I used to post a recipe almost weekly. If you recall, recently I went back through my blog and tried a few recipes from years past. I also found that we tend to always revert back to the same favorites even after all of these years. In another endeavor to ward off meal planning boredom, I recently cleaned out and organized my recipe file and have been working on planning meals a little better with a little more variety.
A week or so ago, I brought out an old favorite that I haven't made in quite a long time and parred it with a brand new recipe. I wasn't sure how they would go over now but, considering the fact that there was absolutely nothing left, I think they were both a hit.
The first recipe is Asian Beef with Mushrooms and Snow Pea which can be found HERE. I love good Chinese food but it is honestly hard to find and often times expensive (especially when it is REALLY good). This recipe is so flavorful and really quite easy. One trick I learned through other recipes is to dust the beef in cornstarch before cooking it and it will get nice and crispy on the outside. Another great thing about Chinese influenced recipes is that vegetables can easily be switched out or even left out. For example, if you don't enjoy mushrooms, feel free to leave those out or substitute onions or carrots. Next time I make this recipe I will add more meat and veggies and, well, we all wanted more and it was gone! BUT, the recipe itself makes plenty of sauce (at least in my opinion and I'm a saucy girl LOL).
The second recipe is Stick of Butter Rice and can be found HERE. Quite a few years ago I found a basic Baked Rice recipe (HERE) that I have used often for meals like stir fry. It is super easy and the oven does all of the work (Instead of needing to watch a pot). This particular recipe has shown up either in Pinterest or on Facebook quite a few times over the past few months so I decided it was worth a try and I am so glad I tried it! It is easy, makes the house smell amazing, and tastes just so good! It is full of beefy flavor and really added to the Beef stir-fry. I cooked it in a 9x9 pan and it turned out perfectly but other recipes mentioned using and 8x8 or even a 9x11 and they all turned out. I did not slice the butter - I just laid the whole stick right on top. When you take time to stir the rice at the 30 minute mark, the butter is melted and can be fully incorporated at that point. Now, here's my "sneaky" moment - there is one person in my household who doesn't care for chunks of onion in things but this recipe calls for 1 can of condensed French onion soup which is full of (wonderful) onions. I drained the soup into the rice so I still had all the flavor but none of the onions!
These will both become more frequent residents in my menu rotations! They are both so tasty and also easy to throw together!