Our Weekend

We've had a busy but fun weekend. Friday they delivered our new mattress! That's what Aaron got me for my birthday. Our other one was sagging really bad in the middle, and both of us were waking up with back aches every morning. The new one is a King Koil Plush, which we ordered online for a great price. We'll put a two inch memory foam on top of it one of these days, when we get around to buying one. But it was SO NICE to sleep on a flat surface. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. My boys thought they were in heaven too, but not because of the mattress...because of the box the mattress came in.

Also for my birthday, Aunt Debby and Uncle Richard and family gave me the Lion House Cookbook! I'm so excited, everything in there looks delicious. Friday night I decided to try the Beef and Seven Vegetables. It turned out really well. Aaron kept complimenting it over and over. And it was pretty easy to make too. You have to do a lot of chopping, but the cook part was simple enough. We chose to eat ours over rice, and it was amazing.

Beef and Seven Vegetables

1 Tbsp cooking oil
3 cups sliced cooked roast beef (about 1 1/2x2-inch strips), or 1 1/2 pounds fresh lean beef cut into strips
2 1/2 cups carrots, cut in thin slices
1 1/2 cups sliced green pepper
1 1/2 cups sliced onion
2 1/2 cups slant-cut celery
1 can (about 4 oz) bamboo shoots, drained
4 cups beef stock or 4 beef bouillon cubes and 4 cups water
1/2 to 3/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons cornstarch in 1/4 cup cold water
15 cherry tomatoes
1 cup fresh or frozen snow peas or broccoli florets
Cooked rice or Chinese noodles

Heat oil in frying pan. Add beef and brown lightly; remove meat. Add carrots and green pepper to pan; stir-fry for 1 minute. Add onions and celery; stir-fry for 1 minute. Add bamboo shoots. Remove vegetables and keep warm. Vegetables should remain crisp.

In a heavy pot, bring soup stock and soy sauce to a gentle boil; thicken with cornstarch-water mixture. Add tomatoes, snow peas or broccoli, stir-fried vegetables, and meat; heat gently. Serve over rice or Chinese noodles. Makes 8 servings.

Saturday we went up to Hooper for the monthly family potluck. My friend and visiting teaching companion, Rachel, was telling me all about these blond brownies the other day, where you use white beans in the ingredients. I thought it sounded awesome, because beans are really good sources of calcium, which I'm always looking for since Ivan doesn't drink milk, but I can't get him to eat plain beans. So I thought maybe if I hid them in brownies. So I tried it, and they turned out great! No one at the party even suspected there were beans in the brownies. :) I did end up telling them at the end. If you are interested in that recipe you can visit Rachel's blog.

The kids had a great time at Mom's, as usual. Ivan and Graham (Tanya and Nelson's oldest) got to be quite the little buddies, and played together all afternoon. They especially loved when Uncle Tanner gave them horsey rides.

Lincoln was really into Just Dance on the Wii. And he did well too. He was scoring points left and right. His favorite song is Shake Shake Shake Senora.

And Adi surprised us all by being a moving machine! We put her on the floor to play and she was rolling laps around the living room. She also got up on her hands and knees several times and started rocking back and forth. Aaron even saw her try to put one knee forward and then fall. (Not the greatest picture, but hey, it's proof!)

Also on Saturday we were able to give away our old mattress to someone for free, as opposed to having to pay $50 bucks to have someone come haul it to the dump, which we were very happy about. AND we packed 5 boxes. Books, of course, those are always the first thing to get packed up. So we've officially started moving. :)