Easy Asian Green Beans!! Yummy!!

Ok I found this Recipe on Allrecipes.com  this is one of my favorite places to find recipes online because you can see the reviews it got and also you can adjust the portions for whatever fits your family....  These Green beans were a big hit with my family.  I was looking for a different way to cook our veggies as I was starting to get bored of our norm....so I just looked for green beans and found these...they are call Sweet and Spicy Green Beans on allrecipes  but they are very good....
So here is the recipe and my changes in ( ) next to it

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 pound fresh green beans, trimmed 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1 clove garlic, minced (i used 2 cloves)

1 teaspoon garlic chili sauce (i had none so i used a dash of chili powder and a dash of onion powder) 1 teaspoon honey 2 teaspoons canola oil

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Arrange a steamer basket in a pot over boiling water, and steam the green beans 3 to 4 minutes.
2.	In a bowl, mix the soy sauce, garlic, garlic chili sauce, and honey.
3.	Heat the canola oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the green beans, and fry for 3 to 5 minutes. Pour in the soy sauce mixture. Continue cooking and stirring 2 minutes, or until the liquid is nearly evaporated. Serve immediately.

So there you have it!  these are great and Reece my 1 and a half year old kept asking for more and he usually avoids green beans....its worth a try just to give you a different flavor..

Jessi's Potato Soup

Jessi's Potato Soup

Ingredients
1 cup cheddar cheese
8 med-lg potatoes (divided)
1 can cream of chicken
1 can cream of potato
1 onion (cut into small pieces)
2 stalks of celery (cut into small pieces)
2 stalks of leeks (cut into small pieces)
3 Tbsp flour
1 1/2 cup water
4-5 strips of bacon (more if you want more)
3 Tbsp sour cream
2 cups of milk

Directions
1. boil 1/2 of the potatoes (these should be cute into small bite size pieces) until very soft drain and set aside
2. boil other half of the potatoes until very soft.  drain and then mash
3. cook bacon and break into pieces (or use bacon bits I didn't have any so I just did this)  set aside 2 Tbsp of the grease
4. cook onion, leek and celery in grease
5. when the veggies are soft add flour and water to mixture and cook until thickened
6. take off heat and add bacon bits
7.  add cream of chicken and potato to the mashed potatoes
8. then add onion/flour mixture, milk, and sour cream to mashed potatoes
9. mix these ingredients together well.
10.  Add the small potato pieces and cheese and stir with a spoon
11.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

This recipe makes a thick soup and is filling enough to serve by itself.  My hubby loved it so much he said it was better then Outback Steakhouse's Potato Soup.  I was shocked :) A good shocked and glad he liked it so much and so did my son who ate every last bite.

If you try it let me know how you thought it was or even some of the adjustments you made.  I bet it might taste good with some sausage pieces instead of bacon...Hmmm might have to try it like that next time.

 

 

Wow its Feb...

I can't believe that January has already come and gone.

For our family January has been a fun filled month.  We got to introduce 2 new little people into our family one new nephew on my side of the family and one new niece (my first niece!!) on Marc's side of the family.  We are so excited for both families and the two new little babies we get to hold although we only get to hold one right now as the other is on the other side of the ocean...but speaking of that we got to meet her thanks to some awesome technology called Skype.
This is marc's sister holding my niece :)

 This is my niece!! What a cutie!

We use Skype all the time to talk to Marc's family back home and the best part is we not only get to hear but we get to see each other....oh and did I mention its free!  We talk to Marc's parents every week and it has become so routine for us that Reece regularly asks for his Nana and Papa (Marc's parents).  I think it is so nice to be able to communicate with family who are so far away.

My mom was telling me that when they were first here on the mission field she only got to call my grandma (her mom) once a year!  I couldn't believe it!  I can't imagine only talking to my mom once a year!  And then she told me it was only for like 30 mins because it cost so much to make a long distance call... Can you believe that!  Crazy!  We are so spoiled compared to that.  But I'm not going to lie I'm very thankful for all the technology that we have that my son can get to know his grandparents at least to a certain extent...

Also I have been trying lots of new recipes lately and I plan on sharing a few of the hits here.

Thanks for listening and if you live far away from your family check out Skype if you don't already have it.