Pepper Steak Stir Fry

Hey guys! I want to start off by apologizing to you about not blogging in a few weeks. I've just been so busy with getting registered for school, working, and spending tons of time with my daughter that I really haven't had a chance to do anything else. I'm hoping to be back in full force with the blogging now, but it's likely to come to an abrupt halt once school starts back in January. I will be blogging as much as possible, but in the likely event that I won't have time to cook, I won't have time to blog. I hope you understand. Don't leave me; I'll still be here and cooking to share, just around a very busy schedule! :)

So... About this Pepper Steak Stir fry! I found this recipe about two years ago, tweaked it, and my family has always enjoyed it ever since. It's one of Stacy's favorites, and my daughter loves it too. I am about to share with you how I make this recipe instead of following the one on http://www.cooks.com/.

MY INGREDIENTS:

1 lb pork roast or beef flank, cut into thin strips

2 Bell Peppers, cut into thin strips

1 large onion, thinly sliced

olive oil

2-3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp butter

1 fresh container of pre-sliced mushrooms (optional)

2 tbsp flour

1 beef bouillon cube

black pepper

soy sauce

water

DIRECTIONS:

I start by heating enough olive oil that will cover the bottom of my large skillet (about 2-3 tablespoons) and then adding butter to melt into it.

Once my oil and butter heat enough, I add my onions and let them saute for a couple of minutes.

Then I add my bell peppers and whole garlic cloves. When the garlic starts to get a slightly glazed look, I crush them with the tines of my fork, like suggested in the original recipe.

I let the vegetables saute for about a minute more, but not long enough for the bell peppers to be too... flimsy (for lack of a better word). When the vegetables are finished, I take them out with a slotted spoon. When all of the vegetables are set aside, I add my meat (this time I used pork roast) into the oil and let it cook several minutes before adding the mushrooms.

I usually let my meat cook on medium heat for about 10-15 minutes and take it out with a slotted spoon as well to set aside with my vegetables. Next, I turn my heat to a very low temperature and add flour into my broth that has made on its own while the meat was cooking. Then I stir my flour into my broth to make it into a thick texture. Once it becomes a clumpy thick texture, I add about 1-2 tablespoons of soy sauce and about 1/2 a cup of water or more until I find the consistency of gravy I like. With this particular recipe, I make my gravy pretty runny so that I can pour some over the rice I eat with this. 

                                     

   Next I add my beef bouillon cube and let it dissolve into the gravy.
This is what I like my gravy to look like:

After I get my gravy to the right consistency I add black pepper, stir it well, and then put all of my vegetables and meat back into my skillet. I then toss all of this until all of the meat and vegetables are covered in gravy, let it heat for about five more minutes, and it's done!

After the meat and vegetables are hot, I serve it with a bed of rice.

I actually got really hungry doing this blog post. I wish I could eat some of this right now!

Speaking of eating; I'm doing so well on my whole diet! I have cut down eating, counted calories, and drank tons and tons of water every day. I'm well on my way to being thin again and I'm so proud of myself! Keep a lookout for blog posts on my diet plan because I plan to keep you all posted on my progress!

Happy Eats!

Steak and Shrimp Kabobs & Stuffed Mushrooms

The other night was the last night one of my very best friends, Cindi, had in Montgomery before going off to BFE (just kidding) for two months so I wanted to make her dinner. The original plan was to cook rice, kabobs, squash, and stuffed mushrooms, but I got bored with it so I made Christina's Stuffed Mushrooms, and my own special kabobs.

I must first start by telling you about Christina and how friggin fabulous she is! You can find her website at http://www.dinneratchristinas.com/. Almost all of her recipes are original and are to die for! Every time I have ever made her stuffed mushroom recipe, I giggle to myself because they're one of the most wonderful appetizers I've ever put into my mouth and she hates mushrooms. I don't know how she came up with this recipe, but you have to try them. Man, they're good! It's not only this recipe that I've absolutely loved, but also her Mexican Shredded Pork, too! Anyway, enough about Christina; she's gonna steal all the fame one day! ;)

As for the kabobs-- These things were sooo damn time consuming, but were well worth the wait!

Marinade:

I'm gonna go ahead and tell you guys. I'm not one to measure the ingredients I put into my recipes. On all of my past posts, the've been approximate, so bare with me and use your imaginations if you're going to copy these recipes to a T!

You'll need:

Soy sauce

Worchestershire sauce

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Thyme

1-2 limes


I can tell you that I used half of the worchestershire compared to that of the soy sauce. In other words, don't use much worchestershire. :)

Once I made the marinade, I threw my meats and vegetables into it.

Ingredients for kabobs:
One BA sirloin steak (I think mine was like 1 1/2 to 2 lbs)

3/4 pound of shrimp

2 zucchini

1 extra large purple onion

2 packs of fresh mushrooms

2 large bell peppers



I cut all of my vegetables except, of course, the mushrooms into one inch cubes as best as I could. I marinated the meat in one bowl of marinade and the vegetables in another bowl of the same kind of marinade for a good two hours. Once the vegetables and meats were marinated enough, I just put them onto the bamboo skewers and threw them on the grill for about 5-6 minutes on each side.

The only thing that I urge is that you wait to cook the shrimp lastly because they cook very quickly and you don't want them tough and rubbery. The grill should be cooled down towards the end of cooking the steak kabobs and this is when the grill should be just perfect for cooking the shrimp.

 You see all these dang kabobs I made? I think there were about 25-30. There were only 4 1/2 people eating off of them and I only had two left the next morning. I was pretty proud. We'll definitely be making these agin!