Chicken Fried Rice and Egg Rolls

I am going to begin with my homemade chicken fried rice and egg rolls. I have never made either of them before so I was excited that these came out so yummy!

Egg Rolls:

1 lb. ground pork

1 head of cabbage

shredded carrots (about half a bag)

1 green onion (minced)

1 stalk celery (chopped)

garlic powder

pepper

soy sauce

package of egg roll wrappers

1 egg (beaten, to seal edges)

Cook your ground pork and drain on a paper towel. Next cut your cabbage in half and cut the hard center out. I then sliced the cabbage real thin and then cut it in half so the peices were not very long. After everything is cooked and chopped I mix in a bowl with the pepper, garlic powder and soy sauce. Adjust the taste to your liking. I then followed the directions on the back of the egg roll wrappers...lol I added aboout 2 tbs of filling to the egg roll wrappers, folded them and fried them in some vegetable oil. They really cam out very yummy!

Chicken Fried Rice:

2 boneless skinless chicken breast cut into pieces

3 cups cooked white rice

1 package frozen peas and carrots

1 onion (chopped)

2 cloves of garlic (minced)

2 eggs (scrambled)

soy sauce

seasame oil

I cut my chicken into pieces and cooked it up in the skillet with some sesame oil. After the chicken was cooked thru I took it out and let on some paper towels. I then added some more oil and added the onion and garlic and cooked for about 30 seconds. I then add my cooked white rice and peas and carrots. I mix everything together and add soy sauce to taste (I also added a littl sweet and sour sauce). After everything looks good I make a spot in the center of the pan and scramble the eggs. After those are scrambled I mix it all together and add the chicken.

Serve and enjoy!

Kitchen/Dining Room Inspiration

Update: I am going to look at cupboards tomorrow and start pricing them. Michael told me that if that is too expensive then I can paint them and get new hardware for them...maybe even just get new cupboard doors! Yay!

I currently have a red kitchen/dining area and I am now wanting a neutral area that bright and I can decorate with many different colors. I also have these awful wood cabnits that are all beat up and really need to be refinished....but we don't have the money for that at the moment so I was thinking about taking the doors off, sanding them down and painting them white myself. I know it would take some work but I would really like to give it a try. The hard part is going to be convincing my husband. I am also wanting to tear down the backsplash and replace it with something that doesn't look like it popped out of the 70's (it's yellow!!!).

Here is my kitchen. We need to replace the vent hood above the stove (it's that nasty yellow color too) but we are wanting to modify the cupboard above the stove so we can put a microwave up there. And I would love to put the lighting under the cabinets. Eventually we will get new countertops...but there is nothing wrong with mine so no hurry on that. I think that it would brighten up the whole kitchen and make it look bigger. Sorry I couldnt get the whole thing in...I have a L shaped kitchen with a breakfast bar on the right side which makes it a U shape. The fridge is over on the left side that is going to have to be replaced with a side by side. Right now it is just too small for all my cooking needs. And I want to get new bar stools for the breakfast bar. Mine are from the 80's! And I would love too replace the cupboards above the countertops so that they are more functional...we will see.

And here is my dining area. Don't get me wrong...I love my red walls but I am thinking that something more neutral would be better. Plus I think that it would make it feel bigger. The dark walls make it seem so small sometimes and I feel like they are closing in around me. And I am wanting to get the round table (as you may remember from Ready for Spring: Part 2). I can't forget window treatments! I don't even know where to start!

Here are a few that I found as inspiration...(I got all the pics from Cottage Living)

The only thing I liked about this picture was the color on the walls.

In this photo I love the fact that they used a dresser as a china hutch. I have been looking for a dresser to refinish and put in my kitchen. I can find one at an estate or garage sale a lot cheaper than I can buying one.

And in my last photo I love how it is so bright! That is what I want in my dining area (just on a much smaller scale). I would love to have that much space. I have two big windows that lets a ton of light in and when you have tons of sunshine you just feel happier.

Got started on the backyard today!

Update: I got what I could cut down from my side of the fence and saw that my neighbors were home so I went to talk to then about cutting down the parts on their side. We don't know each other that well so I was afraid that she would say no. She was really nice and I spent 30 minutes over there talking to her son while I cut down all that I could from her side. Her husband came outside and told me that this weekend he would cut down the two that were on his side of the fence. Yay! Tomorrow I am going to cut the parts that have grown into my yard for him. I am so excited that they will be gone.

Here are a few pictures of my backyard today. I have started working on it becuase you can see how bad it looks. There is so much junk back there that I feel like the biggest pack rat. I can't wait to have a backyard that the kids can play in and a porch that I can relax on.

This is a picture looking at the porch. I have a new screen door sitting in my garage that I am going to try to put on myself before I ask my husband to do it. We have 2 grills...so one of them is going in the garage sale or to one of his friends. The dog house is going to be torn down and thrown away since we do not have any dogs anymore. The stove is going to go in the trash. It's been almost 6 months since I got a new one. There is some firewood on the side that you can't see that I will be moving further back. I am going to trim back the trumpet vines that are hanging over the fence from the neighbors yard. There is another small spot in the far left corner by the door that we are going to concrete in and put the grill over there. And where the grill and the dog house are is where I am going to put my patio furniture. And eventually I would like to screen the porch in...but that is for another time.

These are the bushes that blooms really pretty purple flowers when it rains or it is going to rain. They just need to be trimmed back since there is no way we are going to be able to pull them out anytime soon. Maybe we can find a clever way to get them out.

This is the trumpet vine that I have been working on today. Granted, it is really pretty in the summertime but I really want to plant a garden in this little area.

This is what I have done so far. I had to stop and wait on the neighbors to get home becuase I have to see if it is okay to cut down the part that is on their side on the fence. I do not want it to grow back and I am hoping that they won't have a problem with it. It was a ton of work becuase there were so many vines inertwined that it was hard to find where one began and the other ended. Then I have to water the roots so we can dig them up. After this I only have one more to cut down! Yay!

Salad and Sunshine

There is nothing better on a warm day than a nice cold refreshing salad and a glass of sweet tea. Today for lunch I sat down and enjoyed lunch with boys. I couldn't help but notice how nice it is outside so I am going to go work on the backyard for a little bit. Right now it is 84* outside! I know I live in Texas and it is supposed to be hot, but so early?!? The first day of spring isn't until the 20th but I think it has come early this year. The trees are blooming and the flowers are looking so pretty. I don't want to get too excited about the nice weather though because every year we have atleast on really hard freeze right before or right after the start of spring. Plus I have to make room for that new patio furniture!

Blog Makeover

I have been working on my blog and making over a few things... I hope that you all will like the changes i've made and the ones that are comming!

Ready for Spring: Part 2

Update: I added a pic of the patio furniture that I am thinking about getting. I found it at Wal Mart last night.

Now that I have a few minutes since the kids are down for a nap I can finish my thoughts from earlier.

With the weather around here warming up quickly and it reaching almost 90* on most day it has me thinking of spring. I love the spring becuase the flowers bloom and we usually get rain which is a welcome site in these parts. It also means that it is time for my bi-annual cleaning mission. Every spring (and fall) I go through all the closets and cupboards and clean out the stuff we havn't used or don't need to make way for all the things that I will end up buying and to hold a yardsale to make a few extra bucks.

This year my #1 main goal is to make my backyard beautiful! We have always had dogs and our backyard has always looked like poop. So since we don't have any dogs anymore I have decided that this is the year to have a beautiful yard (front and back). We laid sod last year so now all I have to do is get it to grow back and the grass situation will be good. We have a few trumpet vines that I am going to cut down so I can plant a garden where they are. I think this we are going to plant blackberry and raspberry bushes. I absolutly love fresh berries! We also have this monstosity of a dog house that I can't wait to get rid of...then I will have a patio again (it's small, but better than nothing) that I can put a sitting area so we can enjoy being outside too.. I would like to get the boys a sandbox this year. I know they would love to have a place to play that is not indoors. There is so much I could just go on and on...so I will just post pictures as I go!



This year my other main goal it to finish my kitchen. Since we painted the walls red I am wanting to do a whole country type theme. I love idea of having fresh flowers and fresh baked pies and lemonade all around. I've always wanted to live in the country, but for now this is the closest i'm going to get. I want to trade in my square kitchen table in for a round one. We always have friends over and it would be nice for us all to be able to sit at the same table and eat. A round table just makes everything flow better. I found an idea in Better Homes and Gardens and fell in love with it. I also want to hang up some shelves to put little nick-nacks on, I would like to get pretty window treatments bacuse I don't have any at the moment and lastly I really want to get a microwave that goes above the stove...but that will take some work. I will post pictures of this project in the making as well...

Well I am going to get off of here now so I can get started cleaning my house today before my dear hubby gets home from work.

Ready for Spring: Part 1

Last night my hubby came home from working all day and he wanted to go look at chainsaws?!? That's a man for you! Well I lucked out because they also had all of their lawn and garden stuff out and it sent me into a brainstorming whimsey.

Just a little background: We bought our house just after we got married 4 years ago and with 1 boy born shortly after that and the 90 hour work weeks and then another baby we really havn't had time or money to much of anything with it. So we have started on the little things.

The weather is warming up nicely here so my friend and I are starting the whole 'spring cleaning' thing. I have to get fertalizer and grass seed to spread throughout the front and backyard to help fill in the dead spots and make it green and luch again. And since we dont have a dog anymore I am getting rid of the dog house that takes up half the porch. Then the bushed need to be trimmed and the trumpet vines need to be cut down so I can plant my garden.

We love to grill so I am going to fix up my porch so we can sit out there and then get a sandbox for the kids. But those are my visions as of now...Oh ya, I can't forget we are going to finish painting the living room!

After the store we went to eat and ended the night at our friends house having a heated re-match of monopoly. The guys ended up winning....again! And i'm not sure how because we had so much money...lol But I have to say there is nothing like a few beers and a game of monopoly with friends!