We are having another girl and I have an awesome recipe!

The second ultrasound was a little more successful than the first. I was able to see in between the legs and could tell there wasn't anything there. Who knows though. Something could grow between here and when I finally have her. Now we are at a cross roads. The name we picked out for a girl is Linnea. I think it's a really pretty name but I also like the name Elsa. My sister in law Rachel liked that name too but her husband shot it down. Free game right? So, my question to you is Linnea or Elsa? I get to pick the first name and then Jacob gets to pick the middle name.

The other night I tried a new recipe. It's a stir fry recipe and we LOVED it! We invited our neighbor over to eat since it made a lot of food. The recipe is called Cashew Beef Stir-fry. Here it is:

2 Tbs cornstarch
2 cups cold water
4 Tbs. soy sauce, divided
1 bunch broccoli, chopped
3 medium carrots, julienned
2 Tbs. canola oil, divided
1 lb. boneless beef sirloin steak, cut into thin strips
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp pepper
2 medium green peppers, cut into strips
2 medium sweet red peppers, cut into strips
2 medium onions, laved and sliced
1 yellow summer squash, sliced
1 1/2 cups salted cashews
Hot cooked rice

In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch, water and 2 Tbs soy sauce until smooth; set aside. In a very large skillet or a wok, stir-fry broccoli and carrots in 1 Tbs. oil until vegetables begin to soften. Add the beef, garlic, pepper and remaining soy sauce; stir-fry until meat is no longer pink. Remove and keep warm.

In the same pan, stir-fry the green and red peppers, onions and squash in remaining oil until crisp-tender. Return beef to the pan. Stir cornstarch mixture and add to the pan. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in cashews. Serve with rice. Yield: 7 servings. Prep/total time: 30 minutes.


My suggestion for this recipe would be to double the cornstarch mixture. There wasn't enough sauce. I would thicken the sauce a little more with some more corn starch as well. I didn't have summer squash of course so I just omitted it. I think more broccoli would taste good too. I totally forgot to take a picture of this dish before we ate it. We had this for dinner 2 nights and Jacob was able to take enough for his lunch the next day.



In other news... Emma has her big girl bed!! Jacob went and picked it up after work yesterday and Emma and I went shopping for bedding. We found some at Shop-Ko (one of my favorite stores). The bedding was all 50% off! Gotta love that! Emma found Dora sheets right away that I had overlooked. While looking for a comforter set I found one on clearance for over half off. It goes perfectly with the Dora sheets and is reversable! I got the sheets, comforter set and mattress cover for $74. Not too shabby!

Emma was really excited about her bed until it was bed time. She was scared to sleep in it. I could see why she was scared. She went from a little crib to a full sized bed (we skipped the twin). That's pretty intimidating. She was afraid that she would fall off and Jacob and I assured her that she wouldn't fall off. Then she couldn't decide which pillow she wanted to sleep on. She cried off and on for about 45 minutes until she finally crashed. This morning she was EXTACTIC about her bed (thus the last picture). Notice the Dora pjs. She HAD to wear them last night.

Going from a baby crib to a big girl bed was an emotional ordeal for me. I didn't think it would be a big deal but as I was tucking Emma into her new bed I found myself crying! I felt so ridiculous! But my little baby is growing up now. She looks so tiny in her new bed and yet so grown up. Next year she will be in Primary and that just doesn't seem possible to me. The time sure has flown by fast! I love my little 2 year old.