Pepper Steak Stew

Yesterday, I decided to make a batch of leftovers stew. Leftovers stew is a stew (or soup) my husband and I will make when we want to use up the food about to go bad. Leftovers can come from previous meals or produce/dairy waiting to be used. Nothing edible is excluded from leftovers stew. Well, I generally don't add sweets, but I'm not sure if my husband ever has.

On this lovely Sunday, Pepper Steak Stew was born.

Ingredients
1 lb thinly sliced steak, sliced and diced into bite sized pieces
1/2 cup flour
salt/pepper
2 tbs olive oil
3 small green peppers, sliced
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
2 large tomatoes diced
8 cups water
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp pepper
1 bunch of fresh parsley, chopped, (dry will work too)
2 large potatoes, diced (I used red potatoes, but any will do)


Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan. Combine flour and salt/pepper into a small mixing bowl. Toss in steak pieces and coat with flour mixture. Brown the steak. Add onions, garlic and tomatoes into pan and brown a few minutes (about 4). Add the water, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and pepper. Let simmer about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, add the parsley and diced potatoes. Let simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Serve.

The best part about this soup is that the amounts of each ingredient is purely up to the cook. The cook can also add or subtract from the recipe with good results.

I managed to use up the steak, green peppers, onion, garlic, parsley and potatoes that were about to go to waste. I'd say mission accomplished!

Mission 1: Moving the Master Bedroom

Our first order of business is to move our bedroom from downstairs to upstairs. However, a few things must occur before said move takes place.

1. We must clear out the spare room which is acting as an office/storage room right now.

2. Paint the walls and baseboard heating cabinets.

3. Shampoo the rugs.

Oh, and we have to do this with very little money.

Let the game begin. I forgot to take a pic of the mess we started with. Crap. Oh, well. We started Monday night around 5:00 pm. Husband and I started clearing the room of stuff. After that, I did a quick clean-up consisting of vacuuming and wiping off everything with a damp cloth.

Next, I found some leftover green and white paint from our recent bathroom remodel and kitchen repaint. The green matched our new patchwork blanket perfectly, so it was a go. So, I put the first coat of edging. At that point, I realized we were out of paint rollers and I was out of energy, so I washed up the brushes and called it a night.

Tuesday morning rolled around and I went to my day job. Husband went to the store to pick up a pack of paint rollers. Cost was approximately $5.00. He proceeded to roll on the first coat of paint. When I came home, I put coat two on the wall and edging. Then, fell into bed exhausted.

Wednesday, I came home and immediately painted two coats of white paint to the baseboard heating cabinet. While the paint was drying, I shampooed the carpets and begged my husband to help me start moving furniture. After much grumbling, hubby and I moved up the dresser and bed and set up the room.

Next, I decided to work on the room decore. I searched through the house looking for some decorative touches to add to our new room. I found a wonderful Beatrix Potter print, some family photos and a few other miscellaneous items that work perfectly for the room. After inventoring my finds, I determined I need only two more items to complete the room. The first is a new mirror for our dresser. The second is a clothes hamper. I plan to search out the Goodwill Stores and craigslist for these items.

So, I give you Mission 1 completed:

That's all for now. I'm practicing patience finding just the right pieces to finish the room.

Onto mission 2 and 3-the family room and home gym.