Sesame Chicken

I haven't posted in a while...life got crazy. I made this last week and it was so easy and so yummy I just had to share. Parker loved it so much that he was asking to have it again the next night after he took his first bite. The "sesame" part was a bit of an exaggeration because I doubled the sauce ingredients and I rant out of sesame seeds. Kevin asked me to make it again this week. I think this time I'll toss the sesame seeds in after the sauce has started to thicken so it doesn't get lost in the sauce and then sprinkle a little extra on top of each serving. I'm also making more for leftovers for lunch! I loved this recipe in part because I had all the sauce ingredients and if I didn't, I substituted with ingredients I already had on hand.

                                 

Gather it:
CHICKEN
1.5 lbs chicken (I used boneless skinless thighs); cut in 1" pieces
1 egg
2 Tbsp flour
Salt and pepper
~ 2 Tbsp vegetable oil for frying

SAUCE
4 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sesame oil
4 Tbsp brown sugar
3 Tbsp white wine vinegar
4 cloves of garlic (we love garlic)
3 Tbsp sesame seeds
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp water

Make it:
1) In a large bowl whisk flour, salt and pepper (I eyeballed this) and eggs together. Place chicken in bowl and coat with egg mixture.

2) Over medium high heat, heat vegetable oil in a large skillet. Cook chicken, stirring occasionally to brown all sides and cooked through.

3) While chicken is cooking, combine all sauce ingredients in a small bowl except for the sesame seeds.

4) Pour sauce mixture over the cooked chicken. Combine and toss the chicken to coat in the sauce, which will start to thicken. Turn off heat and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Serve with rice and top with a little more sesame seeds and scallions! Enjoy!!!

Chicken with Tomato & Mushroom Sauce

I've been craving pasta and this recipe totally hit the spot. I've made fresh tomato sauces before, but this time I decided to add mushrooms since I had some leftover from another dish that I made. This dish was so easy and yummy...fits my requirements when I cook!

                                      

Gather it:
3 large tomatoes, diced (about 3 cups)
Mushrooms, sliced (about 2 cups)
Large handful of fresh basil, sliced into ribbons
5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tbsp butter
4 chicken breasts
1 lb of pasta

Make it:
1) In a large pan, heat up about 1 Tbsp of olive oil. Meanwhile season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. If the breasts are thick you can pound them a little bit to thin them out and cook faster.

2) In a large pot, boil water for pasta. Cook pasta according to the directions on the box.

3) Place chicken breasts in hot oil and cook for about 5-6 minutes. Flip to other side and cook for another 4-5 minutes or until cooked through. I had to cook mine in two batches because the breasts were fairly large. Place all 4 breasts on a plate and allow to rest.

4) In the same pan, place mushrooms and allow to soften for about 5 minutes.

5) Add tomatoes, cook 5 minutes. Add garlic, butter, and basil (reserve a small amount for garnish). Season with more salt and pepper to taste. Cook for another 2-3 minutes. Make sure to scrape up all the yummy goodness on e bottom of the pan from the chicken!

6) In a large bowl, place pasta in bottom of bowl, top with sauce, then chicken. Add more sauce on top of chicken and garnish with basil.

It was delish! The kids loved it...even the whole wheat spaghetti. Kevin's not a fan of whole wheat pasta, but the meal really needed pasta that you have to twirl! He ended up loving it too! Kevin and I added a sprinkle of red pepper flakes to our bowls. Next time I'm going to get a wedge of Parmesan and grate some on top to help finish the dish off.

Chicken Taco Salad

I had nothing to do with this meal...it was all the hubby. When I get home from work the kids are usually already bathe and in their pajamas and I just spend time with them before they head off to bed. Well my wonderful hubby fixed this up while I was busy racing Lightnight McQueen in my left hand and holding Goodnight Moon on my right hand and ready while Avery sat on my lap. This dinner takes me back to when I was little and my mom and I used to make taco salads for dinner. I have not had a homemade taco salad in forever! Super easy...of course it was...I didn't do anything! lol



Gather it:
flour tortillas
rotisserrie chicken, shredded
yellow rice, cooked according to package directions
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 large tomato, diced and seeded
1 small red onion, diced
fresh cilantro,
shredded cheddar cheese
lime wedge

Make it:
1. Preheat over to 350 degrees. Arrange tortilla in an oven safe bowl that is deep enough to create a "bowl" for your stuffing. Bake  until edges are golden brown and crispy...let's ignore the burn section of my tortilla bowl!

2. Scoop a little bit of everything into tortilla bowl and squeeze lemon juice over everything.

Hubby also used his special sauce...a must try!!!

Crockpot Chicken Pesto

I found this recipe on Pinterest (surprise!) and wasn't sure if Kevin would like it, but it looked so easy and yummy that I just had to try it. I had it cooking all day and I was still at work when Kevin and the kids had dinner. Kevin told me that it was really good and both kids ate everything on their plate and Avery had seconds. I think she might be going through a growth spurt b/c when I fixed myself a plate, she kept coming to me and saying "bite, bite". Little girl ate about 1/4 of my meal!

Gather it:
8 chicken thighs
1 packet of Ranch dressing mix
7 oz jar of pesto
1 cup of chicken broth (original recipe calls 1/2 cup, but we like a little sauce over our rice)
pepper, to taste

Make it:
1. Mix ranch, pesto, and broth together in crockpot.

2. Add chicken. Flip it to cover both sides or spoon pesto mixture over chicken.

3. Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours.

As with most crockpot meals that I do, it's easy and yummy! You must try it!

Here's the original recipe.

Fried Rice...errr Fried Quinoa

One day after making Tropical Quinoa Granola I decided to make something else with it...this time I wanted to try fried rice. I pinned a recipe, but didn't even look at it. I just used my own Fried Rice recipe and substituted quinoa for the rice. This recipe changes a little bit each time I make it - it all depends on what I have on hand. I used chicken adobo again b/c my mom made a huge batch when she visited this past weekend, but I've used the other half of the steak the kids didn't eat, some grilled chicken, and shrimp all at once. It just depends on how much meat I want to use or have on hand. It's a great way to use up leftovers. We cap out at eating leftovers once...after that we throw it away even though it's still good. Re-using the leftovers in fried rice makes it seem like we're not eating the same thing for the third time.

The kiddos ate this all up and didn't even bat an eyelash at the new texture. Kevin's response: "It's different, but it's good." lol

My quinoa turned out a little mushy b/c I did not let it cool completely b/c I had some hungry kids to feed. Cool your quinoa COMPLETELY. If you have time to do it earlier in the day or the night before and throw it in the fridge then even better. 

Gather it:

- 1.5 cups cooked (and cooled off) quinoa (it doesn't sound like much, but holy moly, we've got a lot of leftovers!)

- 1.5-2 cups of chicken adobo 

- 1 medium white onion, diced

- 5 cloves of garlic, minced

- 1 red bell pepper, diced

- frozen peas

- frozen corn

- dried parsley

- freshly ground pepper (to taste - I didn't use much since the Adobo had a lot of pepper in it already)

- soy sauce, to taste (I didn't use much since I used the sauce from the Adobo)

- about 1.5 Tbsp oil 

- about 2-3 Tbsp butter 

Make it:

1. Heat oil in a wok or a large skillet under medium/high heat. Saute onion until slightly softened. Add garlic - do not let it brown.

2. Add quinoa and red bell pepper and toss it in oil, onion, and garlic. Add butter. Let it "fry" for about 5 minutes - stirring every now and then to evenly fry the mixture.

3. Add frozen peas, corn and meat and let it warm through. Then add parsley, pepper, and soy sauce. Stir everything together.

Hot Wings

Kevin is a great cook...in fact right now he is making my favorite Filipino dish (that's a separate post). I worked last night and Kevin and I decided to have a date night in when I got home. He made some hot wings and we watched a movie (Just Friends...he thinks Mila Kunis is hot and I've been in love with Justin Timberlake since *NSync got together in the late 90s - perfect movie, yes?!?). The last time we went out for wings at our favorite wing place (Buffalo Wild Wings) we ended up spending tons of money! These wings are easy to make (ok really easy since I didn't have to lift a finger!) and cheap! They are spicy and yummy. When Kevin saw me lean over to take a pic, he said he tried to take pics as he went so I could blog about it (how thoughtful!!!), but it got to be too much (boo!). lol Anyway, here's how hubby makes his hot wings:

Gather it:
2 packages of chicken (ours come 10 in a package and we get all drumsticks)
about half a bottle of the 17.5 oz Texas Pete Buffalo Wing Sauce or your favorite sauce
1 Tbsp black pepper
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 Tbsp butter

Cook it:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degress. Meanwhile, combine pepper, salt, garlic, and parsley in a small bowl.

2. Place chicken on a baking sheet (line with foil for easy clean up) and sprinkle with spice mixture.

3. Bake chicken for 45 minutes. Flip chicken once half way through cooking time to evenly brown it.

4. Melt butter in a medium sized bowl and add 1/2 a bottle of buffalo sauce. Toss wings in butter/buffalo wing sauce mixture.

Serve with carrots and celery. We also had ours with curly fries - date night calls for special fries! lol We also had ranch (for Kevin) and blue cheese (for me) for dipping.

Hope you guys like it! Enjoy!

Fried Rice

I'm Asian (duh!)...Filipino to be exact and rice runs through my veins. I can eat rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and I LOVE fried rice. I think the first time my mom made fried rice for breakfast using up left over rice and meat, Kevin was like: "Where's the pancakes?". lol But now, he doesn't bat an eyelash when my mom whips it up and eats it up. My mother in law also makes fried rice but with Rice A Roni - it was a very popular meal for the Sunday dinners we used to have. Both are delicious and I've combined both moms' fried rice technique with a little bit of my own. I tend to use left over rice and meat - it's a good way to eat up the left overs!

FYI this makes a large batch, but we like plenty for leftovers. I've adjusted it to make a smaller batch before. It's a very forgiving recipe - just go easy on the soy sauce - you can always add more after you've plated your serving. My husband has made this fried rice before and has added scrambled eggs - my MIL's fried rice includes scrambled eggs. I'm not a fan of eggs in my rice (I mean I'll eat it if someone else cooks it, but I prefer not to add it when I'm cooking), but Kevin and the kids LOVE scrambled eggs. I truly forget to add it - I don't omit it on purpose! Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:
- 4 cups of cooked rice
- 1.5-2 cups of cooked bite sized pieces of meat (hubby likes a lot of meat - I used left over Adobo Chicken that my mom made)
- half of a large white onion, diced
- 5 cloves of garlic, minced
- frozen veggies (I typically use frozen carrots, corn, and peas, but I was all out of peas and only had a little bit of carrots. I tend to use a lot of veggies to up our veggie intake so put as much or as little as you want.)
- dried parsley
- freshly ground pepper (to taste - I didn't use much since the Adobo had a lot of pepper in it already)
- soy sauce, to taste (I don't measure this, but I don't use much since the kids are eating it too. I probably use about 4 Tbsp. I also didn't add any extra this time around since Adobo is cooked in soy sauce.)
- about 1.5 Tbsp oil (I used coconut)
- about 2-3 Tbsp butter (optional, this is my mother in law's contribution - her fried rice is so good b/c she puts butter in it....like 1 whole stick!)

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a wok or a large skillet under medium/high heat. Saute onion until slightly softened. Add garlic - do not let it brown.

2. Add rice and toss it in oil, onion, and garlic. Add butter. Let it "fry" for about 5 minutes - stirring every now and then to evenly fry the rice.

3. Add frozen veggies and meat and let it warm through. Also add parsley, pepper, and soy sauce. Stir everything together.

Avery ate a big bowl...

she was literally scraping her bowl and asked for more

Parker scarfed his big bowl down before I thought about taking a picture. Hope you enjoy!!!

baked chicken leg quarters

I love oven baked chicken leg quarters! The crispy skin (weirdly enough I used to hate eating the skin, now I love it) and the juicy meat inside. Bonus is that it's cheap (I paid less than $8 for 6 leg quarters) and it's fairly easy to make. No, this recipe wasn't pinned (surprising I know), but it's my own "creation".

Ingredients:
6 chicken leg quarters, cleaned and trimmed of extra fat (don't trim it all away b/c fat = juicy chicken)
~ 2 Tbsp of sea salt
~ 1/2 Tbsp of freshly cracked black pepper
~ 1 Tbsp of dried parsley (optional, but I like the dark green flecks on the chicken)

*** FYI: I don't measure the salt, pepper, and parsley. I eyeball about how much I will need, but I think I use about this much. ***

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Mix together salt, pepper, and parsley in a small bowl. Set aside.

3. Get a cookie sheet ready (line with heavy duty foil to help with cleanup - I ran out though) and place a cookie rack on top (this is the only rack I have - it's not required, but it helps keep the chicken develop crispy skin instead of getting soggy from the fat that will drip down to the cookie sheet, plus it eliminates the extra fat). Set aside.

4. Sprinkle the spice mixture all over the chicken (including the back) and rub it in. If you can open up the skin of the thigh without ripping it, then put some of the mixture under the skin too. Just be careful to not over-season. I did this last time and I made it a little too salty. Place on top of rack.

5. Bake for about 1 hour until cooked through.

Enjoy this easy, yummy meal! By the way, my iPhone made the chicken look a little pink...I assure you it was fully cooked and not pink at all! To see the recipe for the stuffing, click here.

Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings

I stumbled upon this recipe on where else but Pinterest. Anyway, I've never been a fan of chicken and dumplings, but Kevin likes it so when I saw how easy this recipe was, I decided to give it a try and that was almost a year ago. It was a big hit with my family! I even shared it with my best friend, Lauren's, sister and now it's one of her family's favorite recipes. Lauren's mom also loves this recipe and has shared it with her co-workers. It's that yummy! And the big bonus is that it's super easy!

I decided to make it tonight even though it's not chilly outside since I never made it a few weeks ago as planned when it was cold out and I still had all the ingredients. Kevin even requested I make this in the middle of the summer! He likes it that much! As always, I made changes to the original recipe - nothing big, but just added a few things. Here's my version:

Ingredients:
- 4 chicken breasts
- 2 cans of cream of chicken soup
- 1 (14 oz) can of chicken broth (I use low sodium, fat free)
- 2 small white onions (diced)
- dried parsley (the kids like to help "cook" and shake the container over the pot)
- Italian herbs
- black pepper
- frozen peas and carrots (I just eyeball how much to put in, but I do tend to go heavy on veggies. I usually add celery too, but Kevin made boneless buffalo chicken for dinner last night and we ate the last bit of the celery with it)
- 1 can of refrigerator biscuit like Pillsbury (the original recipe only calls for 4, but the first time I made it I used 6 since the Publix brand was smaller and Kevin requested I add more next time. So now I use the whole can, which has 10 biscuits)

Directions:
1. Mix diced onions, both cans of soup, broth, black pepper, parsley and Italian herbs (I don't measure my herbs - I eyeball it, depends on how much you like) in crock pot.
2. Cover and cook on high 4-6 hours or on low for 8 hours.
3. About 35 minutes before it is about done, take biscuits out of the fridge and cut each biscuit into 6 pieces and set aside.
4. Take a pair of tongs and shred the chicken while in crockpot. It should fall apart easily, but I like to leave a few chunky pieces.
5. Add veggies and biscuit pieces into crock pot. Stir.
6. Cover and let the biscuits cook and the veggies warm up for about 30 min.

Enjoy the yummy goodness of this dish!

Chicken Adobo

This is one of my husband's favorite Filipino dishes. He used to request my mom make it every time she came to visit. He always watches her cook and asks questions. Me...I'm content on waiting for my mom to come down for one of her monthly trips to visit me her grandkids. Kevin, however, started to make it years ago so he wouldn't have to wait for her to visit. 

   

I decided to add it to our menu for the week. I sent Kevin a text asking if he wanted me to make it tonight and if so to email me the directions. I'm sure he probably fell out of his chair at work. lol Is it weird that I asked my Irish/Italian husband for the recipe this afternoon b/c I, a full blooded Filipino, do not know how to make it?!? lol 

Ingredients:

chicken drumsticks (Publix sells them in a large package of 14 - enough for dinner and leftovers and then some; you can also use any part of the chicken that you want, but Kevin prefers drumsticks)

1 cup of soy sauce (YIKES!!! But we like a lot of sauce to go on top of our rice)

1 cup of white vinegar

2 cups of water

 minced garlic (we love garlic and I ended up using about 10 cloves!)

~ 1-2 Tbsp of oil (I don't measure this - I just eyeball it)

Instructions:

1. Wash chicken legs and pat dry - I didn't do this step b/c I get a little grossed out by raw meat.

2. Heat oil in wok over medium heat.

3. Place chicken in wok. Throw garlic on top (so that it doesn't fry and burn). This was probably 5-6 medium cloves of garlic. I realized it wasn't enough a little later on and minced an additional 4 large cloves. Then Kevin asked if I used a lot of garlic b/c it needed more. Told ya we like love garlic!

4. Let the chicken brown for about 5 minutes; turning over on all sides to brown. I kind of skipped over this a little bit b/c I had a crazy 18 month old begging for a snack and I was trying to keep her quiet since Parker was still napping. Mine only "browned" for a few minutes and I only tossed it around a couple of times so it didn't really brown - it still turned out fine. 

5. Add soy sauce, vinegar, and water. Turn up heat to medium/high and let vinegar cook off for about 20 minutes. 

6. Cover and cook for an additional 20 minutes.

7. I didn't see the point of this step and only did it for a few minutes. I won't do it next time and probably just let the chicken cook covered for a little while longer: Try to transfer most of the soy sauce mixture into a large bowl and let the chicken fry for about 10 minutes. 

8. I somehow skipped this next step all together so I'm making it a step all on it's own b/c Kevin had it combined w/ step #9: Transfer chicken to a plate.

9. Pour soy sauce mixture back into the wok to allow it to thicken - about 5 minutes. 

(So next time, I won't remove the soy sauce mixture at all; I will just transfer the chicken to a plate and allow the sauce to thicken.)

10. Add chicken back to wok and coat in soy sauce mixture. 

Serve with rice - make sure you pour some of the yummy sauce over your rice! We had it with green beans too since both kids love green beans. Both kids LOVE this dish and always eat a ton. 

Shhh....don't tell my mom, but I used 5 minute rice. Years ago after getting tired of eating "rice that doesn't taste like anything", she bought us an "authentic" Asian rice cooker and started to bring rice when she visits. She buys a HUGE bag of rice at the Asian store and she usually brings down half the bag for us. We are all out of the real rice, but I refuse to bring 2 kids to a tiny store with narrow aisles so 5 minute rice it is! 

Crockpot Creamy Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

After 2 failed crockpot meals (pineapple chicken and potato soup) due to not reading the instructions very well (cooking w/ 2 crazy kids including an 18 month old who keeps trying to get between me and the counter is tough) I decided it was time to try another crockpot meal. I will try those recipes again though. Anyway, I found this recipe at simplymadewithlove. She has lots of great recipes that I can't wait to try! Oh and I use crockpot liners for easy clean up! Whoever invented this is a GENIUS! I hate scrubbing burnt food on the sides of the crockpot! 

You might think this is just a regular chicken and rice soup, but the roux really makes a difference - it makes it thick and creamy. Kevin and I also added some extra pepper and a sprinkle of salt to our bowls (I tend to not cook with salt and also to limit the kids' sodium intake). The whole family loved it. Avery even had seconds when Parker finally decided he wanted to eat (he doesn't like to eat at 5:30 when we typically eat and instead eats around 6:45-7, which I'm ok with right now as long as he eats). 

I tend to tweak recipes and rarely measure (except for wet ingredients and stuff like flour)...here's my version:

Ingredients:

46.5 oz chicken broth (this is 1 carton and 1 can of broth)

2 cups water

3 boneless chicken breasts (about 1.5 lbs)

2 pkgs of Rice A Roni long grain and wild rice

1/2 cup all purpose flour 

1/2 cup butter (per the recipe, but I used butter in a tub, so I "estimated")

2 cups half and half

half a bag of microwaveable carrots (found at Publix - these are smaller and thinner than baby carrots)

5-6 stalks of celery (cut in half moons - I used the inner stalks including the leaves)

onions - diced

black pepper - 4-5 twists of the grinder

dried parsley 

Directions:

Combine broth, water, carrots, celery, onion, parsley, black pepper, chicken and rice (including seasoning packet) in slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 4 hours. About 30 minutes before you want to eat, shred chicken in slow cooker - I used a pair of tongs and the chicken just falls apart. Replace lid.

*** I originally used only 1 carton (32 oz or 4 cups) of broth and the recipe called for 4.5 cups. I didn't want to open another box/can for just 1/2 cup. I figured I could add extra broth later if needed. I probably could have gotten away with it, but I needed to add more since I also added an extra package of Rice A Roni in the beginning. 1 package just didn't look like enough. This Asian girl forgot how much rice actually expands. I ended up adding 1 can of broth about 3 hours into cooking. This will make A LOT of soup. We have enough for left over lunch tomorrow and then some. Next time I'll follow the directions and use 4.5 cups of broth and 1 pkg of rice. lol ***

Melt butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in flour by tablespoon to form a roux. Whisk in cream, a little at a time, until fully incorporated and smooth. Stir cream mixture into slow cooker and then let cook on low for 15 more minutes. 

*** left: butter and flour mixture; right: half and half added to mixture - it will resemble a pancake batter in consistency. As you mix the half and half in, it will clump up together. Eventually, it will thin out. You will be getting a good arm workout! ***

the roux mixed with the rest of the soup

all done! the lighting made the soup look yellow...it's not!

ENJOY THE YUMMINESS!!!