As I sit in front of my computer typing away, the temperature here in Iowa is a whopping 4 below zero with a windchill of -32…yes, negative 32.  Yuck!  It was so cold that our school district decided to cancel classes today so those sweet little kiddos didn’t have to be waiting in their bus lines on this bitterly cold day.  I’ve enjoyed the day off by starting it cuddling with T.J., having a glass of my yummy Shakeology, getting in a good workout (T25 followed by a 30 min run), playing with T.J., and eating a nice warm bowl of soup for lunch.  I just laid T.J. down for a nap and thought it would be a good time to catch up on a few blog posts.  Today’s post, of course, revolves around college basketball.  The only thing that gets Mike and me through these cold and blustery months in the upper Midwest.

Now that conference play is here, Mike and I are so excited to get the prime part of college basketball season started.  For those of you new to this blog, we are HUGE basketball fans.  Mike loves his Cyclones, and I love my Hawkeyes.  Makes for some interesting conversations around our house 🙂

Looking as goofy as we can during an Iowa vs Iowa State football game. I don’t think I want to say what the outcome of that particular game was 😦

Mike rarely cheers for the Hawkeyes, but I have to admit, I love cheering for the Cyclones when they’re not playing Iowa.  Especially their basketball team.  I’ve fallen in love with that team and their All-American Boy coach, Fred Hoiberg, aka – The Mayor.

Most of our weekends revolve around when each team will be playing and of course, what food we will be eating while watching the games.  Recently, Mike was craving a teriyaki sauce to dip steak bites in.  So, in a matter of minutes, I was able to whip up a simple teriyaki sauce that made the steak bites taste like we had spent hours slaving away in the kitchen.  So simple!  I love it because you can use it in so many ways. We’ve made steak bites and just dipped them in the sauce, added the sauce to a crock pot and let the steak bites slow cook in the sauce, and even baked in the sauce.  This upcoming Saturday, for the Iowa St. vs West Virginia game, we’re planning on making chicken bites to dip in the sauce.  My mouth is watering just thinking of it.  Can Saturday hurry up and get here, please???  Of course, I don’t want my snow day to be over quite yet 🙂

Here’s this quick and easy recipe that will take less than 10 min to cook up.  Enjoy!

1 cup Water

5 tbsp Brown Sugar

1/4 cup Soy Sauce

2 tbsp Honey

1 clove Garlic, minced

1/2 tsp ground Ginger

2 tbsp Cornstarch

1/4 cup Cold Water

Directions:

1. Combine 1 cup water, brown sugar, soy sauce, honey, garlic, and ginger in a medium saucepan over medium-heat.

2. In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch with the 1/4 cup cold water and whisk until dissolved.  Add the cornstarch mixture to the saucepan.

3. Heat the sauce over medium-heat until it thickens to your preference.  You can always add a little more water if it becomes too thick.

One of the ways we enjoyed our teriyaki sauce is shown below.  Mike made the steak bites, topped them with yellow bell peppers, and then we dipped them in the sauce.  Delicious!  Now let’s go Hawkeyes and Cyclones!!!!