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kung pao

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Kung Pao Chicken and Fried Rice

I have been cooking up a storm in my kitchen. Pretty much every week night I come home and create something for Chris and I. I try to make the meals as healthy as possible, but every once in awhile….you gotta have a little fun! Today I want to share with you one of my “take out at home” recipes. I love Kung Pao Chicken and fried rice from Chinese restaurants, but I often worry about the MSG and other such products that tend to be lurking in their food more often than not.

This is what you will need:

For the Chicken:

1 lb chicken breast, cut up in inch size pieces
1 tbsp Cornstarch
1 tbsp sesame oil (you may find you need more)
chopped green onions
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp of powdered ginger
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
sesame seeds
crushed peanuts (I just use cocktail nuts)

For the rice:

2-3 cups of  day old brown rice (depends on how much left over you want, I usually use brown minute rice and cook it a day or two before and leave in refrigerator until I am ready to use it)
2 eggs
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup of mixed frozen veggies (I buy a bag with peas, carrots, green beans and corn)
1/4 cup soy sauce
sesame seeds
2 tbsp sesame oil

What you do:

Getting every thing done at the same time can be challenging at times, so I like to get prepped first. I get out all ingredients and set on counter. I start with chopping my onions, and setting a side. Then cut up the chicken breast. If you prep, it makes this a lot easier and more fun!

Toss the chicken breast with about a tbsp of cornstarch, maybe a little more…just make sure the pieces are mostly covered.

I use a small wok for the chicken, and a very large wok for the rice. Get the sesame oil in both. In the large walk, heat the oil then add your onion and garlic for a few minutes. Then add in the veggies.

Once the veggies are defrosted, push to one side and cook your eggs.

While the egg is cooking, heat up your small wok with sesame oil. Add chicken.

Once your egg is fried, add in the rice, soy sauce and sesame seeds. Just keep stirring until heated through, and ready to serve.

Combine the soy sauce, sugar and vinegar in a small bowl and set aside.

Once your chicken is cooked, push to the side and add green onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, and the powdered ginger to the wok. Let heat for a few seconds, then add in the soy sauce mixture and stir everything together. Add in peanuts and a tsp of sesame seeds. Heat thoroughly.

Enjoy!! 

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Friday Favorites

Blogging 4 times in a week, who am I? 2014 Nadine? Apparently so. It is just a distraction that I need from….everything. Right?? I mean, we are now 8 days into this year and I am basically done already.

Favorite Moments: I had to dig deep this week. But there is always something to be thankful for, and good memories made. Even though it was cold, we got in three walks this week before the rain came. After working all day, nothing feels better than getting out there and moving.

The other morning, I was sitting in my office working and happened to catch some movement out of the corner of my eye. I thought it was my neighbors lab, as I tend to see her around that time each day. Then I saw some more movement and looked closer, three young deer in our front yard!!! They hung around for a few minutes walking around. It was so cool.

Favorite Purchase: I had a reward at Target and saw that they had leopard heart pajama sets that just came out. What????? LOVE!!!! This is the best, because I tend to wear sweatshirts and shorts around the house pretty much every day, and this is just a fun version of that.

I also think this is a fun sweatshirt if you want to get festive for vday.

Favorite Recipes: We are back to healthy eating this week, and I always take it back to basics when I want a reset. I made some of our favorites to keep us motivated. Kung Pao chicken with stir fry veggies. I omit the sugar and cornstarch, still turns out perfect. Zoe stole all my broccoli.

We also had Kickin Chicken with brussels from the air fryer.

And I found these butternut squash noodles in the frozen section at Target. They are DELICIOUS! I made a brown butter sauce with a dash of sage, then topped with parmesan cheese and served with a side salad. Definitely going to add to the rotation. It came together in under 15 minutes.

Favorite Workout: Heather Robertson came out with a new HITT this week and I did it this morning. Burned lots of calories and worked up a sweat. Feeling good!

Favorite Funnies:

We can laugh now, right?
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Currently

What up, August?! Can you believe it?! I was scrolling through Facebook yesterday morning, and all my Georgia friends were posting back to school pictures. A bit early, yeah??? School doesn’t start here until August 14th. Zoe’s school has move up day Monday!!! We had open house last night and got to meet her new teachers. There are going to be sixteen kiddos in her class. SIXTEEN. That just sounds like a lot of toddlers at one time. Lord help those teachers! She is excited about moving up, and some of her besties that have been with her the whole time are in there, but I also noticed several new names I didn’t recognize, so maybe it will be a good change.

August also means birthday month! The fact that I will officially be closer to 40 than 30 is a little unsettling, but I am thankful that I am celebrating another year. Life is damn short. Anyways, I am linking up with Kristen for What’s New With You in the form of a currently post, as always. A day late and a dollar short, but I do what I want.

Reading: Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis

I read Girl, Wash Your Face awhile ago, and enjoyed it alright. I am a little less than half way through this one, and honestly, I think I am liking it more. She is talking about achieving your goals and letting go of all the excuses you make and lies you tell yourself on why you aren’t following your dreams. There were several things that she said where I was like, damn….girlfriend has a solid point there.

Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals

Watching: We finished Billions last weekend, and started Big Little Lies. Chris wasn’t a huge fan of this season after about three episodes, so we are looking for a new show to binge! (I need to go back and watch the rest of it myself, because I love Big Little Lies!) Give me some of your favorites! We tend to watched darker, crime related things. We loved Blacklist, Blue Bloods, House of Cards, Scandal, the Chicago Trilogy (Chicago PD, Fire and Med), Lucifer, Law and Order SVU, Ozark. Give us something awesome!!!

Daily Afternoon Funny Picdump 191 (25 Photos)

Listening: I think I discovered this song on an episode of Greys. But it is one of those songs that is hauntingly beautiful.

Cooking: I continue to meal plan on Sundays for the week, and we do great with weeknight meals. This week I made Kung Pao chicken, Caesar salad and tomato soup, bbq chicken stuffed baked potatoes and chicken sausage with veggies. My struggle is going to be lunches. We don’t really have a break room to go and sit at my new office. I need ideas of things to make that don’t require any heating. Other than sandwiches and salads. Because I will get sick of both really fast.

Working: This is my second week at my new job, and I am working from home today. Zoe’s daycare is always closed the last Friday before move up day for a teacher work day, so I needed to stay home with her. My boss was like yeah, no problem, have a great weekend! SO refreshing to be back in this type of environment. Also, I have worn my jean jacket twice and damn I missed that thing!

Planning: The whole house needs a deep clean, and I feel a purge coming on. I really need to get down in the garage and go through all the boxes we have down there. Obviously, a lot of that stuff we haven’t touched in years. Clearly, we don’t need it! It’s just so hot, that I don’t want to be down in the garage right now! Which is also why I haven’t jumped on the treadmill in the last month. Need to get back to that too.

Excited: Since it is August, football season is about to start!!!! We are less than a month out now! I am looking forward to hopefully, some cooler days soon. And by cooler, I mean upper 80’s, instead of 90’s. We wont see actual cooler days until like November. A girl can dream though, right? I want to take Zoe to do something fun like the zoo or science center, so hopefully that will happen soon. She has been asking to get our pool back out, so maybe I can make that a thing this weekend. What do you guys do with your blowup pools when they aren’t in use? We are trying to figure out the best way to store it.

Laughing: It isn’t Friday without some funnies!

Someone, somewhere, tried their darnedest. Was it enough? Not in the slightest. #attempts #failure #funny #pics
17 Relatable Memes That Will Make You Say, “Yup, That’s Me” | Chaostrophic
22 Hilarious Memes You Won't Be Able To Resist Sending To Your Boyfriend - Women.com
Image result for welcome to adulthood rearrange grocery store
Image result for how do you lose 10 pounds without cutting mexican
favorites, friday favorites

Friday Favorites

I am not sure what is going on, but I have had some problems with my blog this week. It was done off and on the last few days, and I wasn’t able to get my recipe post up for the keto pizza skillet or anything else. I will get that up next week, I promise! So many of you mentioned you would like to try it. In other news, it has just been another busy week with work and life, you know. The usual adulting. It has been in the 70s-80s the last few days, so that has been nice. Though, we are supposed to have severe weather tomorrow. Again. So over that.

Favorite Memories: Zoe had super hero day at school. To keep from being that mom who doesn’t participate in the fun events, I headed out to Target and found the most perfect Wonder Woman outfit for her. She looks adorable and everyone made a fuss when we walked in the door.

We had some good eats this week. I made the keto cheeseburger skillet last night, we had egg roll in a bowl, salads, kung pao chicken and tonight is braised pork chops. I managed to squeeze in a last minute impromptu lunch at Babalu with Laura and I grabbed an acai bowl from Farm Bowl the day I ran to Target on lunch.

Favorite Recipe: This “healthy” take on Irish Nachos has me totally interested. YUMMMMM

A healthier twist on an Irish pub favorite – dangerously good!!

Favorite Purchase: I am in need of a few spring/summer pieces to replace some stuff that is worn or ill fitting. I found this adorable Style & CO A-Line dress from Macy’s on sale for half off. The fabric is so soft and flowy and the color is absolutely gorgeous (uniform blue). I really love the length of this, as most dresses I deem too short.

I have my eye on this white denim jacket. It was a great length and very stretchy denim, so very comfortable. I am waiting for it to go back on sale. I should have scooped it up with the dress because that day it was under $30!!!

 

Have you tried the Brazilian Bum Bum cream from Sephora??? This stuff is seriously amazing. It smells so good and makes my skin so soft. With the VIB sale coming up, its totally worth the splurge.

Favorite Funnies:

Fiesta

54 Of Today’s Freshest Pics And Memes

I talk an awful lot of smack for someone who tips over when putting on their underwear.

30 Must-Read Funny Quotes for Wine Time

LOL Very accurate!  I remember those days.

ॐPinterest: ash_ january

Your real homies.

 

Linking up with Amanda. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

weekend shenanigans

Winter Wonderland Weekend

You guys! My heart is so full of joy this morning. We woke up Friday to see that the snow had started coming down. We had started out with a 2 hour delay at daycare and it turned into a snow day. Hurray! Zoe was so excited to see all the snow. She kept going to our back door and looking out on the deck and pointing and squealing with delight. We went out together for a little while just the two of us, and then again when Chris got home from work. We had so much fun and got so many cute pictures!!! It snowed just a little last year, so this isn’t technically her first snow…but it was the first time she got to go out in it and have an official snow day.

Zoe pulled all the clothes out of her bottom drawer of her dresser and laid down on them for a few minutes, clearly the snow wore her out!

I seriously cant believe how much it actually snowed and for how long. This has to be a record here for as long as I have lived in the south. It was the perfect powdery wet kind too and the roads were pretty decent because we didn’t get a ton of ice like we usually do. We got to make snow cream and watch the Grinch.

Saturday, we headed out early to Bass Pro Shop to get our pass to stand in line and see Santa!!! This is Zoe’s first time meeting Santa too, I felt like she was too young to take out last year. She did so well and didn’t cry at all!

I loved that the snow still hung around on our drive to see Santa. It was soooooo pretty!!!!

After Santa, we headed home for lunch and a nap because we new we were going to head back out to meet up with Laura, B and Sheffy! We ended up at CommHouse. We had the best time just hanging out and watching the kiddos be totally adorable. Clearly they have plenty more play dates in their future!

We enjoyed snacking on the totchos, wings and Kung Pao Cauliflower. Zoe ate a lot of the totchos. She loves carbs.

Saturday night I got the Christmas tree up and partially decorated. I need to finish the rest of it this week and get the one up in Zoe’s room!

Sunday, we headed out early to Target to get our grocery shopping done. We stopped at Casa Fiesta for lunch, and then headed over to 280 to Best Buy and Bargain Hunt. We didn’t get home until close to 3pm. We settled in for lots of Christmas movies (Badder Santa, Elf, The Santa Claus, Santa Claus 2 and Home Alone) and I made some bacon pasta. (Recipe to come later!)

And just like that the weekend was over and it was back to work! Oh, it needs to be noted that Zoe had her first tacos on Friday. And then she ate some at Casa Fiesta Sunday too! Obviously, she loved them. I mean, she is my kid!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Linking up with Biana.