Smokies with potatoes and broccoli

Totally uninspired, I resorted to just throwing a bunch of ingredients together resulting in something I call Smokies with potatoes and broccoli. First, boil ...

6-7 small red potato nuggets till tender, slice and set aside. Brown

3 sliced Bavarian smokies with a little canola oil, then add

1 large onion sliced, saute till softened. Add

1 head of broccoli cut into bite size pieces. Lastly, add

1 can of Campbell's broccoli and cheese soup with

1/2 can of water. Stir till heated through and well mixed. Cover and simmer till broccoli is a little tender. Serve with freshly ground black pepper.

Stir-fried Vietnamese beef noodles with sugar snap peas

Tonight's dinner was a hit with my hunny.

700g Thinly sliced tender beef marinated with

1/3c Sweet chili sauce

1/3c Oyster sauce and

1/4c Fish sauce.

Use half of the mixed sauce and set aside remainder for later. Lightly saute the marinated beef and set aside. I used ...

500g Hokkien noodles which I blanched for a few minutes in hot water. Then sauteed

1 sliced medium onion in the same pan with

1-2c sugar snap peas till slightly tender.

Then return the beef to the pan with the noodles and remainder of sauce. Cook till heated through and serve with fried onions as garnish. Ready in minutes.

A new interest - Wall Tatoos

Since watching Designer Guys use this technique of wall tatoos in one of their episodes on HGTV, I have been obsessing over them. Over the net, large wall tatoos can be purchased but these do not come cheap nor have I found the design I want. So I decided to try to make my own stencil ...for a wall tatoo. I'm not the greatest artist but I am really pleased with my efforts. I used a large piece of Christmas wrapping, free handed the design, cut it with a pen knife and gently afixed it to the wall with painter's tape. I used a small roller to get the paint on the stencil and I just love the results. This tatoo measures 2'x4'.

Another inspiration for my wall tatoo was my visit to the Bay's cosmetics gala event a girlfriend invited me to, when I got a henna tatoo. Its actually fading with all the washing up after each meal.

A lunch menu from my kitchen

What an absolutely georgeous day, in beautiful British Columbia. My day started of with a lovely surprise from my hunny, Renovation Man.....doughnuts from Tim Hortons! For most living in Canada, Tim Horton's coffee and doughnuts are a staple in their everyday menu. (www.timhortons.com) Not so for my hunny and I. We try to eat and live healthy so a box of doughnuts is a very rare find in our home...

Lunch came surprisingly too fast. But I had purchased some black pepper pork chops from T&T (a large oriental grocer in the Lower Mainland http://www.tnt-supermarket.com/main-e.php) last night and thought that would be a nice and quick meal with yau choy and egg noodles in an asian sauce. It sure hit the spot. Unfortunately, in my excitement to get to the food, I forgot to take a picture of this yummy lunch.

This is certainly not a typical Canadian nor North American lunch and to some may sound like something one may have for dinner. But in South East Asia (which is where I am from), that meal could be for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I am certainly used to having a hot meal for lunch so although a soup and salad would suffice or even a sandwich, my preference would be a hot meal of some kind.

Tonight's menu is a stir-fried Vietnamese beef noodles with sugar snap peas.