Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Ginger Sesame Chicken

We had this last night. It was remarkably similar to the recipe we had last week. Oh well. They were both good. This one is from Simple & Delicious July/August 2009.

Ginger Sesame Chicken
1 tbsp cornstarch
3/4 cup chicken broth
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp maple syrup
4 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
Hot cooked rice

In a small bowl, combine first seven ingredients until blended; set aside. In a large skillet or wok (maybe these things are more popular than I realized), stir-fry chicken in 1 tbsp oil for 4-6 minutes or until no longer pink. Remove and keep warm. Stir fry green pepper and onion in remaining oil for 2 minutes. Stir cornstarch mixture and add to the pan. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1 minute or until thickened. Add chicken; heat through. Serve with rice. 4 servings

Instead of green pepper and onion, I made this with the rest of the stir fry vegetables from last week. Probably why these two recipes seemed so similar to me. I gave just chicken to Nathan & Emma, they both ate all the chicken so that was definitely good. For Sam, I made his just like I made ours: rice, topped with the chicken and vegetables. He was like "broccoli????" I told him to pick around it like I was going to do. He traded his broccoli to Steve for sugar snap peas. Then he ate all that was on his plate. So overall this was a good one. Another keeper.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Five-Spice Turkey Stir Fry

We had this for lunch today. I have to admit that the main reason I wanted to try this one is to use up more of the 5-spice powder it calls for, which I have used only once so far and paid like $9 for or something ridonkulous like that. But it ended up being a good recipe, Steve really liked it. It's from the BH&G 365 Last Minute Meals. I must say I am loving how fast these recipes are coming together, they are not kidding when they say "last minute."

Five-Spice Turkey Stir Fry
1 4.4 oz pkg beef lo-mein noodle mix (if you can find this, you rock. I ended up using Lipton Asian Sides Teriyaki Noodles, which was still lo-mein but a different flavor. It was still OK)
12 oz turkey breast tenderloin, cut into thin bite-size strips
1/4 tsp five-spice powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp cooking oil
1/2 of a 16 oz pkg frozen stir fry vegetables
2 tbsp chopped peanuts (I left these out because my whole family is basically anti-nut, except me...)

Prepare noodle mix according to pkg directions; set aside. In a small bowl toss together turkey strips, five-spice powder, salt, and pepper; set aside. Pour 1 tbsp of the oil into a wok (hello? does anybody actually have a wok? I think my dad has one in the shed from his brief foray into Chinese cooking...remember "Wok with Yan?") or large skillet. Heat over medium-high heat. Carefully add frozen vegetables to skillet; cook and stir for 3 minutes. Remove vegetables from skillet. Add remaining 1 tbsp oil to hot skillet. Add turkey mixture; cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until turkey is no longer pink. Return vegetables to skillet. Cook and stir about 1 minute more or until heated through. To serve, divide noodle mixture among 4 dinner plates (unless you have picky children. In that case, make them PB & J and divide the noodle mixture among 2 dinner plates, leaving some in the pot for leftovers). Top with turkey mixture; sprinkle with peanuts (if using).

So I think Steve was so excited to have a meal with vegetables! The mix I got was something like Asian Stir Fry Vegetables (the Great Value brand). It had broccoli, sugar snap peas, summer squash, and carrots. You can guess what I ate out of that. Anyway he really really liked this, had seconds, and told me he loved me so much (all positive signs of a good meal). I thought it was pretty good too. And having it with turkey was a nice change, since we seem to have chicken so much. And I bought turkey breasts at Wal-mart, didn't get specifically "tenderloin" but they were still really moist, and got 1.2 lbs for just under $4. I thought that was pretty reasonable. It's a keeper (how can it not be with Steve's reaction?).

An interesting side note: Typing recipes gives you a really good handle on using the semi-colon (;). Did you notice how many times it was used in this recipe? The cookbook author used the semi-colon a lot; they must have done well in English in high school. See?

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Chicken with Dried Fruit and Honey

Not a very inventive name, since that was just about the only ingredients, but it is what it is. We had this last night for supper, it was very tasty. It's from the BH&G 365 Last Minute Meals. It's from the "fall" section, which as I said before just happens to be at the front of the cookbook, and of course I am going in order...but this is definitely a "fallish" recipe.

Chicken with Dried Fruit and Honey
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (it's expensive to buy and you might already have the ingredients: 1/4 cup cinnamon, and 1 tbsp each of ginger, nutmeg, and cloves...it makes a bunch, but it keeps)
1 tbsp butter
1 cup mixed dried fruit bits
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup honey

Sprinkle 1 side of each chicken thigh with pumpkin pie spice. In a 12 inch skillet, melt butter over medium high heat. Add chicken thighs; reduce heat to medium. Cook about 4 minutes or until brown, turning occasionally. Stir fruit bits, water, and honey into skillet. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink (180 degrees).

In my continuing quest to get the kids to like rice because of Haiti, I made this with rice and put some of the sauce with the fruit over it. Everyone liked the chicken, but Sam is the only kid who will eat rice right now. Emma and Nathan just keep saying "I don't like rice." Fine then, what will you eat when we are in Haiti? I simply do not know. Hee hee. They'll get used to it I suppose. Or just eat lots of bananas. But the chicken was yummy and tender. It smelled fabulous while it was cooking. The dried fruit kind of rehydrated while it was cooking so it wasn't chewy like raisins, it was like real fruit...I think our mix was blueberries and cranberries, whatever they had at the Wal-mart. We will definitely have this again once it actually is fall.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Garlic Roast Beef Sandwiches

This is one of those recipes that I look at the picture and know it's not going to be a healthy one, but it looks and sounds so yummy that I can't resist...it's from Simple & Delicious July/Aug 2009. We had it for lunch on Friday, when Steve had the day off from work.

Garlic Roast Beef Sandwiches
1 loaf (10 oz) frozen garlic bread (don't buy the kind with cheese already on it)
1/2 lb sliced fresh mushrooms (left these out due to their slimy grossness)
2/3 cup sliced onion
1 tsp minced garlic
4 tsp butter
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 lb shaved deli roast beef (I just bought the Hillshire Farms Deli Selects...the kind that comes in Glad Ware...it was $3 and it's cooked...we don't like rare roast beef)
6 slices colby cheese (they didn't have this pre-sliced at Wal-mart, and to buy it at the deli it was $7 per lb...yikes...we are not cheese connoisseurs by any means (as evidenced by the fact that I cannot even spell that word) so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to use the American cheese we already had at home. I was right)

Bake garlic bread according to pkg directions. Meanwhile, in a large sillet, saute the mushrooms, onion, and garlic in the butter until vegetables are tender. Stir in worcestershire sauce. Layer each half of garlic bread with roast beef, vegetable mixture, and cheese. Return to oven; bake 1-2 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Slice and serve immediately. 6 servings

Well, they didn't have 10 oz frozen garlic bread @ Wal-mart, they only had 16 oz. But I didn't double the amount of the rest of the recipe and it was still fine. We still have half of this left over, which I am planning to serve for lunch today. Some of it I made without onions for Samuel (I didn't even try this with the younger two); he only ate the meat and cheese and left the garlic bread behind, saying he wasn't that hungry, which is what he usually says when he doesn't like something but doesn't want to hurt my feelings (he is such a sweet boy). Steve and I really liked it. It was messy to eat but tasted really good. A nice change for lunch sometime. It's a keeper.