An ETL chinese dish and a new addition

First of all, I hope all of you are having a fantastic weekend with someone that makes your heart sing!
I have been cleaning and I found an awesome CD at Hastings, our local book/music store. Walk the line, soundtrack featuring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon! It is cute and fun to clean to!!! We have been getting ready for round 2 of the buffet/hutch mishap that I wrote about in a previous post, that I cannot find. But it is beautiful and black and large and will hold all of my most favorite china and crystal. It is going to be delivered to me on Thursday and I promise (fingers crossed) that I will take pictures of it, if it is in one piece this time.

I have been going through my kitchen and sorting out spices that are out of date, things we no longer eat and basically just spring cleaning the cabinets. I finally threw out all of my salt....It nearly killed me. I loved it so much....boo hoo....

On Thursday I received a called from a friend who took a dog off of freecycle (frecycle is a place to get free things) about 2 months ago. The dog was rescued from an abusive home by a couple and then given away twice, due to "issues" that no one could deal with, like messing in the house, being skittish, and generally just old and under foot. Well, my friend is good hearted but she isn't very responsible when it comes to caring for animals and she likes to take animals she can't handle only to get rid of them a few months later, it drives me crazy... This time she said she could not handle her, due to her illness', large boxers, and 4 children, so I said I would take her...
Little did I know what I was signing up for........

A WHOLE LOT OF LOVE AND CUTENESS!

This is Coco... She is 6-8 years old.

Her full name is Shimmy Coco puff and she is a llhaso Apso. When I got her she was actually grey and her coat was matted and she smelled horrible. She came in with ear mites so bad that her skin was being eaten and caked with blood and filth. Her "natural color turned out to be this beautiful fawn color with white. She has a lovely under bite that makes her look like she is smiling. She is good tempered and a happy dog. Amazingly, Chi my chihuahua, likes her, the cats cuddle her and she goes potty outside. She even listens to me and let me tend to her poor ears without biting or running away. At night she curls up on the bed next to Chi, Chris and I and watches TV, then dozes of and snores the cutest snores. I think she was meant to be ours, I am just sorry she had to suffer so, I am grateful we found her.

I think she is finally happy. She has found her forever home and we love her very much!

This morning was the usual green smoothie. I used 2 banana's, 3 leaves if kale, 1 whole orange the I peeled, 1 tsp. ginger, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tbls. flax and 16 oz of ice and a splash of water. This makes two nice size smoothies, I drink less than Chris. I use a pint jar and uses a full 20 oz glass for his.

Later I was hungry and just wanted veggies. For my snack, I had about 1 tbls. of guacamole with some carrots and cucumber!

Kaiti requested chinese for lunch, how could I deny my child something so healthy? I couldn't...silly! I instantly thought...CHOP SUEY! Even though I have never made it, I though it can't be that hard, so why not make up something new, it might be terrific!

Here is what I did.

Chop Suey

5 carrots cut on the diagonal

3-4 cups bean sprouts

2 stalks celery, cut on the diagonal

2 baby bok choy, sliced thinly

1/2 yellow onion, sliced thinly

1 tsp. hoisin

1 tsp. garlic chili sauce, with no salt or sugar

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce

5 raw whole almonds, chopped

In a large skillet, water saute your onion, carrots and onions until crisp tender, about 5 minutes. Add in your bok choy and stir for about 2 minutes or until wilted, toss in bean sprouts and sauce. Stir fry until all the vegetables are crisp tender an the sauce is mixed well. Serve over rice if desired. We ate ours as is. Top with chopped almonds.

I found this at the asian market, it is made without sugar or salt!!!! BONUS!

Here is the finished product.

It was crunchy and satisfying. I will definitely make this again! Served over some brown rice would be perfect. It is totally ETL approved and I am sure it will become a favorite go to meal for us in the future. Total cook time was about 30 minutes and it served 3 nice size portions.

Well I am off to make dinner now and finish mopping our yellow room. The last room to be mopped today! YAY!

I still haven't decided what I am making for dinner, I am more lax on the weekends. I am thinking a huge salad and maybe some risotto...

~

WHAT ARE YOU MAKING FOR DINNER?

HAVE YOU ADOPTED AN ANIMAL LATELY?

~

Talk to you all soon!

Viv~