Asian Lettuce Wraps

Today we ate Asian Lettuce Wraps for lunch, and they were supper yummy!  It's like Pei Wei cooked at home, only much less expensive.  Here's the recipe...

1T vegetable oil
1 lb ground pork
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 tea minced garlic
2 carrots, shredded
3 T hoisin sauce
2 T soy sauce
1 tea sesame oil
1/4 tea hot chile paste
Some peanuts
1 head iceberg lettuce, separated

2 cups cooked rice

Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat.  Cook the pork, green onions, and garlic for 5-7 minutes, or until lightly brown.  Add carrot, peanuts, hoisin, and soy sauce, stirring frequently until heated through.  Remove from heat, and stir in the sesame oil and chile paste.  (Note:  if you like tofu, you can add a drained package when you add the carrot)

To serve, spoon a small amount of rice into each lettuce leaf, top with stir-fry mix, and drizzle with additional sauce if desired.

I also made rice noodles to go with the stir-fry for my kids who prefer noodles over rice.

Enjoy!

Yummy Bread

Due to inclement weather, our plans for today were cancelled.  So, instead, Aaron made bread.  Yum!  My husband is such a good cook!



Kneading the dough



The finished product, right out of the oven.  Yum!

Yes, we're still here

Yep, we're still here.  We are now into the swing of things this fall at the Miller household and are very busy.  We did manage to squeeze in a few minutes at the Plano Balloon Festival this past weekend, which was tons of fun!  They opened the field at the Balloon Glow and we were able to get right up close to the balloons and check them out.  Kaitlin has the funniest smile sometimes!  Aaron made a realyl cool video, but I haven't figured out how to add that yet.  Maybe tomorrow!

Baked Potato Soup

I bought a really nice slow cooker recently (really nice = fancy), so I've been trying out some new recipes.  This evening we had Baked Potato Soup, and this recipe is a keeper!  I thought I'd share it with you!

5 lb potatoes, peeled and diced into chunks
1 teeny onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tea seasoned salt
1/2 tea black pepper
1/2 tea red pepper
2 qts chicken broth
2 (8-oz) pkgs cream cheese
Crumbled bacon and chives as garnish

Use a 6 qt or larger slow cooker.  Peel and dice the potatoes, and put them into the stoneware.  Add onion and garlic.  Sprinkle in the seasonings, and pour in the broth.  Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4.  The potatoes should be fork-tender.  You can use a potato masher to mash the potatoes in the soup, or a hand held immersible blender.

After smashing the potatoes, crumble in both packages of cream cheese, and put the lid back on.  Cook on high for about 30 minutes, or until the cream cheese is completely dissolved.  Stir a few times during the 30 minutes.

Garnish with crumbled bacon, chives, and cheddar cheese if you like.

Super yum!  Enjoy!

What's for dinner?

I have a really cool husband.  I arrived home from a meeting at Saxby's (yes, he let me go all by myself), to find Aaron cooking a gourmet dinner for us.  Kaitlin was helping him put the filling on the pork prior to rolling it up.  It was so sweet to see them working together, and the kitchen smells really yummy!  I'll let you know how it turns out!

Working hard with Papa

Working hard!

My parents came to visit for Labor Day weekend.  They drove down from Colorado to deliver several pieces of furniture to Heather's house, and one piece of furniture to mine.  Dad and I worked very quickly to unload the trailer Saturday morning, so we had the rest of the day Saturday and Sunday morning to spend time together before they had to head back home.  Kaity helped her Papa put together a swing for the back yard.  It was so sweet to see them working together, I just had to take a few pictures!

Almost finished!

Enjoying the new swing! (We moved it away from the fire pit later.)

All In A Day's Work

5am - A loud blaring, annoying noise wakes me from my peaceful sleep.  I roll over and groan as I get out of bed.  Hurry, hurry, hurry into the shower so I can have breakfast before I have to wake the girls.  This morning needed an extra large cup of coffee.  I tried not to trip over the dog as I left the bedroom (husband sleeping peacefully, grr), and I managed to make it in one piece.

6:15am - Time to wake the kiddos.  Elissa was already up, though how that can be I have no idea because she was up extra late last night talking though some stuff about school.  So, I go to wake Kaity.  There was a lot of groaning, and I do mean A LOT.  "Mommy, it's dark, why do I have to get up?!!?!?!"  "Because you have school, honey," I replied.  There was lots of grumbling after that. 

6:20 - Everyone's downstairs, and it's breakfast time.  We're out of Fruit Loops, Cheerios, and anything that really sounds good to Elissa.  She setted for Lucky Charms, Kaity's cereal, because it was either that or toast.  Everyone's dressed, hair brushed, and eating.

6:40 - Time for me to head out the door.  I kiss the kids goodbye, as well as my still sleeping hubby.  Kaity chases me down for "one last kiss," as usual.

7:00 - I arrive at school and begin my day.  I have thirty precious minutes to organize myself, put in copy orders, answer emails, and take care of any other business.  I work my best early in the morning and can get lots done. 

7:30 - I greet everyone with a smile on my face, and begin their day the right way.

11:00 - Lunch time.  I brought yogurt today, but breakfast didn't last so I decide to buy pizza from the cafeteria.  It tastes much better than my yogurt!

11:25 - Debate about whether or not to go outside.  Go check it out, and decide yes!

3:00 - Send everyone home, all's quiet at work again.  I look at my desk, and think maybe a tornado has hit my room while I was away!  I clean up the tornado, and head out the door at 3:45.

4:00 - Pick up Elissa and Kaitlin.  Find out Elissa had a great day at school and did not have to go to monitor during recess like she thought she would (whew!), and Kaity is Star Student next week!  She's excited, I groan because that means we have to put together a poster over the weekend.

4:30  - Get on the computer, think about not doing anything productive!

Still on my list for this evening:  Play with the kids, cook dinner, play with the kids some more, spend time with my hubby, and wait for my parents to arrive from Colorado.  I brought a ton of work home for the weekend, but that will have to wait until tomorrow!