Meal Mondays: Chicken Fried Rice

The Recipe:
The other night, Steven was eating a pack of chicken fried rice microwave dinner and I was like, “Man, I could make this at home and I bet it’s easier, healthier, and cheaper.” It turns out I was right. Recipe adapted from here.

The Ingredients:
2-3 chicken breasts
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
Pinch ground ginger
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 cups cooked rice
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 each small white onion and carrot, finely chopped
1 cup frozen peas
3 Tablespoons soy sauce (more or less to taste)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons chopped green onions

The Method:
1. Earlier in the day, preheat oven to 350F. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, soy sauce, cider vinegar, ginger, and garlic. Brush over chicken breasts in small baking dish; bake for about 40 minutes, flipping once to coat in sauce. Cool, shred, and set aside.
2. In a large wok or frying pan, heat sesame oil. Fry carrots and onion until soft. Stir in peas.
3. Push vegetables to one side of pan and scramble eggs in the other side. Stir together, then add shredded chicken, cooked rice, and soy sauce. Fry until heated through. Serve topped with green onions.

The Verdict:
Easy, tasty, healthier than boughten. We held back on the soy sauce and added more at table so it was very baby- and toddler-friendly.

Meal Mondays: A Week of Lunches

Since Steven started farm work, we’ve had the great blessing of being able to eat three meals a day together as a family. Seriously, it’s like Little House on the Prairie. Breakfast is usually a bit of a rush so I don’t change it up too much– usually sausage, eggs (soft-boiled or scrambled), and fruit on the side, sometimes toast. But lunches, I think I’ve just hit my stride with. Here’s my usual weekly lunch meal-plan.

Monday: Grilled Cheese & Soup
We love Baxter’s Winter Squash and Carrot Soup but in a pinch will have Cup-o-Soup; Scout Kid never eats enough of it for me to be worried about the salt.

Tuesday: Hot Dogs
We buy Schneider’s Country Naturals, and now when I eat regular old hot dogs the taste difference is actually off-putting. Worth the extra money, in my opinion. We toast the buns and fry up onions for on top.

Wednesday: Thin-Crust Pizza
I divide my bread-maker pizza dough in thirds and freeze it. I’m on a tight schedule between nursing Feral Kid and getting lunch on the table, so we keep the toppings simple: pizza sauce, frozen mozzarella, some sliced peppers and onions, and a little pepperoni or ham.

Thursday: Quesedillas
Tortillas with cheddar and diced deli ham, pan-fried and served with sour cream and salsa.

Friday: Burgers
I’ve just added this to the rotation after realizing I could make a big batch of homemade burgers and freeze most of it. We like ours trimmed to the hilt- pickles, lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard, ketchup, cheese, the whole nine yards. I make teeny little patties for Scout Kid and Feral Kid to eat. (Sometimes I’ll do subs instead one day of the week.)

Meal Mondays: Oven-Baked Orange Chicken

The Recipe:
I originally made this for Scout Kid’s first birthday because at the time chicken drumettes, with their little handles so perfect for small clumsy fists, were a big favourite. A year and a few months later, I have a toddler who reallllly doesn’t like chicken. Like no other toddler ever. He loves beef, he loves tomatoes and peppers, he’ll happily stir together rice and green beans and eat them up, he’s never had that toddler thing of hating saucy, mixed up food, but when chicken touches his tongue you’d think it was poison. Um, okay, son. More for the rest of us…

Original recipe from Just A Taste.

The Ingredients:
2½ pounds chicken wings, tips removed, drumettes and flats separated
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (more if you’re not sharing with a two-year-old)
3/4 cup orange marmalade
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 cup rice

The Method:
1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Thoroughly dry off wings with a paper towel and spread out on a foil-lined baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bake until fully cooked, 45 to 50 minutes.
2. With about 15 minutes remaining for the wings, begin cooking rice (according to package directions) and sauce. Place the oil, garlic, and ginger in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and cook for about 3 minutes, until golden-brown. Add the red pepper flakes, marmalade, and soy sauce. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.
3. Remove wings from oven and toss with sauce in a large bowl. Serve over rice with extra sauce poured over.

The Verdict:
Really good. Even Scout Kid condescended to take a few bites.

Meal Mondays: Chicken Enchiladas

The Recipe:
I tried quite a few enchilada recipes in my research for the 365 Recipe Project, including one that was touted as the “best ever” on Pinterest (which is actually usually totally inaccurate, so, rookie error on my part.) But all of them left me cold. So soggy. But then my mother-in-law mentioned that my sister-in-law had made some really good ones, so I snagged her recipe.

The Ingredients:
1 small onion, chopped
1 small bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon each chili powder, garlic powder, and cumin
1 package cream cheese, room temperature
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
3/4 cup salsa, plus a little additional
2 cups shredded cheddar
About 5 flour tortillas

The Method: 
1. Preheat oven to 350F. In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, cook pepper and onion in butter. Stir in spices, then reduce heat to low, add cream cheese, and cook until melted. Add chicken and salsa.
2. Remove from heat. Spread a thin layer of salsa in a 9×13″ baking dish. Spoon mixture into tortillas, wrap, and line up in baking dish. Cover with salsa and shredded cheese.
3. Bake for 15-20, broiling for a minute or two to brown the cheese if desired. Serve with sour cream and salsa to dip.

The Verdict:
Yum. I loved these. The cream cheese flavour was really nice. I should note though that I used very little salsa on top so they were more crispy; just a thin layer like on the bottom of the dish instead of pouring it over. So maybe not the most authentic enchiladas, but definitely ones that are going into the rotation.

365 Recipes: Butter Chicken and Naan Bread

The Recipe:
I came to an important discovery tonight. If I make naan, I need to make enough so that there’s decisively too much left for me to eat. If I make enough that it’s up in the air whether I can manage to finish it all– I’mma finish it all.

The Ingredients:
For the Butter Chicken:
3 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 medium carrots
1 large onion
Patak’s Butter Chicken Sauce
1-2 tablespoons butter
For the Naan:
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup water (80-90F)
2.5-3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup melted butter
1/3 cup sour cream/Greek yogurt
1 large egg

The Method:
1. Preheat oven to 400F. Place chicken breasts in a baking dish, drizzle with olive oil, and bake for 25-30 minutes, until just done (but not dry). Cut into bite-size pieces and set aside.
2. Start the naan bread 1 hour before you’d like to eat. Combine the yeast, sugar and water, stir to dissolve, and let sit for a few minutes until frothy on top. Stir in the oil, sour cream, and egg until evenly combined.
3. In a medium bowl, combine 1 cup of flour with the salt. Add the bowl of wet ingredients and stir until well-combined. Continue adding flour 1/2 cup at a time until mixture can no longer be stirred with a spoon.
4. Knead the dough on a well-floured countertop for about 3 minutes, adding flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking. The dough should be smooth and very soft but not sticky. Loosely cover the dough and let rise for about 45 minutes.
5. Roughly chop carrots and onions and cook in butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. When cooked through, add chicken, let brown for a minute or two, and add sauce. Stir to combine, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes while you finish preparing naan.
6. After the naan dough has risen, heat a large, heavy-bottomed skillet or griddle over medium heat and butter it generously. Roll out dough to 1/4″ thickness and carefully transfer to skillet (make two rounds if pan is too small for one large bread. Cook on one side until large bubbles form on the surface. Flip the dough and cook the other side to golden brown. Brush with butter and serve with butter chicken.

The Verdict:
Sometimes dinner is so good I just go ahead and compliment myself on it. Tonight was one of those nights.

Note: If you want to serve a larger crowd with this, you can also serve it over rice with naan on the side. 

365 Recipes: Chicken and Biscuit Potpie

The Recipe:
Chicken potpie is so much easier with just a biscuit crust on top instead of a full top and bottom crust. This one happens to be a delicious buttermilk biscuit recipe that I use without the pie when I just want biscuits, too. Using a star cutter is optional, unless you’ve got a two-year-old cutting out the biscuits for you, in which case stars are obvs mandatory.

The Ingredients:
For the Biscuits:
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/4″ cubes
3/4 cup buttermilk
For the Filling:
1 tablespoon butter
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cups milk
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon each thyme and parsley
3 tablespoons cooking sherry
3-4 cups cooked shredded chicken
3/4 cup frozen mixed vegetables

The Method:
1. In a large bowl. stir together biscuit dry ingredients. Cut in butter, then stir in buttermilk with a fork until mixture comes together. If the dough is too dry, add a little extra buttermilk 1 tablespoon at a time.
2. Roll out dough on floured surface to 3/4″ thickness and cut out 12 rounds with a 3″ cookie cutter. Transfer to a plate and chill until ready to add to pie.
3. Preheat oven to 400F. Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Cook carrots, onions, and celery until tender. Season with salt and pepper and place in a 9×13″ baking dish along with the chicken and frozen vegetables. Set aside.
4. In the same pot, reduce heat to medium, add butter, and let it melt. Whisk in the flour, then slowly add the milk, chicken broth, parsley, and thyme. Whisk constantly and simmer until thickened. Stir in sherry and add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Stir sauce into chicken-vegetable mixture and bake for 18 minutes. Remove dish from the oven and place the biscuits on top of the filling, then bake an additional 10-12 minutes, until biscuits are golden-brown and filling is bubbling.

The Verdict:
Quintessentially good. I suppose it might be possible to improve on this classic recipe, but I’m totally unmotivated to research other recipes, because this one is really great.

Food For Thought: Feasting and Fasting

In her post on the Gospel Coalition blog, “Towards a Theology of Dessert“, Bethany Jenkins shared this quote from Kyle Werner that I really like:

“In the Bible, we see God regularly calling his people to fast and to feast. Through fasting, we learn an increased dependence on God’s strength; our physical appetite helps intensify our spiritual appetite. On the other hand, feasting reminds us of the original goodness and bounty of God’s creation, the redeeming work he is doing, and our fellowship in the body of Christ. Our regular eating routines can benefit greatly by being expanded in both directions through the extremes of these two spiritual disciplines.”