Traveling Tuesdays!! China...again!

Yea yea yea...I decided to "go" to China again. Hey, the food is really good. :) This week I made Pork Chop Suey. I came across it really because it had a lot of ingredients that I needed to use up! In fact the whole weeks menu revolved around using things up. Heck, yesterday I made mashed potatoes with one baking potato, one yukon gold, and four red potatoes. It worked. It was tasty. Matt enjoyed it--not only for taste, but the frugality of it all! Usually when I make the menu up for the week I try to do a little bit of everything--fish, chicken, pork, beef. Keeps it interesting. So when I saw this recipe for Pork Chop Suey, I jumped on it! Here's how I did it:

PORK CHOP SUEY
Serves 4, 1 cup per serving

INGREDIENTS

1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons molasses, preferably blackstrap*
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
5 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
1 pound pork tenderloin, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4 inch thick pieces
1 medium onion, slivered
1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced
3 cups bean sprouts
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger*

Added:
1 tablespoon of chili garlic sauce (for some heat!) 
1 can of bamboo shoots (not very tasty straight from the can/not cooked...hey, I was curious!)
1 can water chestnuts (very tasty straight from the can! LOVE water chestnuts) 

Serving options:
Udon noodles or spaghetti noodles ( I used linguine!)

*Note: I used regular molasses as far as I know. I was lucky enough to find it in the commissary honestly! :) And I used crystallized ginger because I had it. Worked perfectly fine!

Piled Veggies

First things first. Before I even touched the pork, I did all the chopping which included the bell pepper, onion, and ginger. I drained the canned veggies and washed off the bean sprouts. Then I set everything aside!









The next thing I did was make the sauce. Which was super easy. Once the sauce is made, transfer about two tablespoons of it into a smaller bowl and add the cornstarch. Stir until well dissolved and set aside. Next thing was to slice the pork tenderloin.

Sauce with cornstarch

Slice the pork lengthwise and then into 1/4 inch thick pieces. Once this is done, add a tablespoon of canola oil to a large pan and cook the pork until it's not pink anymore.

After the pork has cooked, remove it from the pan and put it into a bowl or on a plate (you'll want any extra juice it gives off as it sits!). Add the other tablespoon of canola oil to the pan and cook all your veggies for about 3-4 minutes.

Veggies with the sauce

You then add your sauce (not the cornstarch one!) to the pan and bring it to a boil. Cook all of this for about 3 minutes, while stirring constantly.

Reduce your heat to medium and add the pork (and any accumulated juices) back into the mix along with your cornstarch mixture to thicken the sauce up! Serve all of it over Udon noodles or in our case linguine!

Matt let me take a pic of his food :)

Overall....YUMMY!!!!! It was really good. And easy! The total calorie count for one serving was 280 calories. Not too shabby! I served a salad on the side as usual. Love my salads! :) Here is the website if you want to try it out: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/pork_chop_suey.html and if you do, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!!

I thought I would also do some weekly recaps while I'm here. :) Let's see...not too much has been going on. Matt and I have been frequently starring houses on realtor.com. We have found a lot of homes we LOVE (read: that have great Jeni approved kitchens haha!) and are just having to play the waiting game since we are renting. There is a home that we are specifically eyeing and we are really hoping that it doesn't get snatched up. A lot of homes in the area that are slightly over our price range are starting to be reduced into our price range, which is exciting. Of course, the $6000/month house isn't being reduced. Darn. I totally wanted that indoor pool. Haha! In my dreams, right? The house is gorgeous. Sigh.

Matt and I were recently recruited by one of his instructors to play on his intramural volleyball team..why? Because we're awesome...that's why. :) We've played three games and it's been a lot of fun. Of course this makes me miss my volleyball playas on our SSC team (shout out to Begging for It! Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh...Oh myyyy...). This past Monday we played an all guy team (I'm one of three chicks on mine) and they were super tall ...well tall to me..haha! I would say Matt's height plus a few inches. We played really well as a team and won. Which was exciting because they weren't being very nice. One of the guys kept yelling "NOPE!" every time we lost a point. I didn't realize we were playing in the Olympics...hmm. :) We have to play them again next week. So crossing fingers that we win again.

This past weekend I got new shoes. This may seem like a random piece of information, however, you, my friend, were not wearing shoes that were literally falling apart as you ran. My heels are very happy. I was really excited to get them and after a week of working out twice a day, I can say that they are amazing! :) I'm pretty sure I hear my feet singing lovely songs each time I wear them! :)

I've been also looking/applying for jobs. I'm not really sure what I want to do since I'm planning on going to grad school hopefully starting in January 2013. I'm studying for the GRE while Matt studies for a test he's taking. I would prefer to be able to work while taking classes. I just don't want to get into something job wise that will prevent me from going to school. Meaning a straight forward type job that I enjoy, but doesn't follow me home at the end of the day. :) As of right now, I've figured out that I want to get my Masters in History and I have been also looking into doing Historical preservation work. I'm a firm believer in preserving our History for generations to come! As I'm sure a lot of people are. I think it's important for people to see where we've been. I think it'd be fun to work in that type of field...and teach Tudor History. Tudor History 101. :) I'm really nervous about taking the GRE because I'm not a very good test taker. I get really nervous and jittery. It's pretty bad. But I will study my booty off and hopefully do well. I plan on going to the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. We shall see. I am excited about going back to school. My brain needs stimulating! I actually miss school things such as taking notes or listening to lectures. I thought I would never say that!! 

Other than that, everything has been the same!! Animals are great. Matt's great. I'm great! :) Well I suppose I'll leave you alone for now. Hope you've enjoyed my updates! Have a lovely Mother's Day weekend!