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Food to Make you happy — Easy Yakisoba

We are celebrating around here for making our goal of 100 likes to our new Facebook page! Thank you, friends and dear readers! And what could be a better way to celebrate than with VEGETABLES!?! I’m serious! If you know me at all, you know that I LOVE my vegetables and I drink (yes, drink) them every morning. I will be sharing my delicious breakfast drink soon!

But I have been getting SO many requests for my Yakisoba recipe that I decided to post it today. I have to keep my favorite people happy!

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Truth is, this recipe makes me so happy…and I think you will agree when you try it out. It’s easy…it’s delicious…it’s filled with color. That is celebration right on a plate, friends! (Can we please officially change the title of this recipe to “Celebration on a Plate”?)

Let’s get started with the Yakisoba.

First, assemble your favorite veggies. I like to use all the colors of the rainbow (except maybe blue, I can’t even think of a blue vegetable!) My favorites for this dish are:

Onion, Carrots, Zucchini, Summer Squash, Red pepper, Broccoli, Red Cabbage, Garlic

Slice your onion (I use yellow onion). In a large pan (or stir fry pan), warm 2 T. of olive oil on medium high. Once oil is hot, add onion. Let this cook for 5-7 minutes or until the onion is soft and browned.

While the onion is cooking, cut your other veggies. Cut them in similar sizes for even cooking. When onions are browned, add carrots and zucchini. Cook for 4-5 minutes. I like to let the zucchini and squash cook without stirring for a few minutes. This allows them to get browned on one side. Oh! My mouth is watering just thinking about it! Turn them over to brown on the other side.

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Once zucchini is browned, add peppers and broccoli. Allow those to cook for a bit, then add the cabbage.

While that is cooking together, get your meat ready. I used chicken for this recipe, but you can also use beef or pork, or keep it vegetarian! I cut my chicken (3 chicken tenders) into bite-sized pieces. Then warmed a small amount of olive oil in a separate skillet. Add chicken and cook, stirring occasionally. Add a couple cloves of garlic (minced) with the cooking chicken, if you like. (I like!)

When chicken is done…it only takes a few minutes! Add to the vegetables. Then, add your noodles, water, and seasoning mix from the package. I usually include 2 packages of noodles, both seasoning packets, and 1 cup of water. Here are the noodles I like to use:

yakisoba-noodles

[Note: If I don’t have these on hand when I crave Yakisoba, I have also used angel hair pasta or spaghetti…and I make sauce using a bit of soy sauce, cornstarch, and water!] You have to coax these particular noodles to separate, but please be careful and don’t break them. It just doesn’t taste the same with broken noodles!

Now, dish up and enjoy! (here’s another secret: I sometimes add a bit of low-sodium soy sauce to mine)

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How’s that for a celebration!?

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Maple Pecan Waffles with Cinnamon Whipped Cream

It’s my husband’s birthday…almost! He’s a leap year baby, and so he really doesn’t have an OFFICIAL birthday this year, but don’t worry: he figures he can celebrate for TWO days this year.

I had a different post all planned, but it just didn’t seem right on this celebratory day. So this post is dedicated to my sweetie, who helped me test out this recipe on Sunday: Maple Pecan Waffles with Cinnamon Whipped Cream! (Yum!)

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My husband is the waffle-maker in our house. He loves waffles, and he has a nice collection of waffle irons. He has round, square, belgian, and farm animal waffle irons! I’m surprised we don’t yet have a Mickey Mouse waffle iron, but I’m sure we will eventually. And I’m not complaining….NO! I LOVE that he has taken over as waffle chef in our house. His absolute favorite waffle iron is one that I got him a couple years ago on super-sale and he reaches for this one the very most: Check it out here

It will make TWO belgian waffles at once and that is great when you have a lot of mouths waiting for their waffles! We love to host a waffle party…and we even sometimes eat waffles for dinner….or lunch. When isn’t it a good time for waffles?

So let’s get to the “recipe.” It’s so simple (I love a simple recipe!) This comes together in minutes!

First, chop up some pecans.

Then, whip up your heavy cream (PLEASE use the real stuff! My kids are fine with the frozen whipped topping, but that just won’t do for this recipe…You need the real stuff here…believe me, you’ll thank me later)

When the cream is nearly fully whipped, instead of adding sugar to the cream, add CINNAMON/SUGAR. It is so delightful!

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Now for the waffle part. Don’t laugh: my husband has found a shortcut to his waffle making secret. He uses Krusteaz waffle & pancake mix to start with! Fifteen years of trial and error and testing every waffle mix out there, and he has found this to be the best. We buy it in the giant bags at Costco! Make it using the instructions on the back. Then, add a bit of cinnamon and a bit of Mapleine.

Put your waffle mixture on your pre-heated waffle iron and sprinkle on some of the chopped pecans. Now let the waffle iron do the rest of the work. {Note: we tried this recipe two ways: one with the pecans sprinkled in the waffle batter, one with pecans sprinkled only on top. The winner: Pecans IN the batter!}

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Add your Cinnamon Whipped Cream, a few more chopped pecans, maybe a strawberry or two!  These waffles are amazing. When you try this recipe, let me know what you think!

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Before I go, I wanted to share that this “recipe” has me giggling a bit. It reminds me of a cartoon I once saw YEARS ago (If I can find it, I will post it here). It started out with the “Dad” of the cartoon getting ready to make breakfast. The kids say “Mom says that everything tastes better when it’s made from scratch.” The Dad replies “Then that’s what we’ll do!” The next slide shows the Dad pulling a box out of the pantry, and the kids say: “What’s in the box?” He replies: “Scratch.”

Gosh, I love my husband!

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