Easy Japanese-Style Stir Fry

If you like oriental food but don't know how to make it, I have an easy recipe that you can use with just about any kind of meat and vegetables. It tastes a little salty-sweet and is pretty healthy.

Ingredients:

1 pound of meat (beef, chicken or pork) sliced thin or cut up small.
Various vegetables cut up in small pieces - whatever is in the refrigerator. I normally put things like:

1 onion
as much garlic as you like
1-2 carrots
1/2 green pepper
handfull of green beans
some broccoli
beans sprouts if I have them
cut up spinach is also good - put it in at the end
a few stalks of asparagus
*grated ginger is also good

Sauce

3 Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. sugar
2 Tbs. cooking sherry or mirin
small amount of dashi or chicken boulion granules
1 Tbs. sesame oil
2 tsp. corn starch


Directions:

Stir fry the vegetables in a large skillet until they are about half done. Remove them from the pan.
Stir fry the meat until done. Push it to the sides of the pan.
In the center, add the sauce and stir constantly until it is thick and bubbling.
Return vegetables to the pan and stir together.


Serve hot over white rice.

This dish is very tasty and if you cut the vegetables up very small your children will probably enjoy it as well.

Favorite Toys Don't Always Come From the Store

Although my children always want everything they see advertised on TV, the items they play with most are often strange things they find around the house.

Cardboard, in any shape or form, is always a favorite. Cardboard boxes, pieces of cardboard, or even toilet paper rolls. The scope of their imagination is amazing. Everything from forts and treasure boxes to signs and periscopes are created using this versatile material.

Some other items of interest are: rocks, flowers, bark, lids, corks, plastic strawberry containers, anything that can be made into a box, string, ribbons. The list goes on and on.

I do not give my children these items to play with. They pick them up, examine them, and come up with wonderful, unusual toys that keep their attention much longer than store-bought toys.

Make sure to always have glue, markers and children's scissors available and encourage creativity. Soon your house will be filled with the products of young, fertile imaginations!

Pretend Play

Young children love pretend play. It is important because it is one of the many ways they learn and grow. Playing chef, mommy and doctor are just a few of the many scenarios they come up with.

A big favorite with my children and their friends is dress-up. Even the boys join in, choosing cowboy hats, firemen's helmets, bandannas and capes. Since I have two girls, I keep all of their Halloween costumes in a large bin and add all of the additional sunglasses, bags and other accessories that migrate their way into our home. Just a scarf, hat and sunglasses is sometimes all it takes.

When children visit our home, the first thing they do is head upstairs for the dress-up box. An elaborate dressing-up commences and the costume of choice is worn for the entirety of their visit. There then ensue princess picnics, ballet dancing and doggy lassoing.

If you are looking for an activity that will provide hours of daily fun, try accumulating a box of your own. You will undoubtedly find amusement as well, when your children get into full dress-up mode.