Pork & Vegetable Lo Mein

We had this last night for dinner. It was excellent, so I thought I'd share the recipe. I thought it was just as good as ordering out for Chinese food. I can't take credit for the recipe, though, because I got it on my favorite website (recipezaar.com).

Pork & Vegetable Lo Mein

3 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces spaghetti, cooked al dente and drained
1 lb pork tenderloins , sliced thinly into strips (chicken would work too)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 cups prepared coleslaw mix (or 2 cups of shredded cabbage & 1 cup of shredded carrots)
2 stalks celery, chopped (or bok choy)
2 sweet bell peppers, chopped (I ended up using 1 green bell pepper, and it was still good)
1/3 cup soy sauce

Directions:

Heat 2 T. of Olive Oil in skillet or wok. Sauté pork, onion, garlic and pepper flakes until meat is no longer pink. Remove from the pan and keep warm.

Add remaining tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and sauté coleslaw mix, celery, and peppers until crisp tender. Add cooked spaghetti to veggies.

Stir in soy sauce and add pork mixture back to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes or until heated through.

This can easily feed my family of 3 1/2 for two days! I didn't really measure the spaghetti out, though, so I may have added more than 8 oz.

We decided...

to leave out the treadmill & just go with the bike. Our house isn't big enough for both. We went to Sears yesterday and got our recumbent bike. It's really nice and I'm excited to use it. It's even quiet enough that I can use it while the boys are napping.

Speaking of naps... I think I'll go take one since Moochy & TW are both asleep... One of the benefits of having 9:00 church.

Shopping List

Here's what I'm going to do with our tax return:

1. Pay off one of my student loans

2. Get a camera

3. Get a treadmill (for me)




4. Get a recumbent bike (for Allen, but I'm sure I'll use it too)




5. Get a couch (we gave ours away when we moved from Cheney)

6. Get a new outfit

7. Save the rest

Thank you,Toh-Toh, for getting us a better refund this year. :)

Cookie Dough

I just LOVE cookie dough. I think it's even better than the cookies themselves. haha Can you tell what I'm doing right now?

There's just something about age 28.

When I turned 28, it was like my body immediately started to give up on me. It started with pain in one of my shoulders, and then spread to the other one. Now at age 29, I'm feeling it even more, except that the pain has spread to my knees and hips. Twenty-eight was the magic number for Allen too. Sometimes we both feel like a couple of old people with all of our aches and pains.

Today I am especially feeling it. My little mini-stepper finally decided to give out on me 45 minutes into my workout yesterday. This has been my main source of exercise lately. Though I knew it wouldn't last forever at $30, I was sad to see it go. I loved that thing. Since it was a nice day today (= sunny & not too cold), I decided to take the boys out for a 5 1/2 mile "stroll". I must say that some of those wimpy little hills don't seem so wimpy when you're pushing 65 lbs up them. I was huffing and puffing up some of those hills, and I must have looked so silly. My joints are definitely feeling it, though. If this keeps up I may end up in a wheel chair by the time I'm 35. ;)

I should have kept my mouth shut.

When we moved here I commented that there were only two callings I wouldn't want--Gospel Doctorine Instructor and Cub Scouts. Gospel Doctorine because I think it would be an intimidating calling, and Cub Scouts because I know NOTHING about it.

So, I wasn't too surprised when last week I was called as the Den Leader for Cub Scouts. Today I got a big bag of books & manuals. As I was looking through the material, I became completely overwhelmed. It was like going to China without knowing Chinese. All I know about Cub Scouts is that you get a yellow shirt! I'm sure I will enjoy the calling once I figure out what I'm doing. In fact, I'm kind of excited about it, underneath the overwhelmed feelings.

Sometimes...

Sometimes I like to make up recipes. Then I realize they aren't really MY recipes. haha.

A couple weeks ago I was trying to decide what to make for dinner. I took some cream of chicken soup, added some garlic salt & cheddar cheese, mixed it with rice, layed some chicken breast on top, and finished it off with more cheddar cheese. It was really good. Even Allen said it was a keeper. Then about a week later I saw a commercial on TV for Cheesy Chicken & Rice Casserole by Campbell's. Darn it! Now I can't take credit for that one. Oh well, I'll still keep in in the dinner rotation.