Stir-fry

Stir-fry is great because it is so easy and you can totally tweak the ingredients according to your taste or what you've got on hand.  I made a stir-fry tonight that was so yummy that I HAD to have seconds.  Thankfully, it's pretty healthy too, so that was okay!

1 onion, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
4 celery stalks, thinly sliced
1 zucchini, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp. light olive oil
4-5 Tbsp. Stir-fry sauce
Black pepper to taste

Heat oil; add onion, pepper, and celery.   Cook for 5 minutes or so, add zucchini and stir-fry sauce.  Season with black pepper.  Cook for 3-5 minutes more.  Serve over rice. 

I use parboiled rice because it is much healthier than white rice but tastes exactly the same so no one even notices; it would be even better to serve with brown rice. 

Oriental Chicken Salad

6 cups Shredded cabbage and carrots
2 cups Cooked chicken, cubed
½ red onion, chopped
½ cup sliced almonds
1 can mandarin oranges
¾ cup chow mein noodles
½ - ¾ cup My aunt's poppy seed dressing

Mix. Chill. Yum!

Teriyaki Chicken

5 to 6 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, thighs or mixture of both
(if you have a small family or a small crock pot you can cut this recipe in half, or even 1/3 easily)

For the sauce mix the following in a bowl
1 1/2 C brown sugar
1 1/2 C soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger (fresh grated ginger works great if you have it as well) or to taste
3 to 4 cloves fresh garlic (chopped) or to taste (you can use garlic powder, dried garlic or another equivalent, but fresh is best)
4 1/2 T white vinegar (rice vinegar if you have it works also)
1/4 C sesame oil (you can substitute olive oil if you don't have sesame oil)

Stir the sauce well and pour over the chicken in the crock pot. I just put the chicken in still frozen unless I am in a hurry. Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours or until done. Use a fork to shred the chicken and stir it into the sauce. Serve over the rice of your choice. Enjoy!

This recipe will easily feed our family of 8 twice. We often freeze the leftover chicken and save it for a day when we don't feel like cooking. It is also a great recipe to use for when we are having another family over for dinner. If you only want enough to feed five or six people, you can use the following measurements and a smaller crock pot.

2 lbs boneless chicken

For the Sauce:

1/2 Cup Soy Sauce

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 to 2 cloves fresh garlic

1 1/2 T white vinegar

2 T sesame oil

Chicken and Broccoli Lo Mein

1 lb thin spaghetti noodles (I prefer angel hair but any spaghetti will work in a pinch)
1 T sesame oil (olive oil will work, but sesame really brings out the asian flavor)
extra sesame oil for cooking
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or you could alternatively use chicken thighs if you wanted to)
1 small to medium onion sliced thin
1 lb package frozen chopped broccoli (or an equivalent amount of fresh)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground ginger (fresh is fine too)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup chicken broth (I use bullion to make the broth)
1/3 cup brown sugar

Cook the spaghetti noodles in salted water. When they are done, drain and add the Tablespoon of Sesame oil to them and toss to coat the noodles evenly. Set aside. Coat the bottom of a large pan or wok with sesame oil and heat. When the pan is hot add the broccoli and the onion and stir fry for about three minutes. Next add the ginger and garlic, and the meat. Cook (stirring often) until the chicken is cooked through. In a separate dish mix the soy sauce, broth and brown sugar. Once your chicken is cooked through add the noodles to the pan, and pour the sauce mixture over the top. Stir and cook until everything is heated through and the sauce and veggies are evenly distributed. If your pan is too small to take everything at once you can cook half the noodles with half the veggies and half the sauce at a time. That is what I used to do before I got my wok. This recipe will serve 8. You can cut it in half for a smaller family. If you would rather make this with beef you can substitute steak for the chicken and beef broth for the chicken broth. We just like it with chicken better. All of my kids (even the picky ones) love this recipe. It has become our replacement for a quick spaghetti dinner.