Second Time Around

Sooo I decided to cook a meal that I haven’t cooked in a very long time. Mongolian Beef. The last time I attempted to cook this meal was during our first year of marriage and to make a very short story even shorter….it was an epic failure. It was way too sweet and the meat was too tough. Although my first attempt didn’t come out so good, I decided to give it a try –again -yesterday. We don’t eat Chinese cuisine often so I was sort of craving this dish and I am not afraid of a challenge and trying something again. So, during my bi-weekly mini grocery haul I picked up a few items that I needed, wrote out the menu on the menu board in the kitchen, and was ready to conquer the task ahead! I set my station up and I had my little assistant (my toddler) so I was all set to go. These are the ingredients I used. I forgot to take a picture of the beef, sweet peppers, and onions.

I’m glad I gave this recipe a second try. It was so delicious! Not too sweet but just right. The soy sauce with the peppers and fresh green onions were divine together. I forgot to pick up Lo Mein noodles so I used linguine instead. The hubby wasn’t too ecstatic about the linguine noodles so he opted for rice instead. I kept insisting that he try the linguine and he kept insisting that I try it with the rice he whipped up really quick. I have to be honest; the rice was way better with the beef! I promise my husband makes the best rice I have ever had…well besides my grannies. His rice is was so delicious that I stashed some in a container and placed it in the fridge to eat today. Let me know if you want his rice recipe. It is not hard at all, plus he went to school for culinary arts so a lot of my recipes and dishes come from his teaching down through the years.

Anyways, I hope you feel inspired to get in the kitchen and try a new dish this week or try an old recipe again that didn’t come out right. Don’t be afraid to try something new or simply try something again. Plus how will you ever get better at something if you quit the first time it doesn’t work. It’s amazing the simple life lessons we can learn from simple daily task such as cooking dinner.

Let me now if you want the recipe I will post it later.
Also, the ingredients you see in the picture all were purchased for great prices.

Green onions were .89 at Aldi
Corn Starch .65 at Aldi (might be off by a few cents)
Soy Sauce $1.18 at Walmart (might be off by a few cents)
Ginger root .65 at Publix
Beef $7.65 for 1.42lbs
Linguine buy one get one free from Publix a few weeks back, so I paid $1.99 I believe for two.
We already had brown sugar at home.


So, adding up what I purchased during my min grocery haul, this meal cost me under $12. I made enough to feed 4 to 5 people. Simple and savvy!