My Mondays have a bit of a routine and that has been off the past few weeks.  So today, it was time to get back to it (with the addition of printing 100’s of pages of outlines).  I slept in this morning and even fell back asleep after the BOY left the house early for the day.  More surprising is that Cooper let me fall back asleep.  Once my alarm went off around 9am, he came in for a cuddle.  I made breakfast and immediately got down to laundry/printing/tea drinking.  Yesterday’s study session revealed that I am WAY behind and I have A LOT to learn if I hope to be successful with this test.

But there is still housework to be done and food to be bought.  So I did a quick barre class before heading to Target (for printer cartridges and paper), Costco and the grocery store. 

Then came home to eat lunch (Asian salmon salad) while I folded laundry and threw tonight’s dinner into the crockpot.

As I studied throughout the afternoon, my house smelled like Chinese take out (yum!) which I would have much preferred to actually making dinner tonight. 

 

Cooper attempted to wrestle my ponytail and after the 15th time that he came pouncing across my notes, I got up and fed him his dinner.

When the BOY came home around 7:30pm, our dinner was hot and ready to go.  Thanks to my trusty crockpot of course.  So I made Kung Pao chicken, but I modified the recipe a bit.  Since the BOY doesn’t like zucchini, I subbed in a big container of Asian veggies.  See notes below…

Our dinner looked more like stirfry than Kung Pao chicken, and I am not sure if my cornstarch did it’s job.

But either way, dinner was delicious!  I ran through some note cards and after a long day of Mondayness was ready to finally unwind on the couch a bit to blog a bit, and I finally convinced the BOY to start watching The Blacklist.  Oh…the pilot is good!

What do you do on Mondays?

Do you watch the Blacklist?

Meal Planning 2/23/15

Monday: Kung Pao Chicken

Tuesday: Shrimp Fajitas

Wednesday: Burger Night

Thursday: Take Out (I’m thinking ‘tillos)

 

Crockpot Kung Pao Chicken

From Crème de la Crumb

Ingredients

• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• 2 teaspoon minced garlic

Sauce

• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon red chile paste (like Sriracha – found near Asian section in more grocery stores)
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• ⅓ cup water
• 2 tablespoons corn starch + 2 tablespoons cold water
• ⅓ cup peanuts
• optional: cooked rice, green onions

Directions

1. Drizzle a large sauce pan with oil and sauté chicken over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until browned
2. Add chicken to a greased slow cooker. In a bowl whisk together sauce ingredients: garlic, soy sauce, chile paste, vinegar, brown sugar, and ⅓ cup water. Pour sauce into the slow cooker. Cook on low 3-4 hours or on high 5-6 hours.
3. About 10-15 minutes before serving, drizzle a pan with oil and sauté peppers, zucchini, and garlic for 2-3 minutes until veggies are tender. Add to slow cooker. *See Note
4. Whisk together corn starch and cold water until dissolved. Add to slow cooker and stir. Allow to thicken for 5-10 minutes. Serve over rice and garnish with peanuts and green onions as desired.

*Note: I added my red peppers with the chicken and then stirred in the canned veggies and peanuts with the cornstarch.