Chow mein

This is a very fast and tasty dinner to prepare. The noodles take three minutes to cook. You can be slicing your add-ins, and frying them while you cook your noodles. Then just combine everything and season it.

Ingredients:

Chow Mein Noodles

Bell Pepper

Onion

Carrots

Chicken

Iceberg Lettuce

Scallions

Celery

Soy Sauce

Black Pepper

Southwest Salad

Ingredients:

Iceberg Lettuce

1/2 Green Bell Pepper

1/2 Can Black Beans

Chipotle Tortilla Strips

Chipotle Ranch Salad Dressing

Quaker Quick Grits Lid Review

I'd like to know who designed the Quaker Quick Grits lid and why they designed it the way they did. A few days before Christmas I was up early with my newborn baby and decided to make some quick grits for a snack. No sooner had I grabbed the grits from the cabinet and began opening them than it began snowing quick grits all over my kitchen floor. It was kind of pretty to see it snowing because now that I'm living in the sunny south I don't see snow very often. However what was supposed to be a quick snack for a new mother turned into a kitchen deep cleaning morning. I ended up awakening my dear grad student husband to come help me and our poor baby. I held the baby while my husband pulled out our kitchen stove and cleaned out the drifts of quick grits snow that had accumulated behind it. My husband then mopped behind the range while he had it pulled out. Quite the morning. I guess I just wonder why the Quaker grits container doesn't have the same kind of lid that the Millville Oats container has. When we take the lid off the grits container a sudden jerk causes the lid and base to split apart. The lid ought to come off gradually instead of with a sudden jerk.

Non-traditional Fusion: Asian Italian Soup

On the last trip to the store I bought some rice noodles. This evening I asked my husband if he wanted fried rice or spicy noodles for dinner. He said spicy noodles. But then I told him I didn't have any inspiration for making spicy noodles. I couldn't think of what to put with them from what we had on hand for dinner. I began thinking of my options for fried rice. I remembered however that we had eaten a sort of rice recently. I went back to plan a, spicy noodles. I went to the cupboard and pulled out the rice noodles. We didn't really have the right ingredients to make spicy noodles. Then I drew a blank. I went to the fridge and pulled out some leftover tomato sauce. I dumped it in a pan. Then I added water. Next, I added rice noodles. Finally, I added honey roasted peanuts, balsamic vinegar, and cayenne pepper. It worked. Dinner was tasty.

Vegetable Filled Steamed Bread

Today I decided to try a few new things while making baozi / steamed bread. First, instead of making them with meat inside like I had done previously, I used vegetables. Second, instead of using self-rising flour, I used regular flour and yeast. Third, instead of mixing and kneading the dough by hand, I used my bread machine. The vegetable filled steamed breads turned out great! Until another time, I think I will try fresh spinach instead of canned. The canned spinach supplied a mushy texture instead of a crunchy or fibrous one.

Dough:

1 tsp. Yeast

1 c. Warm Water

2 1/2 c. Flour

1Tb Oil

1/2 tsp. Salt

Filling:

1 can Spinach (drained)

1/2 Onion

Red Pepper Flakes

Honey

Nutmeg

Curry

Balsamic Vinegar

Salt

Chunky Curried Vegetable and Rice Soup

I wanted to make a soup that didn't have saturated fat in it. I used white rice, water, a can of diced tomatoes, half of a bag of frozen vegetables, fresh chopped celery, curry, salt, and pepper to make this soup. I made banana muffins to accompany the soup. The sweetness of the muffins helped balance out the spiciness of the soup. Anthony and I really enjoyed the combination.

The next few days we enjoyed the leftover soup. The rice had absorbed the liquid of the soup turning it into more of a rice pilaf. We stuffed this rice pilaf in soft tortillas.

The Christmas Packages

We received a few Christmas packages from my parents! Traditionally, my Mom always gives each of us kids a book gift and some other stuff. Well, you guessed it, we got books. We also got some items we had left on wishlists on Amazon! My Mom was so wise as to purchase some of the most recent items we had added to the wishlist. I say wishlists, one was our baby registry for baby Shastya. The other was Anthony's wishlist. I don't have one. Anyway, she got us a baby thermometer for the baby as well as some things Anthony had added just a few days ago for the 3D printer.

Also in the Christmas packages were dresses for baby Shastya! They are adorable! Shastya just wore one to church this morning. It was her first time wearing a dress. We keep her in the zip up sleeper things a lot and hoodies to keep her head warm. Shastya also received a beautiful baby's first Christmas tree ornament from my Mom. Shastya also got her first New Testament!

There were other things in the packages as well but I thought I would just share some of our favorites! Thanks Mom and Dad!