Asian Ginger Beef

I spend most of my early twenties drinking lots of coffee and not eating all that healthy. I blame the combination of running, working and taking a full course load at University of Washington. Add to that I had the brilliant (not) idea of double majoring and a commute that took at least 1 1/2 half and food always seemed to take a back seat. I literally had very little time to prepare pretty much anything so I relied on large amounts of caffeine and the occasional meal out. Luckily for me Seattle is full of great restaurants that when planned well can be reasonable on a limited budget. One dish that I loved throughout college was stir-fry. Whether made at home or restaurant bought it was always full of flavor and delicious. Most importantly it contained a large amount of vegetables, which with my food habits was probably the largest amount of vegetables I consumed every month. Luckily after I moved and met my husband I also discovered that vegetables are delicious and should be eaten daily. My two boys have grown-up with a very different relationship with food and eat more fruits and vegetables that I think I ever did. Last week I tried a new recipe for Asian Ginger Beef from All You magazine, which looked very simple and full of vegetables.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 14 minutes of cooking time, 10 minutes of prep, and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. Since I can no longer eat gluten I use gluten-free soy sauce. I also make my own beef broth, since I believe that it tastes better than store bought. Instead of serving this recipe over white rice, I used brown rice. I stopped serving white rice approximately 6 months ago and after an adjustment period my two boys prefer it over white rice. The recipe suggests to allow the mixture to cook for 1 minute after adding the sauce. I did things a little bit differently. My veggie mixture was a little watery from the frozen veggies so I increased the cornstarch to a full tablespoon and let the mixture cook until almost all the liquid was absorbed. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two kids really enjoyed the beef in this recipe and ate all the beef out of their serving. My husband and I thought that the dish was a decent beef stir-fry recipe, but neither of us thought the title ginger beef was accurate. The flavor of the ginger was not overly noticeable. In order for this recipe to be ginger beef I would suggest increasing the amount of ginger to suit your taste. As written, the dish was a nice beef stir-fry, but was light on the ginger. With an increase in the amount of ginger I think that it could be a quick and child friendly ginger beef recipe.

For the recipe go to Asian Ginger Beef.

Slowcooker Asian Beef and Broccoli

I think there seems to be a theme to my blog lately. As you may have noticed I love my crockpot and I use it a ton. While some people may use theirs once every month or two, I normally use mine once or twice a week. It's especially a great tool when I have no time or things in my life have been stressful. With two growing boys that seems to be a frequent occurrence. One food item that I struggle with my boys to eat is meat. Some weeks they love chicken, the next week pork. As you can imagine it can be mildly irritating. The crockpot has been a great tool to encourage my children to try new meat dishes without having to spend hours in the kitchen. Recently I tried a new recipe for Asian Beef and Broccoli from the September issue of Parents magazine, which with only 20 minutes of active time looked perfect for a weeknight meal.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 6 1/2 hours of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no ingredient modifications. One major change that I made to the recipe was to the sear the beef before adding it to the crockpot. I always brown meat before adding it to the crockpot, it helps to retain the moisture while the meat cooks. Additionally, my two boys broke my fine-mesh sieve so I skipped that step and added all juice from the slowcooker to the pan. If you aren't a fan of  frozen broccoli, fresh broccoli would work just as well. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two boys loved the orange flavor in this recipe. I liked that each serving offers 44 grams of protein and was very child friendly. If you aren't a fan of store bought marmalade, home-made jam would work just as well. I have stopped serving white rice and this recipe worked great over brown rice. I think if I made it again I would use fresh broccoli, it would keep the broccoli crisper, which my family prefers.

For the recipe go to Asian Beef and Broccoli.

Chipotle-Orange Broccoli and Tofu

My father was a huge meat eater growing-up. If there wasn't meat at every meal, he would make it known by complaining endlessly. It was never obvious complaining. He would ask my mother if part of the meal was missing or if the tofu was a starter course and the main meat part of the meal was coming later. This was the same father that ate 5 bologna sandwiches for lunch when my parents first met and was skinny as a rail. My favorite thing was going to a buffet with a salad bar with my parents. I would always get a large salad with maybe a little amount of bacon bits and some nuts. My father on the other hand would put no greens and all the real bacon that he could find. To this day he never goes to the doctor and health wise is in better shape that anyone else that I know. I hope that I inherited those genes, because the man never ceases to amaze me. Due to my dad's obsession with meat, I of course went the opposite extreme and decided to become a vegetarian in the beginning of high-school. It drove my dad slightly nuts. He would always ask me if I could have a little bit of meat and still be a vegetarian. To him small amounts of meat wouldn't really count as being a meat eater. Tofu was a battle I tried very hard to win my dad over to the side of eating. It never really worked. He would eat it when we ordered Phad Thai, as long as there was another dish with meat. Luckily I married a man that is willing to at least eat one dinner a week that is vegetarian. Granted he starts to get a little grumpy when he goes more than two days without meat, but he at least puts forth some effort. Last week I tried a new recipe for Chipotle-Orange Broccoli and Tofu from the September/October issue of Eating Well magazine, which looked like a quick and healthy weeknight meal option.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and I made no ingredient modifications. However, I did change a few of the recipe steps. I let the tofu drain between layers of paper towels and a weighted plate for approximately 30 minutes. This step allows most of the water to drain out and ensures that the tofu will get a nice brown outside layer. Additionally, I ended up adding cornstarch to the orange juice mixture in order to thicken the sauce. Without the cornstarch, the orange juice sauce was too thin for my tastes. Make sure to allow the tofu to form a nice brown layer before turning it. This step will make the tofu evenly browned and have a better texture. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I was unsure if this recipe would taste decent after I was halfway through the steps. The orange juice mixture was too thin and it didn't seem like there would be enough ingredients to have much flavor. However, after adding the cornstarch to thicken and the addition of the cilantro (and lots of salt, you really do need to add salt for this dish to taste adequate) this recipe was very delicious. My two boys thought it was a tad on the spicy side, so if you are making this for kids I would suggest seeding the chipotle pepper. Overall, a healthy vegan meal that is a great way to add more meatless meals into your diet.

For the recipe go to Chipotle Orange Broccoli and Tofu.

Kung Pao Chicken

 

My oldest son loves chicken. Don't get me wrong he devours bacon and can eat a far larger portion that I ever can, but most days his meat of choice is chicken. It has been this way as far back as I can remember. When he started table foods I would cut up whatever food we were eating into very small bites and serve it to him. Most foods he wanted nothing to do with, until he discovered chicken. I thought that he would never stop breastfeeding and start table foods and then chicken became center stage (he still breastfed until I was halfway through my pregnancy with my youngest, but that is another long story). To this day if I mention dinner will contain chicken he gets very excited. He is also at the stage where he is wanting to help me more and more in the kitchen. I welcome this curiosity and enthusiasm, it's a great way to teach math without him knowing. Currently, he is still too young to handle the raw meat, but he has become quite good at measuring out ingredients and peeling vegetables. This week my oldest and I made a recipe for Kung Pao Chicken from the September issue of All You magazine.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 15 minutes of prep and 20 minutes of cook time and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients and made no ingredient modifications. As always I made my own chicken stock. Additionally since I don't salt my stock I used regular soy sauce instead of reduced-sodium. I used a whole head of broccoli, which was slightly more than the four cups suggested by the recipe. For my serving I decided to leave off the chopped peanuts, but my husband served it this way and thought it was delicious. Finally I let my chicken and vegetables cook together closer to 10 minutes to ensure that my chicken thighs were fully cooked. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My husband was disappointed that this recipe didn't taste like Kung Pao chicken. Kung Pao chicken is one of his favorite dishes, so he was expecting something different from this dish. He still thought that this recipe had a great flavor, but was in no way traditional Kung Pao. My two boys on the other hand loved this recipe and ate all the leftovers. I would agree that it doesn't taste like traditional Kung Pao. To me it had a taste similar to garlic chicken, if the name of the recipe had been changed to garlic chicken it would have been more accurate. Regardless of the name it is a very easy and inexpensive chicken recipe.

For the recipe go to Kung Pao Chicken.

All You Parmesan Chicken with Bow Ties

In the last six months I have been making an effort to increase the amount of chicken and fish in my family's diet. This might seem like an easy task for most families and it would be except for one major fact, the males in my family love bacon. Not just bacon, but pretty much any type of pork. If my husband was left to feed himself 90 percent of the time he would be eating some form of red meat. This is the exact opposite of me. I grew up in Seattle and we rarely ate red meat in my house. My mother was a great cook and cooked a variety of vegetarian dishes. So much so that I was a vegetarian starting when I was 15 until I was 23. In my mid twenties I slowly added meat back into my diet, but was still mostly chicken and fish. Then in graduate school I met my husband. We were opposites in regards to food. His idea of a great lunch involved pizza or fried fish. Those were and are two of the foods that the grease literally makes me sick to my stomach. Somehow we managed to stay together and now after being married for almost 10 years I have slowly began to change his eating habits. We rarely eat out and when we do it's a treat, not a regular occurrence. Most important of all my husband has transitioned to red meat approximately once a week, which is huge progress I promise. Since chicken breasts have never been one of my husband's favorite foods, I am always looking for new recipes and I was interested when the March issue of All You magazine had a recipe for Parmesan Chicken with Bow Ties.

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 10 minutes of prep and 10 minutes of cook time and makes 6 servings. All the ingredients in this recipe are basic and I had no problems finding any of them at my local grocery store. I chose to use frozen broccoli instead of fresh. The price is much cheaper and it's easier to stick frozen broccoli in the microwave than deal with cutting and prepping fresh broccoli while my two boys scream for dinner. I chose to use a full pound of pasta, instead of the 12 ounces suggested by the recipe. Finally, I bought skinless-boneless chicken breast, instead of the skin-on bone-in used in the recipe. Honestly, I made this the day after Easter when my in-laws were in town and after a long day I wanted to save as much time as possible. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

At a cost of only 91 cents per serving this recipe is very inexpensive. Plus it takes less than twenty minutes to prepare and has 38 grams of protein. My in-laws loved this recipe and asked for seconds. My kids picked out the chicken and ignored the rest of the dish. If you are looking for a flavor-punch this recipe isn't for you. However, if you are looking for a simple pasta dish that can literally be made in minutes this recipe is perfect. Kids that aren't receptive to spiciness or too many flavor combinations would eat this dish happily (or in-laws that have the same tastes). Overall, an easy pasta recipe that's full of protein and takes minutes to prepare.

For the recipe go to Parmesan Chicken with Bow Ties.

Better Homes and Gardens Gemelli with Asparagus and Sausage

My family really loves pasta. Growing up the one dish I would always eat that my mother made was pasta. I loved it anyway she prepared it and ate multiple servings. My two boys have inherited my love of all things pasta and ask for it frequently. I make pasta about once a week, so I am always looking for new ways to prepare it. The September issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine had a recipe for Gemelli with Asparagus and Sausage, which looked different than my usual pasta routine and very easy to prepare.

This recipe has 11 ingredients (if you use the optional ingredients). The total time start to finish is approximately 40 minutes. All the ingredients were easy to find at my local grocery store. I did make a few modifications in order to save money. Instead of using asparagus, which can be quite expensive, I used broccoli. Instead of bulk Italian sausage, I bough linked sausage and took it out of the casing. I did use pine nuts, since I already had some in my cupboard from previous recipes. Finally, I used whole milk ricotta instead of the sheep's milk cheese. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two boys liked this recipe. I liked that the prep work was minimal and the dish turned out well. My husband took the leftovers to work the next day and they re-heated great. Substituting the broccoli for the asparagus was a great way to save money and tasted delicious. Overall, an easy pasta dish with vegetables and protein which can easily be made in less than an hour.

For the recipe go to Gemelli with Asparagus and Sausage.

Better Homes and Gardens Chicken and Vegetable Spaghetti

I have been lucky with my two boys and their eating habits. Every couple of weeks when I turn on morning television there seems to be a chief trying to find dishes to 'hide' vegetables for kids. Trust me I understand all about kids not wanting to eat certain foods, or even try something that looks unusual. However, I have never hidden any vegetables, because for whatever reason, my two boys absolutely love any type of fruit or vegetable. I feel lucky for this fact and use vegetables daily in my meal plans. The August issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine had a recipe for Chicken and Vegetable Spaghetti, which included multiple vegetables, and looked perfect for my vegetable loving children.

This recipe has 10 ingredients (if you include the optional items). The total prep and cooking time is approximately 35 minutes. I have never seen broccollini in any of the stores around her, so I substituted regular broccoli. Additionally, I used red cherry tomatoes, there are never any yellow to be found anywhere near me and  i added the salt and crushed red pepper. I left our the dried parsley flakes, mostly because I couldn't find the bottle I have in my spice cupboard and since it was optional I didn't buy more. The biggest change that I made was to use homemade chicken stock. I love homemade stock and it is one of the easiest ways to save money ( I will post the recipe sometime in the next couple of weeks). I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

On the plate, this recipe looks delicious. However, there were a few problems with the dish. I don't know if it's just me, but the taste of the frozen pearl onions was not pleasant. They had a slightly slimy texture and a bitter taste, that I didn't care for. I believe taking the extra time to soak and caramelize fresh pearl onions would have benefited this recipe greatly. It was almost as if there were too many things competing on the plate for attention. I think the recipe would be benefit from the onions being removed or using fresh and caramelizing. However, I must say that my two boys liked this recipe, especially my two-year-old, so it's kid friendly and easy to prepare, which is always a plus.


For the recipe go to Better Homes and Gardens Chicken and Vegetable Spaghetti.