Takeout..at Home

Chinese takeout has gotten a bad rep.  Known for it's fatty, fried, "non-Chinese" appearances, Chinese takeout is not always viewed as the most tasty, or healthy for that matter, ethnic food.

But here's an exception. Omigoodness people, this is amazing.  In fact, both my roomie and Pat claim that this is their favorite recipe that I make.  Wait, what about this and this or THIS? O well, to each his/her own : )

Sweet and Sour Chicken
Adapted from Mel's Kitchen

2 chicken breasts
Salt And Pepper
1 cup Cornstarch
1 egg
¼ cups Canola Oil

FOR THE SAUCE:
1/2 cups Sugar
4 Tablespoons Ketchup
½ cups Vinegar (I used red wine vinegar, but you can really use whatever you have on hand)
1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
1 teaspoon Garlic Pepper

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Heat canola oil on stove top.  (Note: the first time I made this, I used olive oil, but it didn't crisp up the way it should! Therefore, I highly recommend using Canola or vegetable oil for pan frying.)

Cut chicken up into chunks.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Dip in egg wash (lightly beat egg and add a tablespoon of water).  Dredge in cornstarch.

Pan fry the chicken pieces in the oil.  Do this for 4 minutes or so; until the outside is brown and crispy but the inside is still uncooked.  Place chicken in a cooking pan.

Mix sugar, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic pepper in a bowl.

Pour over chicken. 

Cook in the oven for about 20 minutes, flipping halfway through.  Serve over rice (or if your roomie can't wait that long..eat it by itself!).

You can also make a double batch of this sauce and cook it in a saucepan until it is thickened.  However, this amount works for us, and we just spoon the leftovers in the pan onto the chicken! 

The sauce is right on, and you really will want to eat it with a spoon!  This stuff tastes exactly like the sweet and sour chicken from your favorite Chinese restaurant (without the questionable meat or extra calories from frying!).  It is so delicious, and since you can control the ingredients that you are using, it is much healthier (and cheaper!) than the takeout version.

Enjoy!

Legendary.

I just found my new favorite pasttime. But you have to promise not to laugh.

Please tell me that all of you have seen this show?!

A woman at my work is retiring, so to send her off appropriately, the only logical thing was to take her laser tagging (?)!!!  This is the first time I have ever played, and let me tell you, after the first game I got so intense that I started screaming “You can leave now!!!!!” to every opponent I hit…..let’s just say I enjoyed the game : ) It also was a wicked good workout (yes, I am originally from Massachusetts), as things started to get a little smelly by the second game.

Once I got home, I still had the adrenaline rush from the games, so all I could think of was having a big chunk of meat for dinner (I guess aggression brings out the caveman in me…).  Since the only thing in the fridge that was defrosted was chicken, I went with that. 

BBQ Chicken Lettuce Wraps

By: Me!

(this is for 1 serving, but can be easily doubled, or if you are feeling really hungry...tripled!)

1 Chicken Breast

1/2 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's; use as much to cover the chicken entirely)

1/2 Hass avocado

Squeeze of lime juice

3-4 Romaine leaves, with the stalk taken out (1 leaf per sandwich)

Sprinkle of feta

Salt and Pepper

Pound out chicken to ensure even thickness.  I used a soup can and pounded the heck out of that chicken (I think I still had some "energy" left over from the laser tag!). 

Cover in BBQ sauce and marinate for 30 minutes to overnight.  I just thought of the idea when I got home, so 30 minutes it was!

 Grill chicken until cooked, about 8-10 minutes on each side.  Let rest.



Don't worry, I didn't eat both of them--one's for lunch tomorrow!

 Cut up half of avocado and roughly chop.  Sprinkle with lime juice to prevent oxidation and add salt and pepper (I used garlic pepper...yum!).


I put this stuff on.everything.



Sidenote: Check out this cool Salt grinder that my roomie
 got me for my birthday!!!

Take romaine leaves and cut out the thick stalk in the middle so you will be able to roll up the lettuce with the filling.  Lay on table and add avocados and feta.

Cut up chicken on an angle and arrange.

 Roll up and serve!

It is a little messy, but it is so crunchy and good!!!!

These are so good, folks and so easy to make! You can use basically whatever you have in the fridge for protein and veggies.  Traditionally, lettuce wraps are used with Bibb lettuce, but (once again) since I thought of the idea when I came home, I used what I had in my fridge--adaption is the key to cooking! One shouldn't spend $343 million dollars (ok, a little exaggeration) for one ingredient that you will use once, when you can substitute efficiently.  Check this website for other substitutions, or just use your noggin : )

Now on to dessert....

Kristin made cheesecake stuffed strawberries (omg!) the other day, but since I don't like cheesecake, I decided to do my own thing...with this:

I walked past this in the supermarket and couldn't leave it there with a clean conscience.  Dark.Chocolate.Peanut.Butter?!?!?!!? 

So I cored the strawberries, and spooned that magical concoction into the strawberries. 

Delish.  It would be even better with a topping of fresh whipped cream, but alas, my fridge was lacking that as well.  Maybe I should go shopping...

The pb didn't detract from the sweetness of the strawberries--in fact, it reminded me of chocolate covered strawberries, with a little "oomf".  One would think that peanut butter would clash with the strawberries, but trust me.  The peanut butter flavor isn't really prominent in this spread--the chocolate is.  And isn't that how life should be?

Enjoy!

Living for the Weekends

Sorry for no post yesterday! I was out late Friday night with some friends (pics to come later!) and then Saturday I spent the sunny day outside reading this:

Doesn’t Janet Evanovich crack you up!? I think she is hilarious, and it is quite entertaining for a quick read. 

I wasn’t so busy relaxing (hee hee ) that I couldn’t have fun cooking!  My first meal was from Julia Child’s cookbook

The Poached Egg.

For years I have wanted to try this recipe, but made up excuses for fear of failure.  After watching Julie and Julia recently, I decided to take a crack at it.

The cast of characters: One egg, a pot of simmering water, and a drizzle of vinegar (to keep the whites settled).

I cracked the egg in a separate bowl to drop into the simmering water.

Immediately, I used a wooden spoon to swirl the whites around.

After that, you wait for 3-4 minutes, until the whites are settled.

Then, you take it out carefully with a slotted spoon and place it on a plate.

Yummy.  The egg tasted better than any other form of egg I have had before. And it was so easy!!! It worked on the first try. Anddd it tasted like b.u.t.t.e.r.  It didn't need anything except a fork : ) And it only took 6 minutes.

Then came more good stuff for dinner.  The idea came from my inability to make a decision for what to eat.

First, I was thinking chicken parmesan.  But then I looked in my fridge and saw leftover egg roll wrappers from last week, from Kristin’s recipe.

So, I thought I would combine the two ideas--chicken parm + egg roll wrappers = chicken parm egg rolls!  

I made an extra egg roll (three total) and had it for lunch today—yummo (yes, I just pulled a Rachael Ray).

Chicken Parm Egg Rolls

Servings: 1-2

3 Egg Roll wrappers

1 chicken breast

1 cup pasta sauce

3 slices of mozzarella cheese

a handful of chopped basil

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Season chicken with salt and pepper and dried oregano.  Cook for 20-30 minutes, until cooked . Raise oven temperature to 425 F.

Chop chicken.

In a small bowl, combine pasta sauce, basil, and chicken. Mix well.

Lay egg roll out and place slice of cheese on a diagonal. Place chicken mixture on an egg roll. 

Wrap up egg roll and place on cookie sheet seam down.  Cook for 20 minutes. 

Spoon extra sauce on top.  Enjoy!

I love this recipe! It tastes exactly like a chicken parm grinder…but crispier….and more egg-rolly than starchy bread.

Have a happy fourth, everyone!!!

Avocado. Doughnuts.

I love Fridays. Especially when my “Friday” is actually Thursday.  Now that school is out for the summer, I have been working four 10-hour days at work—so Thursday night marks my weekend!!! 

I love having Friday off, because I then I have an extra day to do all of my errands.  I got up early, went to spinning, and came home and did a Yoga video.  

Have you ever done spinning? O.M.G.  Whenever I sit on that bike, I go through three phases of emotion…

For the first ten minutes I feel happy, thinking,“ Oh, this isn’t so bad, I could do this forever”

But then, I start to feel it in my legs, and begin to feel out of breath. The next feeling, anger, comes and I think “Only 15 minutes have gone by?!?!? How is the instructor able to talk and smile and move her legs so fast!!!..." 

This phase lasts for about half an hour…

Finally, with the last 10-20 minutes left, I feel so happy and strong and proud of myself that I accomplished this feat.  I can’t stop smiling through the sweat streaming down my face and lower back.  I love workouts that push me like this.

Spinning and I are like “this”. 

After my workout, I cleaned the house and started sorting out the fridge for food that has long been forgotten. 

This gave me an idea, and a segway into today's recipe : )

So today, I plan on giving you some tips on what to do with leftovers.  After, all I am a grad student, and I need to get creative so money doesn't get thrown away.  

Example 1:

What am I supposed to do with a large container of plain yogurt leftover from doughnut-making the night before?

A simple, yogurt parfait with fresh fruit from the farmers’ market:

Omigosh Yum

 And for lunch....

A Healthy Curry Chicken Salad (1 serving)

¼ cup plain, non-fat yogurt

Rotisserie chicken, shredded

Handful of chopped almonds and grapes

¼ teaspoon of both cumin and curry

This recipe is totally an estimate, but is really delicious.  Also, it doesn’t have the dreaded mayo that I hate to have in salads!  You can use whatever you have on hand to make this salad--instead of curry, you can add a dash of ground mustard with some celery and craisins to have a classic chicken salad.

After letting it rest in the fridge for a bit, so the flavors can get to know each other, I made a quick wrap.

 I used:

1 tomato wrap

1 wedge of Laughing Cow Swiss

Some lovely, peppery arugala and some sprouts (love the crunch it gives)

A perfect, light sandwich for lunch!!!

Example 2: 

I also found a lonely avocado on my counter that desperately needed attention.  See, Jill and I have an (un)healthy obsession with this tasty fruit (?) and we want to use it in everything that we eat!

SO that led me back to doughnuts.

Avocado doughnuts.

No, that wasn’t a typo.

I looked around for recipes, and apparently, there are no (non-vegan) recipes that incorporate avocados into these tasty treats.  (Surprise Surprise) I guess no one else is crazy enough to do this.

I looked at this avocado bread recipe and used it to start from.

Avocado Doughnuts

By: ME : )

2 cups flour

¾ cups granulated sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 egg

1 mashed avocado

½ cup plus one tablespoon buttermilk

1 tsp cocoa powder

½ tsp allspice and nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Mix flour, sugars (I thought this weird, but just trust me!), baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, allspice, and nutmeg in a large bowl.

Mix mashed avocado, vanilla and egg together.  Then add buttermilk.  Add this mixture to the dry mix.  Mix together and fill doughnut pans.

It may not look pretty now, but trust me.

This makes A LOT of doughnuts—36 by my count.  After they cooled for 10 minutes, things started to get a little crazy. 

I brought out the powdered sugar.  And let my skirt fly up, as Pioneer Woman would say.

Then I brought out caramel—o dear me.  I would have made it from scratch, but I got a little antsy and couldn’t wait that long.  So I melted some caramel in the microwave, added some cinnamon, and went to town on the second batch.

For the non-avocado lovers, have no fear.  When I told my roomie about them, she was said, "Dear God get them away from me." Then I made her take a bite. And she said (and I quote!) "O crap, these are good!!"  

So give them a try : )

Enjoy!!!