Beef Broccoli

It's Chinese food night at the house. I prepared beef broccoli, home made wontons soup and spicy green beans with a bowl of jasmine rice. Yes, this does take some coordinating and time and it is harder than picking up that phone and ordering in Chinese.
But when you are feeding a family of 3 which includes a toddler, I like the idea of cooking it at home. I know what goes into it with no MSG used.

Beef broccoli is a fairly simple dish and you can customize it however you want; you can add bell peppers, mushrooms or even baby corns depending on how you want it. Or omit beef and go with tofu for the vegetarian option.

You need:

• Strips of beef


• Broccoli


• 1 tbsp. soy sauce


• 1/2 tbsp. corn starch


• 1/2 tbsp. sesame oil


• 1/2 tsp. mirin or cooking wine (this part you can omit if you don't have at home)


• 1/2 cup. chicken broth
  
• Soy sauce (to be mixed in with chicken broth)


• 1/2 tbsp. of corn starch (also mixed in with chicken broth)

Marinate the beef in soy sauce, sesame oil, miring and corn starch. Let stand for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut up the broccoli and any other vegetables you want to add.

Heat the wok and grease the wok with vegetable oil. Cook the beef until almost done and take it out of the pan. Clean the pan and add oil. Stir fry the broccoli and add in little bit of salt. Don't over cook it at this point because we want to add the beef in with 1/4 cup of chicken broth mixed in with tiny dash of soy sauce and corn starch to thicken the sauce.

Stir fry for few minutes so the broccoli doesn't overcook. You want the broccolis to still have that strong green colour not the wilted green.

Serve with rice or noodle.

Baked spicy chicken wings

Who doesn't love chicken wings, unless you are a vegetarian or a vegan. Sometimes I just crave a good chicken wing and these wings are finger licking good especially with the sweet and spicy sauce on them.

Baked sweet and spicy wings

• chicken wings (tips removed)


• flour


• onion powder


• garlic powder


• cayenne pepper


• salt


• fresh ground pepper

Sauce:

• 1/4 C. of butter


• 1/4 C. of honey


• 1/4 C. of Frank's hot sauce or any other type hot sauce

Mix the flour, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Coat the chicken wings and refrigerate them for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Add the honey and hot sauce and stir them to mix. Turn off the heat and pour them over the chicken wings.
Spread them on a baking sheet and bake them for an hour.

Yummy Roasted Cauliflower

I never used to like Cauliflower. I never knew how to cook it before. But ever since I found this recipe, I love them. And does my little toddler and they are super easy to make.

Here is what you need:

• Cauliflower
  
• Olive oil
  
• 1/2 Tbsp. Curry powder
  
• 2 Tsp. Cumin powder
  
• 1 Tsp. Paprika powder
  

You can adjust the amount of the powder depending on how seasoned or spicy you want your Cauliflower to be.

Turn the oven on at 350F. Wash and cut up the cauliflower into smaller pieces and spread them out onto the baking sheet.

Mix all the powder together. Sprinkle them over the cut up cauliflower. Drizzle olive oil over them. (You can be generous with the olive oil).

Put the baking sheet into the oven for 15-20 minutes.

And you will have delicious roasted cauliflower with the added health benefits of curry powder.