Speedy Chicken Stirfry

It's that time again, when Kraft Food and Family sends me another magazine and I use it A LOT! I loved this recipe and there are no leftovers since those were eaten today so you know it was good when the leftovers are no longer around. My favorite part of this recipe is the Kraft Asian dressing, I love all the flavors they have that help make a dish wonderful! I give it a 5!

8 oz. angel hair pasta (capellini), uncooked
2 cups small broccoli florets
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
1/2 cup KRAFT Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1/4 tsp. each: ground ginger, garlic powder, crushed red pepper
1/3 cup chopped PLANTERS Dry Roasted Peanuts

COOK pasta as directed on package, adding broccoli to the boiling water for the last 3 min. of the pasta cooking time.

MEANWHILE, spray large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; heat on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 6 to 8 min. or until cooked through, stirring occasionally. Stir in dressing, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and crushed red pepper; cook 1 min., stirring occasionally.

DRAIN pasta mixture; place in large bowl. Add chicken mixture; mix lightly. Spoon evenly into four serving bowls; sprinkle with the peanuts.

Asian Orange Chicken

Thanks to the baby on the way, I had the craving for Orange Chicken from a chinese restaurant. Unfortunately, we have been eating out too much so I had to go and find a way to make it. Well I found it on allrecipes.com and it actually tasted like the orange chicken you get from Fortune Chinese (a cheap chinese restaurant a few blocks away) so I was in heaven. The only difference I made was in the vinegar...I didn't have rice vinegar so I used apple cider vinegar instead...tasted just fine to me. Even Aiden ate it, it was gone quicker than I could put it on his tray! I give this recipe a 5!

INGREDIENTS
Sauce:
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

Chicken:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil

DIRECTIONS
Pour into saucepan 1 1/2 cups water, orange juice, lemon juice, rice vinegar, and soy sauce; and set over medium-high heat. Stir in orange zest, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, and chopped onion. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat, and let cool 10 to 15 minutes.

Place chicken pieces into a resealable plastic bag. When contents of saucepan have cooled, pour 1 cup of sauce into bag. Reserve remaining sauce. Seal bag, and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

In another resealable plastic bag, mix the flour, salt, and peppers.
Add marinated chicken pieces, and shake to coat.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place chicken in skillet, and brown on both sides. Remove to paper towels, and cover with aluminum foil.

Wipe out the skillet, and add the sauce. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Mix together cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water, and stir into sauce. Reduce heat to medium low; stir in chicken pieces, and simmer, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Beef Rice Skillet

Last night I made a recipe out of the Kraft Food and Family magazine. Check out the link to sign up for this free magazine. There are tons of recipes and they're all easy! The best part is the magazine is FREE and it's not just a one issue type FREE. Anyway there's my plug for Food and Family. So this meal was really easy to make and I didn't have to cook anything ahead of time. I just put it all into the skillet and cooked it together. Here's the recipe:

1lb. beef steak, cut into strips
1 1/2 cups minute rice
1 can (14 1/2 oz.) beef broth
1/4 cup water
1 can (7oz.) sliced mushrooms, drained
2 cups thinly sliced carrots
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1. Spray large skillet with cooking spray. Add meat; cover. Cook on medium-high heat for 10 min. or until cooked through, turning meat over after 5 min.

2. Add liquids and rice; mix well. Bring to boil.

3. Stir in mushrooms, carrots and seasonings; cover. Bring to boil once more then turn off and let stand for 5 min.

Makes 4 servings.

Sweet and sour beef

Tonight's meal was Sweet and Sour Beef. Let's just say I won't be making this recipe again. It's just beef, carrots and sweet and sour sauce. Not much to it. And to quote Tim "It's not disgusting or anything but it's not my favorite" now there's a first from his mouth. I have to admit it wasn't my favorite meal either.....I give this recipe 1/2 a star.

Ingredients

2lbs stew meat, cubed
1 bottle (10 oz) sweet and sour sauce
1 cup shredded carrots
4-6 cups hot cooked rice

Directions

Combine all ingredients except rice in greased slow cooker. Cover and
cook on low heat 6-8 hours. Ladle over hot cooked rice. Makes 4-6
servings.

Sweet-and-Sour Chicken

Ok so last night was sweet and sour chicken on pg 81. It turned out ok....there are 2 things you need to consider with this recipe...the first is that you don't have to use the specific type of frozen vegetables she asks for. I used frozen broccoli and california vegetable medley and it was fine. The 2nd thing to realize is the amount of sweet and sour sauce it calls for. Usually in this book when she says to use one container of something, you go to the store buy one container of it and it's the right amount, like a standard amount....however that's not the case with sweet and sour sauce. I went to wal-mart and bought a container of the sauce and when I looked at the recipe again it said 18 oz of sauce....my bottle only had 10 oz......so the sweet and sour flavor wasn't as strong as it should have been. So be careful when going to the store to buy the ingredients make sure that the package has the amount she calls for the recipe. I'll have to make this one again with the right amount of sauce but for now I give this recipe a 3 because I have to do it again......darn that sweet and sour sauce!

Ingredients

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 jar (18 oz) sweet and sour sauce
1 bag (16 oz) frozen stir fry vegetables
6 cups cooked rice
1/4 to 1/2 cup toasted, chopped almonds, optional
1/2 tsp salt

Directions

Cut chicken into 1 inch pieces. In greased slow cooker, combine
chicken, sweet and sour sauce, frozen vegetables and salt. Cover and cook
on high heat for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or on low heat for 5-6 hours.

Serve over cooked rice and sprinkle with almonds. Makes 4-6
servings

Orange Chicken

So my first choice of recipe was Orange Chicken on pg 86. So I followed the instructions to a T and when it came time to eat....well lets just say the chicken really didn't taste much like an orange...not really much orange flavor to it at all. Now when I think about Orange Chicken I'm thinking of the awesome stuff that Panda Express makes and any other American Chinese restaurant makes. Now I knew it wouldn't be exactly the same thing but I thought maybe it would at least taste like it. I mean for crying out loud it called for orange juice, cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard and hot pepper sauce so you'd think it'd have some sort of flavor.....did I mention it didn't have much flavor?! Of course my husband said it was good and ate it anyway even if he was humoring me...but come on.....all those ingredients and a little tiny bit of flavor?

Anyway, it called for 6 chicken breasts! We're 2 people, we had better not be eating 6 pieces of chicken in one sitting! So the other 4 pieces of chicken were used throughout the week for other dinners. I have to say it's nice to have already cooked chicken at your disposal, especially if that chicken doesn't have much flavor, that way you can make any kind of dish you want and change the flavor of the magnificent "Orange Chicken"....can you sense the sarcasm? Well that's one recipe down and I guess about 100 more to go? Out of 5 stars I'll give this recipe a 3 it's just average.

Ingredients

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup molasses
2 Tbsp cider vinegar
2 Tbsp orange juice
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/8-1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce, optional

Directions

Place chicken in greased 4 1/2 to 6 qt slow cooker. Combine molasses, vinegar, orange juice, Worcestershire, mustard, and hot sauce if using. Pour sauce over the top of chicken. Cover and cook on high heat 3-4 hours or on low heat 7-9 hours. Makes 6 servings.