all of the wonderful recipes that I find, and even some of my Grandmothers with you. I've also started working on organizing my life a little. I have found that if I sit down at the end of each month and put together a calendar of meals for the month coming up that my life is a little less hectic, not to mention we are saving money by not eating out (eating out is so convenient, especially when you have no idea what you are going to cook). What I have started doing is going grocery shopping every Sunday for the week coming up. I have noticed that by doing so I spend a lot less at the grocery store and only buy what I need for that week. This one little change has made a huge difference, I'm not as stressed out, I don't spend as much at the grocery store and I'm always prepared plus my kids love to look at it to see what's for dinner. It's been a blessing around our home. I will post the calendar and recipes at the beginning of each month. Hope you enjoy!!

That's all for now.

-Kristina