Mongolian Beef over Rice

 This dish is delicious and very quick and easy to make.  It doesn't make a huge amount, though, so if your family is very big, I would suggest doubling the recipe.  I would say it serves about 4 adults.

Mongolian Beef over Rice

1 lb ground beef

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup beef stock

2 tsps. rice vinegar

2 T. brown sugar

1 T. corn starch

1 inch piece of ginger, grated

4 cloves garlic, minced

3-5 green onions, sliced thin

Hot cooked rice

In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, stock, rice vinegar, brown sugar, and corn starch.  Set aside.

In a large skillet, brown the ground beef over medium heat.  Season with salt and pepper.

Reduce heat to medium and add garlic and ginger.  Cook about 2-3 minutes.

Pour the sauce into the pan and stir and simmer and thicken for 2-3 minutes.

Stir well until all the ground beef is coated with the sauce.  Add the green onions and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes.

Serve over rice with steamed vegetables of choice.

Banana Bread

 I was staying with Kristen's kids and had overripe bananas to use.  I didn't have all the ingredients to make my usual banana bread, so googled recipes that used what I did have.  This bread was moist and delicious.

Banana Bread

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup chopped nuts

2- 3 bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease a loaf pan.

In a large bowl, stir together the melted butter and sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Mix well.  Add the flour, soda, and salt and mix well.  Fold in the sour cream, nuts and bananas.  Spread in prepared pan.  Bake for 60 minutes.  A toothpick should come out clean.  Let sit in pan for about 10 minutes, then take out of pan and cool on a wire rack.  

Mexican Spinach Dip

 I made this to add to a taco bar.  It looked suspect but was delicious.  Everyone loved it and went back for more. . . and more!

Mexican Spinach Dip

1 8 oz. package of cream cheese

1/3 cup sour cream

2 cups grated cheese (Mexi blend)

1 15 oz. package of fresh spinach, cut up

2 cans diced tomatoes

1-2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and cut up

1 onion, minced

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/3 tsp. cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350.  In a large bowl, Stir together the cream cheese and sour cream.  Add the cheese, spinach, tomatoes, jalapeon and onion and mix well.  Add the seasonings.  Put all in a 13 x 9 prepared pan.  Bake for 30 minutes, until hot and bubbly.  Serve warm with tortilla chips.

Copycat Olive Garden Salad Dressing

 This is supposed to be a copycat recipe of Olive Garden's famous salad dressing.  I don't think it tastes exactly like theirs (theirs is a lot more vinegary,) but it is very good and very easy to make.  My husband loves this dressing.

Italian Salad Dressing

3/4 cup olive oil

1/3 cup vinegar (I will add more next time)

1 packet Italian dressing mix

1/2 tsp. sugar

1 Tablespoon mayonnaise

Salt and pepper

Put all in a jar or container with a lid.  Shake and shake until well combined.  Put in the fridge to let the flavors blend before serving, if you have time.  

Crockpot Tortellini

 This dish was advertised as being the best recipe on the Internet.  Of course I had to try it.  It was delicious.  But I added sweet sausage and seasonings that it didn't call for.  It was really, really good and I will do that again.  I will be making this a lot as my husband loved it and it was so easy.

Crockpot Tortellini

1 bag of frozen tortellini

1 small bag of fresh spinach

2 cans Italian style diced tomatoes

1 box chicken stock

1 block of cream cheese, cut up

1 lb. sweet sausage, cooked (optional)

Garlic salt, Italian Seasoning, and salt and pepper to taste.

Put all except the tortellini in a sprayed crockpot.  Cook on low for 5-6 hours.  If possible, don't put the tortellini in until the last couple of hours so that it doesn't get mushy.    But if you aren't going to be home, you can add it at the start.   A yummy, easy meal.

Egg Drop Soup

 Do you love the Egg Drop soup in Chinese restaurants?  This is a good recipe that is easy to adapt to make it taste the way you like.  

Egg Drop Soup

1 box chicken stock

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 T salt

1/2 tsp. turmeric

1/2 tsp sugar

2 T. soy sauce

1/2 tsp. ginger

3 T. Corn starch

1/3 cup water

3 eggs, beaten

Chopped green onions for serving

In a pot, bring the chicken stock to simmer.  Stir in the oil, salt, turmeric, sugar, soy sauce, and ginger.  Whisk together the cornstarch and water and add to the pot.  Stir and cook and simmer for several minutes.  Taste.  Add more salt, soy sauce, ginger, and/or sugar as needed for your taste.  When it tastes right, add the eggs: stirring slowly for big pieces of egg, faster if you want smaller.  Stir in a circular motion and cook for about a minute.  Serve with green onion on top.

I serve it with potstickers.

Holiday Pancake Fun

 This isn't really a recipe, but a technique that I just learned from my son-in-law.  He made these cute pancakes for Valentine's Day.

You could use this same technique for any holiday, birtthday, or special day.  

Just put some of your pancake batter in a squeezable condiment container.  Write with the batter in the container right on the griddle. You can make pictures or write words.  Let it cook a minute, then pour the pancake batter over it as usual to make the pancake. The writing will be darker because it cooks longer.  Isn't that a fun idea?