Asian | Better With Sprinkles

First off:

These are the oven mitts I found yesterday. I’m kind of obsessed.

Polka dots AND cupcakes…cannot go wrong with that!

Lunch

Eat out the kitchen week continues.

Quinoa topped with chickpeas and some homemade guacamole (the best way I know to use up an avocado) Smile

Random note: I didn’t have enough tomatoes for the recipe, so I threw in a bit of tomato paste. Worked great!

I’ve noticed that I really need to pre-make quinoa and other grains when I want them for lunch. I don’t usually end up eating until I’m really hungry, so I snack while making lunch and kinda ruin my appetite a little. Fortunately, I was snacking on carrot sticks so it wasn’t that bad, but nonetheless, I’d rather be hungry when I sit down for lunch.

I spent the afternoon doing some more apartment shopping with my mom. I swear, you don’t realize how much stuff you need to live until you’re getting your first “real” apartment. I was running around Canadian Tire/Dollarama/WalMart yelling “Oh god! I need one of these too!” every 2.5 seconds.

Right, a lot of work goes into this.

Slowly but surely, plugging away (And I found a purple vacuum. That makes me happy).

Dinner

Another one of my favourite Mom recipes for dinner tonight. Although my mom has never been a huge fan of Asian food (You mention sushi, she’ll run in the other direction) she has an amazing recipe for pepper steak. It’s an Asian stirfry of sorts with paprika-spiced sauce. So good!

Pepper Steak

(serves 6. Origin unknown, but my mom thinks she got it out of a pamphlet of some kind years ago)

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds sirloin steak, fat trimmed and cut into strips
1 tbsp paprika
2 cloves garlic, crushed (or 2 teaspoons minced garlic)
2 tbsp butter/margarine
1 cup sliced green onions with tops
2 large green peppers, cut into strips
2 large fresh tomatoes, diced
1 cup beef broth
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp corn starch
2 tbsp soy sauce
2-3 cups cooked rice (I use brown rice)

Directions

1. Sprinkle steak with paprika. Cook steak and garlic in butter/margarine and cook until meat is browned.

2. Add onions and green peppers. Continue cooking until vegetables are soft.

3. Add tomatoes and broth. Reduce heat and cover; simmer for 15 minutes.

4. Blend water, cornstarch and soy sauce in separate bowl until mixed. Stir into steak and cook until sauce has thickened.

5. Serve with cooked rice.

Umm, how freakin’ simple is that? The entire recipe takes about half an hour to make and is insanely delicious. If you like stirfries, you’ll be a big fan of this recipe.

You can substitute the steak for pretty much any protein you like – chicken, pork, or even tofu (just make sure you change the type of broth accordingly).