The family that cooks together....

I just posted a recipe that I made last night in hopes that you will find it useful and enticing enough to try it out yourself!

Well, I have another recipe to share with you; one that I KNOW you'll find delish and just as easy to make, especially for us mommies that have limited time to make nutritious meals for our family.

This past Sunday, Keifer told me she wanted to help me make a new stir fry recipe that I found in my magazine Everyday Food. I typically DO NOT make recipes that I find in this particular cooking magazine, due to their higher calorie count and me just not being too interested in what they suggest. However, being a lover of Chinese food, I thought this might be worth a try!

The Recipe:

Sweet and Sour Chicken with Green Beans

Source: EveryDay Food January/February 2011

ingredients:

1 cup long-grain white rice

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup white vinegar

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

1 1/4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 bell peppers (any color), seeded and diced large

1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and halved

5 scallions, thinly sliced

2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 Tablespoons chopped roasted peanuts (optional)

instructions:

1. Cook rice according to package instructions. Meanwhile, in a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together cornstarch, sugar, soy sauce, and vinegar. Set aside.

2. In a large skillet or wok, heat oil over high. Add chicken, bell peppers and green beans and cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add scallions, ginger and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender, about 4 minutes.

3. Whisk soy sauce mixture, add to skillet, and cook, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Fluff rice with a fork. To serve, spoon chicken mixture over rice and top with peanuts if desired.

Serves: 4

Nutritional information: 447 calories, 8g fat (2g sat), 36g protein, 61 carbs, 5g fiber

MY TIP? Cut the sugar in half- it does turn out pretty darn sweet (unless, of course, you have a sweet tooth)

Keifer helped me grocery shop for the ingredients that afternoon, and put the green beans I cleaned and chopped into a bowl for me (she also did this with the red peppers we used, and to my delight, she also snacked on about 4 strips of them!)

She (K1) picked up the camera and took a NOT so flattering shot of mommy chopping the veggies

Mama & her girl (sous chef?) I'll have you know, this girl does a great job with the whisk!! She whisked the sauce VERY CAREFULLY for me, while I prepped the chicken.

What Kyla was doing while we chopped veggies: having a good time coloring (and no, we don't change her out of her jammies much on weekends unless we go somewhere! LOL)

Here is the Sweet and Sour Chicken, minus the scallions that I forgot to put on my list! It was just as tasty as it looked! I added some peanuts to the top and scooped this out on top of brown rice. YUM!

I will also tell you that our sister-in-law Jill stopped over with Abby & Mason while I was cooking this, and when she walked in, she thought we had ordered some Chinese take-out! That was a huge compliment to me! *grin*

Now, onto the other recipe. I did NOT take pictures of myself prepping and cooking that particular meal, as we were late into the evening (much later than I had hoped) and I was in a bit of a panic, as the recipe called for Corn Flakes and we didn't have any. However, I improvised and used Rice Krispies, and can I just say YUMMY?

Here is the recipe and what I did to it was I crushed the rice krispies, added some Lawry's seasoning salt, some pepper and some paprika. I used only egg whites to dip the chicken bites into, with a fork, and then rolled it in the crushed krispie mixture. I put them on foil in a baking pan, and followed the baking instructions. I served with some pre-bought sweet potato fries and EVERYONE in the house (yes, daddy!) loved it!