Low Carb Stir Fry

Drew and I are both fans of Asian cuisine so I decided to cook low carb stir fry last week. Drew ate his over rice which looked pretty appetizing! My favorite part of stir fry is the vegetables so I always prepare more veggies than meat.

I used: sliced carrots, broccoli florets, sliced bell peppers, sliced onions, bean sprouts and whole snow peas.

We purchased the pre-sliced steak strips available in the meat section of most grocery stores, appx 1 pound.

I added all if the veggies to the wok (medium-high heat) with a little bit of evoo and 2 tablespoons of water and cooked until they were almost completely tender, stirring often.  Then I added the steak strips and let everything cook for about 3 minutes (meat will cook quickly). At this point I reduced the heat added the stir fry sauce and stirred constantly for 2-3 minutes until it thickened up and coated all of the vegetables completely.

Sauce: 3 tablespoons of chicken broth
1.5 tablespoons of soy sauce
3-4 packets of splenda
1 teaspoon of corn starch.
stir all ingredients together until corn starch is dissolved before adding to wok.
This made about 4 servings. Enjoy!

Misc Mountain Stuff

Here are a few of the highlights from our trip to Gatlinburg! 


We went to the aquarium and we were both pleasantly surprised at how nice it was given that it is so far away from an ocean (much better than the one in San Francisco). They even had a penguin display area! AND it was basically deserted = awesome! 

This was the best part about the aquarium - the underwater tunnel was great! notice the saw fish sleeping on the top and that there are no other people in the tunnel; literally a ghost town!

Drew and I were mesmerized by this fella.

Penguin - sleeping against the glass on their enclosure. 

Sleeping on the job. 

We went to Dollywood on the 1st day - SO EXPENSIVE!  Not sure that I would go back again, however, she open Dollywood's Splash Country next door to the main park and that looked pretty promising! ;)

We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Restaurant on our last night in Gatlinburg, I had bruchetta and a side salad and Drew had a massive cheeseburger and onion rings ...mmmmhh. 

We also rented go karts at a track in Pigeon Forge and rode this bad-boy. Good idea at the time, it was so rough and bumpy I had to go back to the room, take a swig of pepto and lay down... ooh how times have changed!

Smoky Mountains National Park

Our inner nature enthusiast came out in full-force while we were in Gatlinburg. We spent a lot of time exploring the park especially because one of the entry gates was about a tenth of a mile from our hotel. The first day we hiked 5 miles to Rainbow Falls (we were ill prepared; no water or snacks and we had the wrong shoes). Here are some pictures from the first day of hiking:

This was about  a mile into the hike.

The second day we spent a couple of hours in the car riding around the park (looking for bears). We did not see any bears but we saw several beautiful rivers and streams.

The last day we decided that we were going to get up early in the morning and go hiking on the Grotto Falls trail which is only 3 miles round trip. After driving less than a mile into the park we saw a black bear crossing in front of us! It was neat to see although I was expecting it to be much larger than it actually was. After seeing the bear I was pretty much freaked out about hiking. Drew coerced me into going anyway so I spent the next 30 minutes constantly looking behind us making sure a bear was not charging us. About a 1/5 of a mile from the top we come across a fresh pile of bear poop. Game over. I was not going any further and we made it back to the car in record time.



Gatlinburg

Drew and I went to the Smoky Mountains this past week/end, we had a lot of fun getting away for a few days with one another (this was only the 2^nd trip we have taken without family or friends joining us – the 1^st trip being our honeymoon). This was my first trip to the mountains so after doing a little bit of research we decided to stay at the Park Vista hotel in Gatlinburg. We left Wednesday evening after work and stayed the night in Spartanburg, SC and got up early the next morning and drove to Sevierville, TN to go to Dollywood. The weather was beautiful the entire time we were in Tennessee. We learned (several interesting facts) through observation about the Tennessee/Gatlinburg area an it’s inhabitants:


1.       The Gatlinburg area attractions are relatively expensive, but there is a lot to do and see. I think it would be a great place to visit with young children.
2.       May is a good time to visit if you have the Fennell-Syndrome (i.e., don’t like people or crowds). We never had to wait in lines or wait to be seated at restaurants! YES!
3.       Tennessee men have no qualms about wearing tank tops or cut-off t-shirts regardless of the occasion or weather.
4.       Tennessee people like their pancakes. It seemed like every other restaurant was a pancake establishment. (No complaints here!).
5.       Tennessee people have a distinct accent. Drew described it best: “it is a heavy southern accent with a hint of ‘I married my sister’ in the mix.”
6.       Normal waiters were far and few between.


Here are some pictures from the hotel:

This one just came off their website (I forgot to take a picture of the outside).

Hotel room - we were on the 11th floor.

This was the view from our balcony.

Weekend/Pictures

This weekend was relatively slow for Drew and I (just how I like it!). We had Scott, Laurie, Justin & Kim over on Saturday to tryout the outdoor kitchen; entertainment provided by Parker. The weather was nice and the gnats were surprisingly tame. Sunday evening Drew's parents and brother Ben & sister-in-law Kristin came over for dinner. We cooked-out again and I got to practice my photography skills on my nephew West for his 9-month-old pictures. Here are a few:

*Special thanks to Kim for the chalk art!

Pesto Chicken

We tried a new chicken dish last night that I saw on Food Network. It is called pesto chicken and it was  delicious and really simple to make. This recipe is being added to the 'will have to make again' list. The only complain I had would be the difficulty of finding pre-made pesto sauce at my local grocery stores (and by local I mean Waynesboro and Louisville). I did however find it in the refrigerated section at Costco in Augusta for only a few dollars.


Ingredients: 

• 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts halves
• 1/3 cup refrigerated Pesto with Basil
• 3 plum tomatoes, sliced
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Line baking sheet with heavy-duty foil.2. Place chicken and pesto in medium bowl; toss to coat. Place chicken on prepared baking sheet.3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in center. (I covered the chicken with tinfoil for the first 10 minutes).  Remove from oven; top with tomatoes and cheese. Bake for an additional 3 to 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.                

 

If the breasts would have been thinner this would have made a delicious panini!

*picture quality is not-so-great; I need to learn to stop using my cell phone camera!