Been Busy

Gosh, life took a busy turn when my college boy left after the holidays!  Well, the last week with him here was very busy as one of his roommates came to Japan and we finally went out and saw some sights.  So, here are some great photos of the time while my college boy was visiting. 

Me after walking down a grueling hill!!

My two loves eating Shabu Shabu

My teen asleep on the train... next to a sleeping Japanese guy!

My college boy taking photos... not easy when he kept climbing down to the river to take the pictures!

College boy holding up a whale outside of the Natural History Museum!

Japanese National Museum and the guys leaving me!!

 Lastly, I'd love to leave you with a yummy dinner that I made tonight! 

Dinner!!

Beef Stir Fry:
1 skirt steak - cut in 1/2 then into strips against the grain
1 zucchini - cut in half then thin slices
1/2 onion - cut into thin slices
8 baby carrots - thinly sliced
1/2 head cauliflower
3 cloves garlic - minced
2 tsp grated ginger
1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

Melt some coconut oil in a wok style frying pan over medium high heat and add onions and carrots, fry until the onions turn translucent and add the zucchini, 1/2 garlic and 1/2 ginger.  Keep cooking until zucchini are crisp-tender, not mushy!  Remove from pan and set aside.

Melt either more coconut oil or preferred grease (mine is bacon grease I've clarified) and begin stif frying the thin strips of beef.  Add the rest of the garlic and ginger, some reduced sodium gluten-free soy sauce and about 1/4 cup water.  Let the meat finish cooking by boiling in the liquid.  As the meat finishes, add the veggie mixture, orange juice and thickening agent (I had to use 2 tsp tapioca flour as I still haven't found arrowroot powder or kudzu, I'd recommend finding something Paleo like those two and not the tapioca, but in a pinch it's "ok"), cooking until the liquid thickens to a sauce and remove from heat.  If more liquid is needed, just add more water or OJ. 

Cook cauliflower by steaming in the microwave (or stovetop) for 3 minutes, so it's still crisp.  Run it through your food processor, or I used a Pampered chef chopper until it's finely grated and looks, well, like rice. 

Serve beef mixture over the "rice" and eat while still warm!  Hubby loved this, but I had to make him "real" rice for his... fine, saved me some cauliflower 'rice' for lunch tomorrow!!  Gotta like that!