Never say die!

Alright ladies, consider this your official bum-whooping. :)

Before Kristi moved to Florida, she and I had a little chat and decided that we weren't going to let this blog die. The agreement was that I would do my best to post some dinner entrees and she would post all her breakfasts of goodness recipes. (I smile just thinking about those pumpkin pancakes!)

I was going to try and start posting pictures with my recipes, but last night when I made the recipe that I'm going to post, I totally forgot. That might have had something to do with the fact that it was 8:45pm and I was just starting dinner (!) and because I had been wearing Lily in the backpack for like the past 3 hours straight and I was losing my mind due to fatigue and muscle strain. ;)

Pictures aren't required, but recipes/cooking tips, etc are. So get to it.

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Here is the recipe for the Chicken and Vegetable Summer Stir-Fry we had last night. Originally, I didn't know exactly what I was going to make for dinner last night, but I had chicken thawed. And we had a bunch of vegetables from the garden sitting in our fridge that needed to be used - corn, bell peppers, tomatoes. I also had carrots in the fridge. Voila! Slice the vegetables and start the rice before you begin cooking and this is a pretty simple meal to put together.

Chicken and Vegetable Summer Stir-fry

-1 T vegetable oil

-2-3 cloves minced garlic

-1 T minced fresh ginger (I didn't have any fresh ginger on hand and used dried ginger powder)

-1 lb chicken, cut into strips

-1 medium onion, diced

-2 cups shredded or sliced carrots

-1 large green bell pepper, seeded and sliced into small strips

-2 ears of corn, with kernels shaved off

-1 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half

*** you can get creative and adapt this to your tastes/what you have in the fridge by substituting different vegetables: broccoli, sugar snap peas, red pepper, zucchini, etc.

-1/4 cup soy sauce

-2 tsp. corn starch

-1 cup chicken broth

Heat oil in wok or large skillet over med-high heat. Add garlic and ginger and cook 1 minute. Add chicken and cook 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly. Add onions, carrots, and peppers and cook 1 minute. Add corn (or other vegetables, but not tomatoes yet!) and cook 2 minutes. Add soy sauce and cook 2 minutes, until vegetables are crisp tender.

Dissolve corn starch in chicken broth in a small bowl and then add to pan. Simmer two minutes, until sauce thickens. Add tomatoes just before removing from pan to bowl. Serve over rice.