Sweet and Spicy Asian Chicken

This sauce for the chicken is so yummy. I served it with a veggie stir fry and it was a big hit.

Recipe from Mrs. Harding Cooks.

Ingredients:

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 tablespoons oil (for pan-frying)

Sauce:
1 garlic clove, minced
¼ teaspoon ginger (I used ground ginger)
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
¼ cup apple juice
⅓ cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoon ketchup
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
½ cup water
⅓ cup soy sauce

Directions:

- Cut chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces.

- Heat oil in your wok and fry chicken bits in batches until lightly browned.

- Drain on paper towels and set aside.
- In a bowl combine all sauce ingredients.

- Pour into wok and bring to a boil.

- Add chicken bits back to the pan, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

- Serve over rice, or by itself.

Spinach Pasta Chicken Salad

Recipe given to me from BWeed (who recommended involving a lawyer to sort out who gets the leftovers...and it is that good).

Spinach Pasta Chicken Salad
Dressing:
1/2 C. oil
1/2 C. sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sesame oil
3 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs seasoned oregano rice vinegar
1/2 tsp sesame seed oil
1 tsp grated fresh garlic

Salad:
1 sm package baby spinach
1 package bowtie pasta (cooked, drained, and cooled)
2-4 Tbs sesame seeds
1/2 C. sunflower seeds
1 can sliced water chestnuts
1 C. sprouts
3 chicken breasts (cooked, seasoned heavily with lemon pepper and cut into bite-sized pieces)

Mix dressing ingredients together, set aside. In large bowl, combine salad ingredients. Add dressing to salad and mix together. Enjoy.

**I topped each serving with a few chow mein noodles**
**I used olive oil instead of sesame oil (b/c I didn't have any)...still tasted great**
**I used 1/2 tsp of jarred minced garlic instead of grated fresh**
**I couldn't find seasoned oregano rice vinegar, so I used seasoned rice vinegar**

Reccomendation

So I tried this Pioneer Woman Cooks recipe. It was yummy, of course. Every recipe she makes is delicious. I cut it in half and I still had enough food to feed at least 12 people. :)

Fried Bananas (like at P.F. Changs)

One of the only things I could make when Scott married me. Definately worth knowing how to do. Great party food.

Ingredients

Bananas

Vegetable Oil (several cups)

Lumpia / Egg roll Dough (find in the refrig. produce area)
Fudge sauce or Hershey's syrup

Vanilla / Coconut ice cream

Deep skillet or Pot

Metal tongs


Here is the step-by-step, Pioneer Woman style.

Slice bananas. Cut the Lumpia in half, "hot dog way". (i.e. the skinny way.) Place the banana on one of the halves.


Fold the sides in, and crease them. Fold one end down, like you were wrapping a present.

Starting with the folded end, roll the banana up in the Lumpia. Make it tight.

Put a dab of water on the end before you press it into the roll. The water will act like glue. Fill a deep skillet with oil, until half the banana roll will be covered with oil. Heat to Med. Low. When a drop of of water sizzles when tossed into oil, place several banana rolls into the oil, standing up. Fry approx. 3 minutes, then flip so raw side is in oil. Flip back and forth every few minutes until golden brown. Serve hot, arranged around a scoop of ice cream, and covered with chocolate.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

1 can crushed pineapple
2-4 chicken breasts
salt and pepper
1 tsp veg. oil
2 carrots thinly sliced (I do a big handful of baby carrots sliced up)
1 green bell pepper chunked (I keep bell peppers chopped up in bags in my freezer)
1 clove garlic
1/2 c catsup
1/3 c light brown sugar
1 TB cornstarch
1 TB soy sauce
1 tsp ground ginger
grated peel and juice from 1 lemon
2 C hot cooked rice

Drain pineapple, reserve juice. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. Season with salt and pepper
In a large skillet heat oil over medium-high heat; brown chicken, turning once. Reduce heat. Add carrots, bell pepper, onion and garlic to skillet. Cover; simmer 5 minutes.
Combine reserved pineapple juice, catsup, brown sugar, cornstarch, soy sauce, ginger, lemon peel and juice in a small bowl until blended. Stir into same skillet. Cover and simmer 10 minutes longer or until thickened. Stir in pineapple. heat through. Serve with rice.

The nice thing about this recipe is that you can add all the extra veggies and chicken you want to make it go as far as you want. My kids love this recipe!