Apricot Beef Stir Fry

I'm making an effort to have my family eat better and add more vegetables to our diet. Since Chinese food is always a big hit in our house I thought this recipe would be a hit- and it was! Because it uses frozen stir-fry vegetables it's quick, too! I've made this a couple of times now and it gets a big thumbs up from my girls. The leftovers also reheat really nicely for lunch the next day.

Recipe from Taste of Home Comfort Food Diet Cookbook.

Ingredients

1 t cornstarch
1/4 c cold water
1/2 c apricot preserves
2 T reduced sodium soy sauce
1/2 t minced garlic (though I used more as we like garlic!)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes
1 lb boneless beef sirloin steak, sliced thin
1 T canola oil
1 pkg (16 oz) frozen asparagus stir fry vegetable blend

Directions

In a small bowl whisk cornstarch and cold water until smooth. Stir in preserves, soy sauce, garlic, salt & red pepper flakes. Set aside.

In a large skillet or wok stir fry beef in oil until no longer pink. Remove and keep warm. In the same pan stir fry vegetables according to package directions. Return beef to pan. Stir apricot mixture and add to beef mixture. Cook and stir until slightly thickened. Serve over rice.

1 c of beef mixture is 309 calories (not including rice)


Disclosure: I am an Amazon.com affiliate so if 10 of you click on the link and buy the book I may make enough money to buy another bag of frozen stir fry vegetables!

Sausage Fried Rice

A while back we purchased part of a pig. And while we've been working our way through the chops, bacon and roasts I had about 15 pounds of fresh pork sausage just sitting in my freezer. I can only make biscuits and gravy so often...

I wasn't sure what to do with the abundance of pork until I found this great recipe on AllRecipes.com. Chinese food is a favorite in this house so I knew the recipe would be a great hit- and it was! One word of warning- this makes a lot of food! I make it and freeze individual size portions for quick lunches.

Also, be sure to make the rice ahead of time so it has time to cool.



Ingredients

* 1 pound ground pork sausage
* 5 eggs, beaten
* 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1/2 head cabbage, cored and shredded
* 3 carrots, chopped
* 6 cups cooked white rice, cold
* 1/4 cup soy sauce, or to taste
* 1 (14.5 ounce) can bean sprouts, drained
* 1 (6 ounce) package frozen green peas, thawed
* ground black pepper to taste
* 3 green onions, chopped

Directions

1. In a skillet over medium-high heat, cook the sausage until evenly browned. Drain, and remove sausage from the pan. In the same pan, using the remaining coating of grease from the sausage, scramble the eggs, stirring frequently until cooked through. Set aside.

2. Heat the oil in a very large skillet (I use a very large pot) or electric skillet over medium-high heat. Stir fry the cabbage and carrots just until the cabbage has wilted. Add the cold rice, and fry, stirring so that there are no clumps. Mix in the sausage and pour in some soy sauce. Stir in bean sprouts, peas, and eggs, mixing well so there are no big chunks of egg. Season with pepper, and stir in green onions just before removing from the heat. Adjust soy sauce to taste, and serve.

Ginger Chicken with Rice Noodles

My girls are big fans of Chinese and Asian influenced foods. I'm not sure if it's because of the chopsticks or what, but the mere mention of "Chinese" for dinner makes them giddy.

This recipe was very easy to make and is quite good served cold, too. If you happen to be grilling chicken the same week you make it, just grill a couple extra, cut them and heat in a saute pan before adding to the noodles. Also, I can't always find rice noodles- it depends on where I'm shopping. I substitute angel hair pasta and get great results.

I pulled this recipe out of a magazine quite a while back... I think it was Fitness.

• 4 tablespoons finely chopped scallion
• 3 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 4-ounce skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 4 ounces dried rice noodles
• 2 limes
• 2 teaspoons packed brown sugar
• 1 cup shredded carrot
• 4 tablespoons snipped fresh cilantro
• 4 tablespoons chopped peanuts

In a small bowl, combine scallion, ginger, 6 garlic cloves, olive oil, and salt. Coat chicken breasts with mixture and place on the unheated rack of a broiler pan. Broil 4 to 5 inches from the heat for 12 to 15 minutes, turning once.

Slice chicken diagonally; keep warm. Cook noodles in a large saucepan in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes until tender; drain. Shred 2 teaspoons lime peel and squeeze 2 tablespoons lime juice into a bowl. Add sugar and remaining 2 garlic cloves; stir until sugar dissolves. Add noodles, carrot, cilantro and peanuts; toss. Spoon onto plates; arrange chicken on top.

Grilled Chicken with Sesame Noodles (in Peanut Sauce)

I'm not really sure why this recipe was titled the way it was - which is to say without mentioning peanuts in the title- as I don't think the noodles are so much sesame as peanut-y. So I modified the title a bit.

I also made a couple of changes, which I will point out when they come along. The initial recipe came from Cook's Country in an unsolicited free trial issue. This is an easy recipe to toss together and doesn't even require a grill- I used the broiler. If you have more time I would recommend letting the chicken marinate for half an hour.

Ingredients

3 cloves minced garlic
2 T minced fresh ginger
1/2 c soy sauce
3 T rice vinegar
2 t hot sauce (I halved this as the girls don't like things too spicy)
3 T light brown sugar
2 T toasted sesame oil (if it's regular sesame oil, or even peanut oil, it will be ok)
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 lb)
1/4 c peanut butter
salt
1 lb fresh Asian noodles (I have no idea where to get fresh Asian noodles. I used dried Asian noodles, they looked like spaghetti. Or just use spaghetti. If you use dried noodles you want 12 oz.)
6 scallions, sliced thin (I omitted these, too. Honestly, they're only for color.)

Instructions

Bring 4 quarts water to boil over high heat. In a small bowl whisk garlic, ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, hot sauce, brown sugar and oil. Toss chicken with 3 T garlic mixture (I would marinate it for half an hour). Puree remaining garlic mixture and peanut butter (I love my Magic Bullet
for this!) until smooth.

Add 1 T salt and noodles to boiling water and cook until al dente. Drain well, rinse under cold water and drain again. Toss noodles,peanut sauce & scallions in a large bowl. Adjust seasonings.

Grill chicken breasts over high heat until cooked through, 2-3 minutes per side. (I broiled for about 6 minutes per side). Slice and serve over noodles.

Note: The next time I make this I'll probably steam some broccoli to toss in. It will add some color & nutrition. Snow peas would probably be quite good, too.

Spicy Orange Chicken Stir Fry

I got this recipe from Everyday Food magazine. They have it set as a make-ahead-and-freeze-it meal. Personally I'm not a fan of cooking and then freezing veggies. They just aren't crisp enough. And after making the recipe as it was written I made a few adjustments to it.

This recipe is really easy to throw together so it's a great entry to cooking Asian foods. You don't need anything special and you can get all of the ingredients at your local store.

So, here's my take on the recipe:

What You Need:
5 T (just under 1/4c) cornstarch
1 c orange juice
1/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c rice vinegar
1/8 c honey
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 t red pepper flakes (less if you don't like it spicy)
coarse salt
1/2 T vegetable oil
1 1/2 lb chicken breast cut crosswise into 1/2" wide strips
Small head of broccoli, cut into florets (you can also peel and thinly slice the stalks to add)
3 carrots peeled and diagonally sliced thin
cooked rice (I use brown rice- it's just a bit better for you)

Here's What You Do:
Put cornstarch in a medium bowl. Whisk in orange juice until smooth. Whisk in soy sauce, vinegar, honey, garlic, and red pepper flakes; season with a pinch of salt. Set aside.

In a large pan (I use the one I boil pasta in) heat oil over medium high heat. Cook chicken on one side until lightly browned, turn and cook another minute and remove from pan.

Add broccoli, carrots and 1/4 c water to the pot. Cook, partially covered, until water has evaporated and broccoli is bright green- about 3 minutes. Add chicken and cornstarch mixture, bring to a boil. Cook 2-3 minutes, until chicken is opaque and sauce has thickened. Serve over rice.

Now,please don't hate me, but my kids eat everything that is put in front of them. The main reason for this is because they are not given a choice. You eat what you are given or you don't eat. This is not to say that we don't sometimes have problems, but they are rare. We try to keep meals fun by giving them different names and by using chopsticks with our Asian cuisine.

Asian Spring Rolls

When I worked in St Paul there was a little Vietnamese restaurant just a couple doors down. I lived on their Spring Rolls. Good, fresh ingredients wrapped in a soft shell. And, best of all, not fried.

I was so sad when they closed. And I could never find an unfried Spring Roll. So when I saw this recipe in October's Fitness magazine I had to try it.

Asian Spring Rolls

8- 8 inch round spring roll wrappers (I found mine at Hy Vee, a local grocery store)
2 cups shredded Bibb lettuce (I used cabbage because I couldn't find Bibb)
8 ounces cooked, peeled and deveined shrimp, coarsely chopped
1 c shredded carrot
1/4 c sliced scallion
2 T chopped fresh cilantro
5 T bottled peanut sauce
2 T seasoned rice vinegar

Fill a shallow dish with warm water. Dip each spring roll wrapper in water, place between damp paper towels for 10 minutes. Tip: use damp paper towels to separate moist wrappers! In a large bowl combine lettuce, shrimp, carrot, scallion, cilantro, 2 T peanut sauce and 1 T rice vinegar. Toss.

In a small bowl stir together the remaining 3 T peanut sauce and 1 T rice vinegar; set aside.

Place 1/2 c of the shrimp mixture half an inch from the bottom edge of a wrapper. Fold bottome edge of the wrapper over the filling. Fold sides over and roll up. Repeat with remaining wrappers.

Other ideas:
This would be great with chicken!
Sprouts would also be good, I think.

Brenna liked them because they had "dippies"!