Beef Stir Fry

So the other night I decided to make myself some stir fry. I know, I know. It's nothing new and why is he posting this? Well, this time I changed it up a little bit.

Ingredients:
1 lb Stir Fry Beef
1 can Cut Baby Corn
1 can Bean Sprouts
1 cup Frozen Peas
1 cup Frozen Cut Green Beans
Sesame Seeds
Spicy Brown Mustard
Sesame Seed Oil
Sweet & Sour Sauce
Stir Fry Sauce
Teriyaki Sauce
Garlic Salt
Vegetable Oil

Alright, first step of course is to assemble your ingredients.

Now I chose to cut up the stir fry meat first. You don't have to do this but you would be left with huge strips of meat instead of size appropriate pieces. Cutting them smaller solves that issue.

Using a wok, pour in a spoonful of Vegetable Oil and turn the heat to MEDIUM. Add in your cut up Stir Fry Beef. Add in a few dashes of Sesame Seed Oil.

Add in some Lime Juice, Spicy Brown Mustard, Sesame Seeds, Teriyaki Sauce, and Garlic Salt. I used a good squirt of the Lime Juice bottle. Maybe a spoonful of Spicy Brown Mustard. A dusting of Garlic Salt. Go crazy with the Teriyaki Sauce, because why not!?

Once the meat is done cooking, which should be right when it turns that grayish brown color of being cooked. Strain the meat out of the wok and place in a bowl to the side. I put mine in the microwave to retain heat better.

In your wok you still have the liquid mixture. Add in your Frozen Peas and Frozen Cut Green Beans.

Some more Spicy Brown Mustard? I think so.

Add in a good sized amount of Sweet & Sour Sauce. About the same amount of Stir Fry Sauce.

Now mix it around. Get your can of Cut Baby Corns and Bean Sprouts. Open them up and drain them of all liquid. I chose to put the Baby Corns in first, then the Bean Sprouts.

Mix them around and let them cook for awhile. You can check when they are done by tasting a piece of the Baby Corns. Once those are done, everything else should be too.

Now that it's done, you get the Stir Fry Beef out and throw that back in the wok.

Mix.

Now give it a minute or two of cooking. Turn off heat and serve. Enjoy.

Chef's Breakfast

I have had this recipe in my mind for a few days now and finally got around to cooking it after work today. Yes, after work means not at the allotted breakfast time period but more towards late lunch or early dinner. Does that make it BRINNER? I think so, but am not putting all my eggs in one basket on this one.

Ingredients:
2 Green Bell Peppers
1 Anaheim Pepper
1 lb White Button Mushrooms
10 Large Eggs
1/2 cup Frozen Peas
1/2 cup Ditalini Pasta
1/2 stick Butter
1/2 cup Olive Oil
Ground Black Pepper
Sea Salt
Paprika
Garlic Powder
Shredded Cheese
Italian Herb Mix
Tortilla's

I began this recipe by gathering my ingredients.

I put the Frozen Peas in some water and set them to cook while I sliced and diced. Pay attention to this since it should be boiling and done around the time you put the Eggs in the saucepan.

I then diced up the Peppers and slicing up the Mushrooms.

Now that all of that is done, I decided to cook all of this in 2 different ways. I did this because I am not the hugest fan of Mushrooms, I generally just cook them for other people or put them into mushroom soup.

First dish of them involves the Mushrooms and no Pasta. I put the Butter in the saucepan and set the heat to MEDIUM for it to melt. I also whisked 4 Eggs together in a mixing bowl.

Once melted, I added the 4 Eggs to the saucepan. I then added the spices, which was a quick dash of Ground Black Pepper, pinch of Sea Salt, dash of Paprika, and dash of Garlic Powder.

Then a good handful of the sliced Mushrooms went in.

On top of that I added the diced Peppers.

I then mixed it all together and threw in 2 spoonfuls of Peas. Mix.

Keep mixing it all around so it doesn't adhere too much to the saucepan. Once the mixture is no longer liquid and has some solidity to it, turn the heat off and serve.

This FIRST DISH was served on a Tortilla with a sprinkle of Italian Herb Mix topped with a pinch of Shredded Asiago Cheese.

The Second dish was very similar and I will spare you the long version of it. I had some Ditalini Pasta left over from the other day, so I spooned a good handful of it into the pot where I had the Peas. The water was still hot so it warmed the Pasta up quick. Throw some Olive Oil in the saucepan instead of Butter this time around.

After that, the same process was used without the Mushrooms. I also used 6 Eggs instead of 4. When the Peas go in, the Pasta goes as well.

I served this up on it's own plate. Really, I did that at first. But I sat down and thought this could be better. I remembered the Tortillas and decided that some Breakfast style Taco's were in order. So that is just what I did, complete with some Hot Sauce. Enjoy.

Veggie Surprise!

I decided to have this last night as a healthy-ish dinner alternative to eating meat. I know it sounds weird, however too much meat isn't really the best idea ever.

Ingredients:
1 cup Frozen Corn
1 cup Frozen Peas
1 box Ditalini Pasta
1/4 cup diced Scallions
1/2 lb Green Beans
Ground Black Pepper
Italian Herb Mix
Parmesan Cheese
Sea Salt
1/4 stick Butter

I began this by gathering my ingredients.

I then started the water boiling for my Pasta. Once that began to boil, I added in my pasta. I also added a pot of water with the 2 cups of frozen vegetables as well. Heat on MEDIUM once boiling.

Now, I turned to the Green Beans. I put a saucepan on the stovetop with the Butter in it. Heat to MEDIUM. Once the Butter is mostly melted, add in your Green Beans. Mix to coat. Lightly dust with 2 pinches of Sea Salt and 3 of Ground Black Pepper. Mix again.

Now that you have everything going, step back and enjoy the satisfaction of cooking your own meal. Yes, it's nice.

Ok back to business! Make sure to mix your Green Beans up until they are done cooking. Taste test to determine. You could also tell that about the time your Pasta is done, everything else is as well.

Now I strained out the Pasta first and put it in a large mixing bowl. I then added in the Peas/Corn that I strained. I mixed this all together.

I plated that mixture and topped with the Green Beans and Scallions. A light dusting of Italian Herb Mix and Parmesan Cheese to top it all off. Enjoy.

Chef's Original: Lunch for Work!

This is a dish I threw together last week and have since repeated as it is amazing for lunch on a workday. It began as a rough idea of throwing some things together. Namely, quinoa and peas. However, this changed to include a few more ingredients.

Ingredients
1 box Small Shell Pasta
1 cup Frozen Peas
1 cup Frozen Corn
2 cup Quinoa
Sea Salt
Italian Herb Mix
Shredded Asiago Cheese

I began this by filling my deep saucepan with water for the Pasta. I then put a dash of Sea Salt in the water and turned the heat to HIGH and covered it. I also turned the heat to MEDIUM for the Peas and Corn to start them cooking.

Now I turned to the Quinoa portion of this recipe. This part is made simple by use of a Rice Cooker. If you do not have one of these, I strongly suggest investing in one to suit your needs. I measured out the 2 cups of Quinoa and put it in the Rice Cooker.

Then I put in the 2.5 cups of Water that is required. Then plug the Rice Cooker in and push the level to COOK. Now let it be. You might need to let out some steam later on though, it does tend to bubble over a little bit with Quinoa.

Now turn to your pot of water for the Pasta. It should be boiling or close to it. Add in the entire box of Small Shell Pasta. Make sure they all sink. No, I am not sure why you should do this but I do it and so should you. It's what all the cool kids do...

Now that the Pasta is cooking, you might want to turn the heat down a little bit to around MEDIUM. I added in 2 large pinches of Italian Herb Mix at this point to flavor up the pasta a little bit.

Now stir it to make sure it mixes well.

A few minutes later the Pasta should look like the following picture as it is done. Taste test to make sure.

Oh look, the vegetables are done as well so turn their heat off.

Now it's just waiting on the Rice Cooker to cook that Quinoa. Oh no! It's almost foaming over!

Just take the top off long enough for a quick picture and it dies down.

It will click off to WARM once the cooking is done. You can leave it on that, but it dries the Quinoa out so I just unplug it.

Now, strain the Pasta first using a strainer. We don't want any water in this dish. Now put the Pasta into a large mixing bowl. Strain the frozen vegetables and put them in the same mixing bowl. On top of this add the Quinoa. Then stir some life into it! Go crazy and make it consistent throughout.

Then serve! I added a sprinkle of Italian Herb Mix and pinch of Shredded Asiago Cheese to the top. Enjoy!

Stir Fry

After procuring a Wok the other day, I decided to cook some stir fry...it might have gone the other way around. Either way, I have a wok and want to cook some Stir Fry. Who doesn't like Stir Fry?

I would like to say that I was able to throw everything together out of nothing and make this amazing dish, however I used frozen stir fry mix of vegetables. Sad I know, however I do like it since I was unable to find bamboo shoots, baby corns, and the like very easily today.

So I have the stir fry mix, along with some snow peas and snap peas. I start by coating the Wok with some peanut oil. Once that starts simmering, I add in the frozen vegetables. You might need to toss in some water to steam the vegetables a bit so they can cook properly. It's what I did. Put some Sesame Seed Oil in now if you have it.

Put in the Snap Peas and Snow Peas. I do this a little bit later since they are not frozen and won't have to defrost and all.

So after a few minutes of cooking, make sure to stir around a bunch, I grabbed my sauces. Yes, plural. I used a healthy 2 spoonfuls of Stir Fry sauce and 2 spoonfuls of Sweet Sour sauce. I cleared a spot in the middle of the Wok and added those two in. I then stirred so the sauce would be even throughout. After that, I added in a dash of Teriyaki Sauce and Low Sodium Soy Sauce.

Once done, take out and enjoy. You could even cook up some rice and put the Stir Fry on top.