Ginger Veggie Stir Fry

My parents were coming to dinner and I wanted to make something good and vegetarian because I'm just not liking to eat meat these days and I found this recipe and tried it. I loved it! I've made it several times since. It's easy and one can use pretty much any vegetables they happen to have and so flavorful! I love fresh ginger so I used that generously in this dish.

Ingredients
1 T. cornstarch
1 1/2 cloves garlic (I doubled this)
2 t. chopped fresh ginger (divided) - (I at least doubled this)
2 c. broccoli florets
1/2 c. snow peas
3/4 c. julienne carrots
2 T. soy sauce
1/2 c. green beans
2 1/2 T. water (I needed more like 4 or 5 T.)
1/4 c. chopped onion
salt to taste

In a bowl blend cornstarch, garlic, 1 t. ginger, 2 T oil until cornstarch dissolves. Mix in veggies and toss to lightly coat.
Heat 2 T. oil in skillet over medium heat. Cook veggies about 2 minutes stirring constantly. Stir in soy sauce and water. Mix in onion, salt and remaining ginger. Cook til veggies are tender but still slightly crisp.
Serve over brown rice.
I made once with chicken diced up and added and diced, marinated tofu as well.
119 calories per serving for veggie mixture.

I have also used bell pepper and pea shoots...whatever veggies I have.

Football

Gavin LOVED playing football this year. It was his first year to play football and he did outstanding. I really don't like to watch professional sports because I feel like I don't even know those people and why would I care at all if they win or lose. But I very much enjoy watching my kids play sports.

Family Pictures

We took these family pictures in December and I'm just getting around to posting a few of them now. They were so much fun. We went to the Point Pinos Lighthouse in Pacific Grove for a look I love. Our photographer was very cool. It's so hard to get four kids to all look at a camera and smile! I'm so grateful to have yet another great family picture though.

(Micah stuck his hands in his pocket of his own accord...too funny.)

Took some of just my sweet Albert and me.

Took some individuals too.

So vintage-vibe cute! What a heart breaker!

Gavin is our ninja boy. This is so him!

Sweet Linnea. Notice how her hair is starting to curl up!?

We got a smile out of Jacen! Yay! Not an easy task to do with an almost 16 year old.

New Years Eve

We invited Tera and her kids over and started with dinner and dessert. Then I got out these crackers that I had bought for Christmas and forgotten about them. Apparently they are a UK tradition. They were fun. When you open them, they crack pretty loud and spark. Then inside are jokes and trivia and a game piece in which to play games. So we did that for a while.

Micah was kind of hesitant to open his but eventually did.

We played a guessing game that is called Some Dum Goy (a family game) that is similar to Guesstures or Catch Phrase. I think Gavin looks transparent here becuase he was jumping up and down in his excitement. The girls won. (:Sparklers...but don't tell. They are illegal here.

Then we toasted in the new year with sparkling apple cider.

Looks like Micah has had enough.... (: