Another Sneaky Way to Get your Veggies...Stir Fry!

I love stir fries.  They are a great way to work some extra veggies into your diet and can be quite healthy if made from scratch at home.  This recipe from the Food Network is one of my favorites.  Personally, I like to reduce the amount of chicken and increase the veggies.  This allows me to stretch a pound of chicken over two meals throughout the week which saves money and cuts down on the amount of leftovers.  Serve over brown rice and with any additional veggies that you would like to add.  I personally love to add some shelled edamame.  My husband suggested mushrooms.  Any stir fry friendly vegetable like snowpeas, water chestnuts, carrots, broccoli or baby corn would also be good.  Today I was out of chicken stock so I substituted chicken broth.  Enjoy!


Asian Barbeque Chicken
Serves 4

• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs or tenders, diced or thinly sliced
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 chile pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, grated or minced
• 2 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced or grated
• 1 large red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced or diced
• 1/3 cup hoisin sauce
• 1/3 cup orange marmalade
• 2 tablespoons tamari sauce or low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 cup unsalted dry roasted peanuts
• 1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced on an angle
• Chopped cilantro, for garnish, optional

For the chicken: Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a large non-stick skillet over high heat. When the oil smokes, add the chicken and season with black pepper. Brown evenly, and then remove to a plate. To the skillet, add chile, ginger, garlic, and red bell pepper and stir fry for 2 minutes. Return the chicken to the pan. Stir together the hoisin, marmalade, tamari and remaining 1/2 cup chicken stock. Add to the pan and reduce over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the peanuts and scallions. Turn off the heat.
Serve the chicken over rice in shallow bowls and garnish with cilantro, if desired

Tip: Use Recipes as Inspiration, Texas Caviar

One of my favorite cooking "adventures" involves selecting a recipe as inspiration and tweaking it based on what ingredients I have in my pantry.


For instance, I made Texas Caviar for our annual fourth of July recipe.  My experience with Texas Caviar began with a recipe I found online that I wanted to make as an appetizer for a pot luck.  It is now my signature dish and is never the same each time I make it.  For those of you who don't know, Texas Caviar is a vegetable based appetizer made with peppers, onions, spices and some kind of acid.  The recipe I started with called for green bell peppers, jalapenos, onions, black beans and black eyed peas with a ton of italian dressing.

My rendition involves whatever vegetables and spices are readily available, I still use the italian dressing but just a few squirts to help bind the vegetables.  You can also used citrus juices.  This week I used green, red and orange bell peppers (we love bell peppers in my house and they are always on hand), jalapenos, tomatoes, green onions, black beans and black eyed peas. I also added garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper and cayenne pepper.  In the past, I've been known to throw  in some white onions, corn or even shelled edamame.  Avocado would be great as well.  The recipe does involve a lot of chopping because the vegetables need to be in bite size pieces so they can be served with pita chips, crackers or even celery sticks.


But, there are a few "shortcuts" that you can.  I use canned tomatoes and black beans and frozen corn and black eyed peas to speed up my preparation time.




Here's the finished product and it was a big hit!