Before I Hit the Hay.

I promised I would post these today and since I'm striving to be a woman of my word I had better do it now.

Let's see... where were we?

Stacy-

The simmer sauce is at the back to the left of the food sample station. If you get an Indian version it will go perfectly with your naan bread. It's so easy and I love it - I really prefer the spinach one the best. For the life of me I can't remember the exact name of it right now. They're in jars and you just add vegetables or meat and sometimes water and serve over rice.

Ok - I'm going to attempt my Chinese Noodles recipe even though I really just eyeball things. But, since I love you all so much and I know your lives will be richer having eaten this I will do it. But only for you. And you. Oh, and you reading... right there. I see Martha. And Jodi. And Amy... I see Stacy and Grace. I see Michele and someone from Gurnee, Illinois...(do you guys remember that show from when we were kids? ok - I must be really tired....)

Chinese Noodles

Oh man, I started this and now I'm re-starting it to hopefully make some more sense. Here's what I do.

I buy the 3 pack pork roast from Costco and take one of them and cut it up into small-ish strips. You can use whatever you want - just cut it up. Then I throw it in a big pot (think roasting pot, soup pot, wok - you get the idea) with quite a lot of crushed garlic and olive oil and maybe a little soy sauce. You can be creative - some fresh grated ginger might be good too. Maybe throw a little pepper in there.

After it's browned a bit add some beef broth and water. Or a lot of water with beef bouillon. Anyways, you want a lot of broth. Like maybe 10 or more cups - remember, you're making soup. Be sure not to overpower it with beef flavor though because you're gonna let this baby cook for a looooooong time so that all the yummy, garlicky, porky goodness makes it's way into the broth.

Bring it all to a boil and then turn it down and let it simmer for at least a couple hours. The longer it cooks the better it will taste. You want the pork to get nice and tender.

Once it's cooked long enough boil yourself up some Chinese egg noodles. Now, you'll have to look in the Asian food section at the grocery store for these. Make sure they are exactly what is written here: "Chinese Egg Noodles" Anything else is not the right stuff. Let's see if I can find a picture..... Yay! These are the exact ones I buy.
Usually about the time I go to put the noodles on I realize I should have hard-boiled some eggs so do that now too. And I just learned the most proper way to boil eggs from my MS Everyday Food Magazine. Add eggs to cold water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and let sit for 12 minutes. Perfect hard boiled eggs. I promise. I tried it.

While everything's boiling chop up some green onion and drag out your soy sauce again. Be sure and get some good soy sauce too - I like Kikkoman as far as store brands are concerned.

Once all is done boiling and the onions are chopped - serve the broth and pork over the noodles and top it off with sliced egg, green onion and lots of soy sauce. I know, it sounds totally boring but something about it is so delicious. Anyone I've ever served it to has loved it. Justin and his virgin artichoke taste buds even loves it. If you like spicy stuff I always think it would be fun to add some Sriracha. Let me know if you try it.

So to sum it all up:

Pork, fried with garlic and soy sauce
Add beef broth and water - simmer for a long time.
Boil eggs
Boil noodles
Chop onion
Serve it all up with soy sauce.
Maybe Sriracha

I have 9 minutes to go to make sure this post gets done today....

Karen's Bran Flax Muffins

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c flaxseed meal
3/4 c bran
1 c rapadura, sucanat sugar or 1/2 c honey
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 c shredded carrots
2 peeled apples, shredded
1/2 tsp almond extract (I may omit this next time)
1/2 c raisins
1 c chopped walnuts
3/4 c milk
2 beaten eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla (or 2 tsp like I accidentally dumped in last night)

Mix flour, flax, bran, sugar (or honey), baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots, apples, raisins and nuts. Separately, combine milk, beaten eggs and extracts. Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients. Stir until moistened. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

I'm gonna be honest here - I found some recipe posts lately about healthy food for kids but when I looked at the recipes they would include things like 2 cups of sugar, white flour, maybe throw in some oats... and I thought to myself, "Really? Healthy?" I wanted something that was as good as the oatmeal topped with all sorts of crazy stuff that I feed my kids every morning. So I e-mailed my friend Karen who is the smartest, health nuttiest friend I have and this is what she sent back to me. And it turned out SO great and really is truly healthy.

A couple tips for you:
1. I found cold pressed organic flax meal at Costco recently for like $10. I thought that was a heckofa deal.

2. Karen told me you can't leave these out on the counter for very long - not even in a plastic bag or glass container - because they'll mold really fast. They're really moist and don't have very much sugar in them to preserve them. She also said they freeze well.

Ok - did I make it? 12:01. Dangit. Oh well, a minute over's not bad. Enjoy! And let me know what you think.


ps. I'm a little worried because I think I've eaten like 6 of those muffins since I made them last night. All that bran.......