Sick on New Years + Quinoa Fried Rice

Being sick on new years day wasn't half as horrible as it sounds.  If I had to rate this cold from 1 to 10 with 10 being the worst cold I have ever had, this would be a three.  Yup, it's pretty meh.  I thought for sure that I would be kicking the dead germs' butts and getting back to my normal self by now (this cold started a few days after Christmas), but I'm still not completely over it yet.  I've finally proved my mom's truthfulness when she told me as a child that I had to rest to get better.  I was a very obedient child, though she might not agree completely, and therefore I had never had the chance to prove her words wrong until now.  A mama gets no rest with a one-year-old running wild in the house and on the walls and over her hair.  It's real comfort, though, that my child hasn't caught what I have.  But then it really isn't that bad when your husband gives you the royal treatment while he's home with dinner in bed and the frequent head-pokes through the door just to check on me while blocking the King of all wild things from entering the bedroom.

Anyhow, I made dinner the other night which was a rather ordinary action in itself, but the fruit of my work was quite delicious if I do say so myself.  I made quinoa fried rice or perhaps you'd rather call it fried quinoa, like Jake, since there's really no rice in this dish at all.

{ Quinoa Fried Rice }

Adapted from Damn Delicious

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 head broccoli, cut into florets
2/3 cup frozen corn
2/3 cup frozen peas
2 carrots, peeled and grated
3 cups cooked quinoa
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
3 tablespoons soy sauce
Salt to taste
Chicken powder
2 green onions, sliced
Sriracha, for serving

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic and onion, and cook, stirring often, until onions become translucent, about 4-5 minutes.

Add mushrooms and broccoli. Cook, stirring constantly, until vegetables are tender, about 3-4 minutes. Add corn, peas, carrots and quinoa. Cook, stirring constantly, until heated through, about 1-2 minutes.

Add ginger, soy sauce, a pinch of salt and some chicken powder. Gently toss to combine. Cook, stirring constantly, until heated through, about 2 minutes. Stir in green onions.

Serve immediately, drizzled with Sriracha, if desired.

Mongolian Beef

It has been a long day.  A really long day.  Ethan bonked his noggin twice and has a little bruise on his forehead.  Sigh...  I swear his head holds magnetic properties to all sorts of things like the tile floor and bed frames and window sills and walls.

We made this Mongolian beef for dinner last night and I wish that we had some left so that it could lift up my spirit just a little bit but it was so good we ate it all last night.  This recipe claimed to be PF Chang's Mongolian Beef copycat.  I wouldn't say that it was PF Chang's Mongolian Beef but it was certainly tasty.  I think that I might add some crushed red pepper in the sauce next time just to spice things up a little.

 { Mongolian Beef }

Recipe found from Six Sister's Stuff

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

½ teaspoon ginger, minced

1 tablespoon garlic, chopped

½ cup soy sauce

½ cup water

¾ cup dark brown sugar

vegetable oil , for frying (about 1 cup)

1 lb flank steak

¼ cup cornstarch

2 large green onions, chopped

Heat 2 tsp. of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium/low heat.  Add ginger and garlic to the pan and quickly add soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches.  Dissolve brown sugar in sauce, then increase heat to medium and boil the sauce for 2-3 minutes or until sauce thickens. Remove from heat.

Slice the flank steak against the grain into 1/4" thick bite-size slices. Tilt the blade of your knife at about a forty five degree angle to the top of the steak so that you get wider cuts.  Dip steak pieces into the cornstarch to apply a very thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef.  Let the beef sit for about 10 minutes so that the cornstarch sticks. 

As the beef sits, heat up one cup of oil in a wok.  Heat the oil over medium heat until it's nice and hot, but not smoking. Add the beef to the oil and sauté until brown. Stir the meat around a little so that it cooks evenly.  After a couple minutes, use a large slotted spoon to take the meat out and onto paper towels.  Dab excess oil off meat with a paper towel and add to medium saucepan with the sauce in it.  Put the pan back on the oven over medium/low heat.  Add chopped green onions and let sauce simmer until warm. Serve over rice.

Korean Ground Beef

Do you know that ground beef is really hard to photograph?  It's very challenging to take a picture of it and have it not look like poop.  I assure you though that this tastes NOTHING like poop, not that I have ever tasted poop!  Gah, this is really not going the direction I had intended for it to go...

This is yet another Pinterest recipe.  It was super fast and easy, and surprisingly yummy as well!  The recipe was originally from this blog, and the blogger said that she used to make this all the time in college because of how easy and cheap this dish is.  I wish I had known about this when I was in college.

Note: DO NOT omit the green onion!

{ Korean Ground Beef }

From Lizzy Writes

1 tablespoon sesame oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound lean ground beef

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced

1/2 - 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

salt and pepper

1 bunch green onions, diced

Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add garlic and ground beef.  Brown.  Drain most of the fat and add brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger, and red pepper.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer for a few minutes to blend the flavors. Serve over steamed rice and top with green onions.

Korean Marinated Beef

A lifetime ago when I was on a study abroad in China, strangers always asked if I was from Korea.  It bemused me because I personally don't think I look Korean at all.  Every single Korean girl I knew from college was stylish and beautiful, and I am anything but stylish and beautiful.  {Especially when I was in China!  Let's just say that I did not adhere to the recommended daily calorie intake.}  But I do love Korean food.  This world would be a very sad place without kimchi.  Yes, very sad indeed.  So when I saw this recipe on the internet I had to give it a try.  They called it beef bulgogi on allrecipes.com but it's nothing like the beef bulgogi I've tried in Korean restaurants so I changed the name here on the blog because I would hate to confuse myself in the future.  We do have an outdoor grill but, I don't know, being out in the sun when it's a hundred degrees outside just didn't sound very fun to me so I cooked the beef on my George Foreman grill.  It was very good and made my house smell amazing.  I'm sure it would've been even better on a real grill.

Korean Marinated Beef

From allrecipes.com

1 pound flank steak, thinly sliced

5 tablespoons soy sauce

2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 cup chopped green onion

2 tablespoons minced garlic

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

2 tablespoons sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Place the beef in a shallow dish. Combine all other ingredients in a small bowl. Pour over beef. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil the grate.

Quickly grill beef on hot grill until slightly charred and cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes per side.