Stir-Fry

Obviously pictured on the left .

This was kind of an experiment tonight. I will get the exact one from my mom later, but until then, this worked well.

Ingredients:

Spaghetti Noodles
1/2 cup Chicken Broth
1/2 Can of Pineapple Tidbits
3-4 stalks of Celery
1 Red Bell Pepper
1/2 lb Carrots

1. Start your water boiling and prepare your noodles according to the box.

2. Meanwhile, start chopping. You want everything in nice bite-size pieces. Once they are cut up, put them in your wok (I had to use my large skillet), along with your chicken broth and half of the juice from the pineapple (use the other half to store your pineapple, unless you want all of the pineapple). I think I could have put some water in there…., but I’m not totally sure. Cover and let simmer.

3. Once your noodles are done, drain, coat with a little olive oil to help them not stick together, and add them to your veggie pan.

My mom would go ahead and add chicken to this growing up, but I really wanted to do the Sweet and Sour Chicken tonight, so I didn’t. The sauce from the chicken was also really good on this stir-fry.

So yeah, go ahead and try it. Good stuff!

Sweet and Sour Chicken!

Thank you to the Ladies at http://sistersstuff.blogspot.com! Check out their great blog. They’ve got tons of wonderful recipes and craft ideas. They also put out a weekly menu.

Small Disclaimer: This was not a ‘Quick’ recipe. I took a longer time because I cut up my meat so it took longer to coat it. Also, I used the baking time to prepare the stir-fry. So overall it was a little more time consuming, but WAY worth it. SOOOO GOOD!!!!

Just a few more words before I delve into the recipe. First off, the picture isn’t the greatest. I had to take it with my phone, so no judging. Also, I doubled the sauce recipe because I always like having extra (it was good over the stir-fry and would be great on rice). The Hubby and I decided that we are both ‘Sauce People’. Also, I cut my chicken breasts in strips so I ended up needing to use two eggs and about double the flour when coating.

Ingredients:

3 pounds chicken breast
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 beaten egg
4-6 tablespoons flour or cornstarch
3/4 C. sugar
1/2 C. vinegar
1/2 C. chicken broth
3 1/2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Sprinkle chicken with garlic salt and pepper. Let stand for 5-10 minutes. Preheat 325 degrees. Dip chicken in beaten egg, and then in flour or cornstarch. Place in baking dish.

Create your sauce: Mix sugar, vinegar, chicken broth, ketchup, soy sauce and 2 TBSP cornstarch. Pour directly over chicken breasts. Bake uncovered at 325 for 1 hour, or until sauce is thick and dark in color.

Quesadillas!

One of our favorite quick meals that we like to do is a ‘Deeah’ (as our little boy likes to call it). These have a plethora of options. We throw it together and then nuke it in the microwave for one minute. Here are some of our favorite toppings!

Cheese (obviously)
Lunch Meat (Ham, Turkey, or Chicken)
Ranch Dressing
Crumbled Bacon
Olives

We haven’t played around much past that yet. I can see it happening though. Mix and match to your hearts delight! We like to put a light layer of cheese, add the meat, and then put a little more cheese to help it stick. You can also heat them up in a frying pan to give it a little more crunch (probably more authentic, too).

Orange Chicken Lo Mein

Thank you Pampered Chef!

I saw a commercial for P.F. Changs and decided I needed to get this recipe up. It is amazing! And really not as hard as you might think.

Ingredients:
2 oranges
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 TBSP Asian Seasoning Mix
1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 egg
1/2 tsp each salt and coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
3 TBSP vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, pressed
2 pkg (3 oz each) ramen noodles, any flavor, split into halves
1 bag (12-16 oz) frozen stir-fry vegetable blend such as broccoli, carrots and pea pods, thawed
3 cups thinly sliced green cabbage

1. Zest one orange using microplane to measure 1 TBSP. Juice both oranges to measure 1/2 cup. Combine zest, juice water, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce and seasoning mix in small batter bowl; whisk well. set aside.

2. Cut chicken into 1-in. pieces. combine egg, sale and black pepper in classic batter bowl. Add chicken; stir to coat. Combine flour and cornstarch in large colander bowl. add chicken mixture; toss to coat. Heat oil in (12 in) skillet over medium-high heat 1-3 minutes or until shimmering. Remove chicken from flour mixture, shaking off excess, and place into skillet. Cook 8-10 minutes or until chicken is golden brown and centers are no longer pink, stirring occasionally. Remove chicken from skillet; set aside and keep warm.

3. Add pressed garlic to skillet. cook 30-60 seconds or until fragrant. Omitting seasoning packet, add ramen noodles and orange mixture to skillet. cover; bring to a simmer and cook 3-4 minutes or until noodles are softened. Add stir-fry blend and cabbage; cook 3-4 minutes or until vegetables are hot and cabbage is crisp-tender. Add chicken to skillet; mix well to coat chicken.

yield: 6 servings

I’ve never added the cabbage, but I’m sure it’s delicious! I’ve also tried making it without coating the chicken. It was still good, but taking the extra time to coat really adds to it.

Pasta Salad Creation

I’ll admit it, I love to experiment with food. I am more brave when I’ll be trying it by myself first, but will subject my hubby to my creations often too. I had a hankerin’ for some pasta salad tonight, but knew I didn’t have everything that I would normally put in it. I decided to poke around my food storage and see what I could come up with.

Ingredients:

1 box pasta (I used a box of Garden Delights)
1 can Olives
1 can mushrooms
1 can water chestnuts (a little crunch!)
1 can chicken
1 tomato
Dash of Olive Oil (probably 1/4-1/3 cup)
Your favorite seasoning to taste

1. Get your water boiling for your pasta. Prepare the pasta according to directions.

2. While noodles are cooking start opening those cans, draining, rinsing, and chopping. I have a manual food processor that worked great in speeding up the process. You can easily have everything chopped before your noodles are done though.

3. Once your noodles are finished toss them with the olive oil. This helps them from getting dry and is also acting as our dressing. Normally I would have just thrown in a little Italian Salad Dressing, but I didn’t have an open bottle in my fridge and didn’t feel like getting one out. That’s why I added my own seasoning. I picked one with a little kick for fun.

4. Throw in all of the chopped stuff and enjoy!

I ate this warm (really good), but it was also be fantastic cold. Do what you want!

Chocolate Truffle Cake (mmmmmm…….)

Thank you to my wonderful sister-in-law Laura for sharing this recipe with me. It is truly amazing! LOVE YOU!

Ingredients:

1 Chocolate cake mix
2 small boxes of chocolate pudding mix
5 eggs
1 stick of butter, melted
1 – 16 oz container of sour cream
1 bag of chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Combine cake and pudding mixes and then create a well in the middle of a large bowl. Dump the sour cream, melted butter, and eggs in the well.

Using a large spoon (trust me, your mixer will fry because this is so thick) mix all of the ingredients together. Don’t be alarmed on how thick the batter is. That is normal.

Then pour the entire bag of chocolate chips in and mix it again.

Spray your Bundt pan with some pam and put the batter in it.

Bake 50-55 minutes. Once it is done baking let it cool for 10 minutes and then flip it. This cake does not need any frosting, but some fresh whipped cream or ice cream is yummy! You can eat it right away, but again, I highly suggest waiting a day. I promise it is well worth the wait!

*This is THE BEST cake ever. I am not really a cake fan, but this cake is so delicious that I can’t help but love it! I haven’t tried making it in a Bundt pan yet, but I can say it works great in a spring form pan.

(Sorry to the Whitaker’s for not getting this up when I said I would. I hope you enjoy it!)

Menu for May 9 - 15

So our grocery budget this week and for a few weeks is pretty much non-existent. I know that some people out there have extremely limited funds. I figured that I could use myself as an example and give some good ideas on what to eat for cheap in a week.

During this current week there is a huge sale on pasta at Smith's going on. I'm thinking we are going to have pasta pretty much every day. Here is why.... IT'S FREE!!!

Here is a complete list of what is on sale for the next 2 days at Smith's. If you will notice there are a few pasta options that are listed as FREE. Follow the links it gives next to each and print each of the coupons twice (this is all that you are allowed to print for each). Then make sure you stock up on the pasta ASAP. If they don't have any left at your store make sure to ask for a raincheck and go back and get it before your coupons expire. There is no reason for you to not buy/get this pasta.

Anyway, here is what we are having for our meals this week.

Monday - Spaghetti
I'll be using whatever pasta I have (probably curly or elbow noodles) with some homemade sauce that I have on hand. I've got some hamburger in my freezer that I've been building up a storage of. I'll also be heating up some bottled green beens. We have tons of canned peaches so we will have some of them as a side.

Tuesday - Tuna Fish Casserole
Again, more pasta. I have a lot of tuna around so I'll be using some of that along with some cans of cream of mushroom soup. I might experiment and add a little velveeta that I have on hand. I'll throw in some frozen peas and call it good.

Wednesday - Hot Dogs and Pasta Salad
Pasta salad will be random pasta mixed with some Italian dressing, cheese, olives, water chestnuts, and I'll probably pick up some cherry tomatoes at the store to throw in.

Thursday - Breakfast
We'll most likely have waffles or pancakes along with some eggs. I might pull out the bacon in our freezer for a treat.

Friday - Pizza!
We'll probably end up with Hawaiian. Possibly just cheese. Lately I've been into using Ranch Dressing as my sauce. It means that I don't have to buy tomato paste and I ALWAYS have some in my fridge.

Saturday - NA
We are in a community play that will be having a pot luck this day. I'll probably have some sandwiches for us to eat for lunch, but our dinner will be taken care of. I get to bring treats so I guess technically I could put 'cookies' here or something.

Sunday - Creamy Crock-Pot Chicken
I think I have this recipe up. Pretty much it is NOODLES, soup, chicken, dry Italian dressing, and sour cream.

Anyway, there is a look into what we are eating this week. If things are a little tight at your house take a look at what you already have and get creative. Good luck!