20 Quick Meat Recipes Because You Need Some Food, Stat Slideshow – Bon Appétit.
For me, very often quick recipes are what it is all about when it comes to dinnertime, particularly lately with lots going on with work and Michelle traveling so often. These 20 recipes from Bon Appetit help to give me (and you) some quick ideas for meals using a meat when you don’t always have time to marinade or cook a long, big meal. Check it out!
Leftovers That Don’t Taste Like Leftovers – NYT Cooking.
We all have leftovers from meals that we make and 9 times out of ten you have a hard time figuring out just what to do with them. Sure you can bring them for lunch but to try and turn them into another piece of a meal or main dish for dinner can be tricky. The New York Times Cooking has tried to help out with that with 65 recipes that make use of leftovers for all kinds of occasions and dishes. You can find some new ways to make use of those items you don’t know what to do with with just a bit of this inspiration. Check it out!
When you need a fast and easy dinner it has not to think of making a stir fry. It does not matter what type of protein you have on hand (or none at all if you want a nice vegetable stir fry), all you need is a good sauce to use and some vegetables and you are good to go. I have always found that sir fry dinners work really well with leftover vegetables much like it is when you want to make a hash. At any rate, since Mondays are hectic days around here (although lately they all seem pretty hectic), a stir fry was a very easy way to go for dinner that could be done quickly. I had a pork tenderloin on hand and decided this would be the perfect foil for a nice stir fry meal so I found this recipe at food.com for a simple pork teriyaki stir fry, rounded up my ingredients and went ahead with the recipe.
Teriyaki Pork Stir Fry
2/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 pound boneless pork loin chop or 1 pound pork tenderloin
1 red, yellow or orange pepper, cut into thin 1-inch strips
6 ounces snow peas
4 green onions, chopped
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 (8-ounce) can bamboo shoots, drained
White or brown rice, for serving
In a medium bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the soy sauce, brown sugar and cornstarch until the mixture is smooth and well blended. Add the ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes and whisk again to blend the ingredients. Cut the pork into thin strips and add it to the soy sauce mixture. Toss the pork to coat it well in the sauce and cover and refrigerate the pork for at least 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the white or brown rice according to the package directions and set the rice aside.
Heat 1/2 teaspoon of the sesame oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat until it is smoking. Remove the pork from the marinade and add the pork strips to the skillet, reserving the marinade for later. Stir fry the pork for 2 to 3 minutes until it is no longer pink. Remove the pork from the skillet with a slotted spoon to a bowl and cover the bowl to keep the pork warm. Add the remaining sesame oil to the skillet. Add the bell pepper, snow peas and green onions and stir fry the vegetables for 2 to 3 minutes until they are crisp-tender. Return the pork to the skillet with the vegetables and stir in the reserved marinade and the bamboo shoots. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. Remove the stir fry to a large bowl or platter and serve with the warm rice.
Of course the great thing about a stir fry is that you can use any vegetables you have on hand. I had some multi-color peppers so I went with red, yellow and orange and I also had a pack of frozen stir fry vegetables on hand that I added to the vegetables at well to make it a full meal. the sauce was perfect for the pork and the vegetables and everything smelled great and tasted even better. As a matter of fact, there was very little left over from the meal, just enough for Michelle to take for lunch with her. it’s a fast one pot meal (well 2 with the rice) that you can have made in under 30 minutes for any night of the week.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
39 Delicious Things You Can Make In A Skillet.
Skillet cooking is a great way to make use of that cast-iron skillet or stainless steel skillet and make a whole meal right in one pan on many occasions. Buzz Feed has put together 39 great skillet recipes to cover everything that you like and more to make delicious, easy meals. Check it out!
It has been a crazy day, or actually a crazy week around here as my computer keeps going up and down. My laptop kept crashing several times a day until we finally decided to do something about it and ended up replacing it with a new desktop instead. In the meantime I kind of put everything else on hold so I haven’t been able to do much as far as work, blogging, or just about anything else as we tried to get everything set up. Along the way, I haven’t had much time to do any cooking either. I did manage to do a couple of meals so I do have a few new recipes to share, and I did a couple of recipes without an any pictures being involved, so I do have some things to post. One that we tried recently was for a takeout favorite of cashew chicken. Just like any other stir fry recipe, it is pretty easy to put together and doesn’t take a lot of effort on your part so you can make this just about any night of the week when you feel like having something a little bit different. Most of the ingredients are things you may have around most of the time anyway, other than perhaps the water chestnuts where the cashews themselves.
Cashew Chicken
For the Chicken:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons dry sherry
1 teaspoon ground ginger or 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
3 cloves garlic, sliced
4 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
5 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons vegetable or canola oil
1 cup cashews, chopped or cashew pieces
2 scallions thinly sliced
1/2 can water chestnuts
1 green, yellow, orange, or red bell pepper, roughly chopped
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional
For the chicken, in a medium bowl, combine the chicken, dry sherry, ginger, garlic and 2 teaspoons of the cornstarch. Cover the bowl and chill the mixture for 30 minutes. In a separate small bowl, combine the chicken broth, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes, if using, and 2 1/2 teaspoons of the cornstarch; whisk until the ingredients are well blended. Set the bowl aside.
Sauté 2 teaspoons of the vegetable oil and half of the chicken mixture in a large skillet set over high heat for 2 minutes, then turn the chicken pieces over and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Transfer the cooked chicken to a plate and add the remaining chicken to the skillet. Cook the chicken pieces in the same manner, turning after 2 minutes and cooking until they are heated through. Add a little more vegetable oil to the pan if it is needed. Add the peppers to the pan, sautéing the peppers for about 2 minutes until they are tender. Return the 1st batch of cooked chicken to the skillet. Stir in the chicken broth mixture and add the water chestnuts then bring the mixture to a low boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer and cook until the sauce begins to thicken, about 1 to 3 minutes. Add the cashews to the skillet and mix to incorporate them into the dish. Top with the scallions, if desired, and serve.
This is the ideal dish to serve with fried rice if you feel like making it for the dinner, though I just served mine with white rice. This tastes just like the cashew chicken you would get from any takeout Chinese restaurant and you have better control over the ingredients yourself. You could easily use boneless thighs if you prefer dark meat for your chicken and add any vegetables that you like to the dish if you want. The sauce is the real winner here as it is great with the combination of sticky sweet with a bit of heat from the red pepper flakes. it is a very easy dish that is perfect for a weeknight meal.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
When life gets hectic around the homestead I usually turn to making a stir fry for dinner. it is often the easiest thing to putt together in a short amount of time, doesn’t typically use a lot of ingredients and can be made basically with whatever you happen to have on hand, including any leftovers you want to try to use. Such was the case yesterday and when I had lot going on all day, Michelle was working late and I just needed something easy that I could put on the table fast. I decided to make use of this recipe that I had seen at Savory Nothings for a crispy garlic chicken that I decided to turn into a very easy stir fry when I included some leftover green beans, a couple of sliced peppers and some shallot.
Crispy Garlic Chicken Stir Fry
For the Sauce:
3 cloves garlic, minced
6 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons barbecue sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1/2 cup water
For the Chicken and Vegetables:
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1/2 cup flour
3 eggs
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
Vegetable oil, for frying
1 cup green beans, fresh or frozen (trimmed if fresh)
1-2 small bell peppers, any color, seeded and sliced into rounds
1 shallot, diced
To make the sauce, add the minced garlic, honey, soy sauce, barbecue sauce, fish sauce, white wine vinegar and the water together in a small saucepan set over medium-high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer the sauce until it begins to thicken, about 4 to 5 minutes. Set the sauce aside until the chicken is ready.
To make the chicken, pat the chicken dry with paper towels. In a shallow dish, add the flour. Whisk the eggs together in a second dish and place the breadcrumbs in a third shallow dish. To bread the chicken, first coat the chicken pieces in the flour, then dip the chicken pieces in the egg, shaking off any excess, and then dip the chicken in the breadcrumbs to coat them. Set the chicken pieces aside on a platter until all of the chicken is coated.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add two tablespoons of the vegetable oil and heat the oil until it is shimmering. Add the chicken, cooking in batches so you do not overcrowd the pan, and cook the chicken for 6 to 8 minutes, until it is cooked through on the inside and golden and crispy on the outside.
Once all the chicken has been cooked, add the green beans, peppers and shallot to the skillet and saute the vegetables until they are heated through, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the chicken back to the skillet with the vegetables and then coat the contents of the skillet with the garlic sauce. Toss all the ingredients with the sauce until everything is well coated and cook until the sauce has thickened to a syrupy consistency, about 2 minutes. Pour the contents of the skillet into a bowl or on a serving platter and serve.
Quick, simple and it all comes together in under 25 minutes. The sauce was perfect, just like your favorite sauce from your local Chinese restaurant, nice and thick and full of garlic and sweetness. You could really add any vegetables you like to this right at the end; I just happen to have green beans and peppers on hand but I think broccoli and baby corn would go really well with this as well. I served it simply with some white rice and we had a very easy meal to enjoy after a busy day.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Friday and Saturday nights all over seem to be the nights that people really go for takeout, at least in my neck of the woods. I think most people do not feel like cooking when it comes to the weekend after a long week of work, school, afterschool activities, chores and everything else you need to take care of on a daily basis. While simply calling the local pizza place or Chinese takeout is a great option that everyone turns to now and then, you can make some of your favorite takeout items right at home without spending a lot of time or money and they will taste even better than what you are paying for at a restaurant. One of my personal takeout favorites has always been General Tso’s chicken at the local Chinese restaurant here. You get the combination of a sweet and spicy glaze and sauce coating breaded chicken that tastes amazing and you would never think it is something you could duplicate at home – but you can quite easily. I found this recipe from Saveur for General Tso’s chicken that is easy to make and tastes just as good if not better than what comes in those little white containers.
General Tso’s Chicken
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons chicken stock
7 tablespoons cornstarch
6 tablespoons rice vinegar
6 tablespoons tomato paste
5 tablespoons light soy sauce
4 1/2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
2 1/4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
3 1/2 cups plus 9 tablespoons peanut, vegetable or canola oil
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons minced ginger
2 tablespoons minced garlic
16 chiles de arbol
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
Thinly sliced scallions, to garnish
Whisk the chicken stock, 1 tablespoon of the cornstarch, the rice vinegar, tomato paste, 3 tablespoons of the light soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of the dark soy sauce and 3 tablespoons of water in a bowl; set the sauce aside.
Place the remaining cornstarch and both of the remaining soy sauces, the chicken pieces, 3 tablespoons of the oil and the egg yolks in a large bowl and toss them together. Pour 3 1/2 cups of the oil into a large skillet, flat-bottomed wok or Dutch oven. Heat the over medium-high heat until a deep-fry thermometer registers 375 degrees. Working in batches, add the chicken pieces, tossing them occasionally, until they are cooked through, about 4 to 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken to paper towels to drain and set them aside. Repeat the process until all of the chicken is cooked. Discard the oil in the pan and wipe the pan clean.
Return the pan to high heat and add the remaining oil. Add the ginger, garlic and the chiles; fry, stirring constantly, until the mixture is fragrant and the chiles begin to change color, about 30 seconds. Add the reserved sauce; cook until the sauce is slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Add the chicken and fry, tossing constantly, until the chicken pieces are evenly coated with the sauce, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the chicken from the heat and stir in the sesame oil. Transfer the chicken to a serving plate and top with the sliced scallions.
I have to say that the sauce was spot on as far as taste and texture. It was just like what you get with your takeout order, even though instead of chile de arbol, which I did not have on hand and rarely see around here, I used some Thai garlic chili sauce instead. I think you would get a more authentic flavor with the chile de arbol if you use them, but this was pretty close. The only difference I made from the recipe other than that was that I was using breaded chicken thigh pieces that I had left over from a meal earlier in the week so it was a bit of a cheat for me but I think it worked well. The difference with leftovers was that the coating of the chicken did not go all the way around the chicken pieces as it would if you followed this recipe exactly, but it was still good. Serve this with some white rice or fried rice and you have a great takeout meal all of your own.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Sometimes you just want a meal that you know you can pull together in just a few minutes and without much of fuss. Maybe you can even make use of some of those leftover items you have in the fridge for the last few days and don’t really know what to do with them. That is when a meal like this can really come in handy. Making any type of stir fry is always a great way to use items, and having fried rice is always a favorite, but sometimes you would like the flavor without having the extra oil and fat involved in frying the rice itself. This recipe for chicken fried rice is originally from Food Republic, but I did modify it just a little to make it fit better with what I had on hand and what we like. It is still just as easy and tasty.
Chicken Fried Rice
2 cups long-grain riced, cooked and cooled completely
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
4 scallions, finely sliced
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 green pepper, seeded and cut into strips
1 red pepper, seeded and cut into strips
1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
4 ounces green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/3 cup frozen peas, defrosted
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken (breast or thigh), diced or cut into thin strips
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
2 tablespoons chicken broth
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
1/2 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a shallow baking pan with a sheet of parchment paper. Turn the rice out onto the parchment paper, breaking up any lumps, and spray the surface with the nonstick vegetable oil. Place the pan in the oven and cook the rice for 12 minutes, it should be crisp on the surface. Season the rice to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper and set the pan aside to keep the rice warm.
Meanwhile, in a large, nonstick skillet with a good coating of vegetable or canola oil set over high heat, fry the scallions, green pepper, red pepper, onions, carrot and green beans for about 2 minutes, stirring continuously until the vegetables are crisp-tender. Add the peas and the chicken and fry to give the chicken a little color and cook it through, about 3 to 4 minutes. Sprinkle over the brown sugar and then add the rice, breaking up any lumps along the way. Add the chicken broth, soy sauce and chili sauce and mix to blend everything well. Stir fry everything for about 3 to 4 minutes. Toss in the cilantro and serve.
Of course, as with any stir fry you can add just about any type of vegetable or protein that you like or have on hand. This would work well with shrimp, pork, beef or even just with the vegetables if you like. The rice does come out nice and crisp without having to deal with all of the frying of it. You do want to make sure that the rice is dry before you put it in the oven so that it doesn’t just steam once it is in there. The whole dish comes together very easily, gives you a great one pot meal and has some great flavor with the chicken stock, chili sauce and soy sauce. This is an easy one you can use anytime.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
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Happily Ever After Lives Here
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Letting Life Lead
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