Cashew Chicken

This recipe can be used with Almonds or Cashews.  I'm using with cashews tonight. The recipe is from the book Chinese Cookery by Rose Cheng & Michele Morris.  My uncle gave me this book many years ago.  I believe it's out of print.  ISBN 0-89586-088-0. It's a wonderful book full of great recipes.

This recipe is 8 WW Points Plus per serving (4 servings per recipe), it was only 5 WW Points Plus, but then the cashew added in 3 points.

The recipe calls for 1 cup of vegetable oil.  With my heart problems and my attending WW, that's SOOOO not happening here, so I'm using cooking spray and 2 T of olive oil.


Cashew Chicken (or Almond Chicken if you use almonds)


1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast

Marinade
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 egg white

1 cup vegetable oil (hahaha, ok 2 T olive oil and some cooking spray)
5 slices fresh ginger root
3 green onions chopped into 1 inch lengths
1 green pepper, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup diced whole bamboo shoots

Seasoning sauce:
1 Tablespoon rice vinegar or white vinegar
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon rice wine (Mirin) or dry sherry
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

1/3 cup Crisp Almonds (or Cashews) or toasted almonds or cashews

Dice chicken into 1-inch cubes. Combine marinade ingredients in a medium bowl. Add diced chicken; mix well. Let stand 30 minutes.

Heat oil in a wok over high heat 30 seconds. Add chicken to oil. Stir-fry 30 seconds until very lightly browned. Remove chicken with a slotted spoon, rain well and set aside. Remove oil from wok except for two Tablespoons, Reheat oil over medium heat 30 seconds. Stir-fry ginger ginger slices 30 seconds, remove and discard. Add green onions, green pepper and bamboo shoots to oil. Stir-fry 1-2 minutes until vegetables are crisp-tender.

Combine ingredients for seasoning sauce in a small bowl; mix well and add to wok. Bring to boil. Add chicken to boiling sauce. Stir-fry until chicken is coated with sauce. Add almonds (or cashews), mix well and serve hot.

Makes 4 servings

CRISP ALMONDS (or Cashews)

I will be toasting the nuts in a small frying pan with cooking spray.

However, the recipe calls for the following:

4 cups oil for deep frying
1 cup blanched almond halves (or cashew pieces)

Heat 4 cups oil in a wok over medium heat to 350 degrees (175 C). Add nuts and stir 2-3 minutes until golden brown. Remove from hot oil and drain well on paper towels. Let stand 5 minutes before using. Make about 1 cup.

Crisp Cashews: Substitute 1 cup blanched cashew halves for the almond halves.

The chicken pie recipe I'm actually going to make

Having posted the two recipes I plan to borrow from, here is the recipe I plan on making:

First off: Peas of the frozen, canned or fresh variety are verboten in my house. The only peas we buy are for use as ice packs. I eat peas (rarely) but only started that in my mid to late 40's. Byron does not/will not eat peas of any type in any dish. I really don't have a clue if Anthony or Felicia eat them as I don't believe they have ever been served a pea. If they have, it wasn't at our hose, that's for sure. We live in a pea free zone. So, I subbed fresh, chopped vegetables for the usual "frozen peas and carrots."

For the chicken pie for Byron and I, I will use the vegetables mentioned below (minus zucchini), Byron doesn't eat squash of any type. For the version I'm making for my friends, I'm putting in squash and will leave out peppers as they have non pepper eaters at their house. I'm making two 9x9 pans of chicken pie. One to take to my friends and one to stay here.

One last comment, it should go without saying that I will saute the garlic and onion in the butter at the beginning of the recipe. I will also probably add a bit of cayenne or red pepper flakes or California pepper from Penzeys to the version I'm keeping at home.

Chicken Pie a la Jan
serves 6 (so sayeth the recipes I plundered to come up with this version)

Filling:

1/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup Bisquick
1/3 cup onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon thyme
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup chicken broth
2/3 cup milk
1 3/4 cup chicken, cooked, and diced or torn
2 cups chopped fresh vegetables (carrots, celery, zucchini, peppers, onion)
1/4 cup frozen vegetables (California blend, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots)
1/3 cup frozen corn

Topping:
1 cup Bisquick
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 t (or to taste) Italian seasoning
pinch of garlic powder
salt and pepper

In a saucepan, combine butter, Bisquick, onion, pepper and thyme; bring to a boil. Stir in the chicken broth and milk. Bring to a boil again, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute. Add in the chicken and frozen vegetables. Mix thoroughly and take pan off of the heat.

Pour mixture into a 9-inch square baking dish. Make topping and place over pie. Bake 45 minutes or until crust is a light, golden brown.

I will add notes, and add WW Points Plus later

Chicken Pot Pie Recipe 2

This is the second recipe for Chicken Pot Pie I found. I will be using the topping from the first one (with the herbal additions found in this one) and using this filling as the starting point for the filling I will make. I found this version here: http://www.grouprecipes.com/24518/bisquick-chicken-pot-pie.html


Chicken Pot Pie II with Bisquick topping
Ingredients

1/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup Bisquick
1/3 cup onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon thyme
1/2 cub chicken broth
2/3 cup milk
1 3/4 cup chicken, cooked, and diced or torn
10 oz. pkg. frozen peas and carrots

How to make it

In a saucepan, combine butter, Bisquick, onion, pepper and thyme; bring to a boil. Stir in the chicken broth and milk. Bring to a boil again, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute. Add in the chicken and frozen vegetables. Mix thoroughly and take pan off of the heat.
Pour mixture into a 9-inch square baking dish. Make topping and place over pie. Bake 45 minutes or until crust is a light, golden brown.
Topping
1 1/2 cup Bisquick
3 tablespoons hot water
3 tablespoons butter, softened
Mix together all ingredients and form into a ball. Roll out dough and place over pot pie mixture.

Chicken Pot Pie Recipe 1

One of my good friends (and mother of my son's fiancee) has a son in the hospital right now. I'm cooking a dinner to bring to her family. I'm combining part of two different chicken pot pie recipes with Bisquick toppings. I'm FAR from a regular Bisquick user, but there is a time and a place for everything, including I suppose, Bisquick.

This first recipe uses Cream of Chicken soup (an ingredient I will NOT use, there just isn't a time and a place for cream of ___ soup in my life), but has a pour on topping which was recommended to me.

The second recipe has a filling which I will use as the starting point for my filling. It has a rolled dough recipe. I have a love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with my rolling pin, so I will be using the second filling recipe (tweaked of course) and the first recipe's base.

I will post the original recipes in their entirety here on the blog so people can have their choice of recipes to use.

This recipe originally came from a Bisquick box and I got this version from this site: http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-bisquick-chicken-pot-pie-100215

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

1 cup cooked chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
1 2/3 cups frozen vegetables, thawed
1 (10 ounce) can cream of chicken soup (I use low sodium)
1 cup Bisquick reduced-fat baking mix (regular Bisquick will work too)
1/2 cup nonfat milk or 1/2 cup milk
1 egg

Directions:

1 Preheat oven to 400°F.
2 Mix chicken, veggies and cream of chicken soup together and spread into bottom of non greased 9-inch round glass pie pan.
3 Mix remaining ingredients (Bisquick, milk and egg) and pour on top of chicken mixture.
4 Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until top turns golden brown.

Easy Spicy Chicken Sandwiches

Saturday, June 11, 2011 was an easy to make food day.

Breakfast:  1/2 cup oatmeal and 1 cup fat free milk microwaved for 3 minutes.
Lunch: Fruit. I was on the run a lot and just sorta grabbed fruit when I was home between things.

Dinner: Chef Byron "cooked"

Some days are just easy food.

Breaded Spicy Chicken Sandwiches


3 chicken patties (breaded, spicy, from Schwans or other previously frozen brand)
3 hamburger buns (from Costco in our case)
condiments of your choice
3 slices provolone cheese (from Costco in our case)
bake chicken patties at 375 for 20 minutes, put on cheese and bake for a couple more minutes
put on buns
put on condiments of choice
eat.

Served with french fries (fried in our deep fryer today, other times we bake them) and carrots

Ice cream for dessert

Byron's Spring Roll Recipe

Here is Byron's recipe for chicken spring rolls. If you are vegetarian, sub in extra vegetables and/or protein source of choice - boca crumbles, etc.
Spring Rolls

2 pounds chicken thighs
1 cup teriyaki sauce
2 stalks lemon grass
2 green onions
5 cloves garlic
1 lime
1 tablespoon black pepper
2 tablespoons sesame oil
Fresh mint leaves
Cilantro
Rice noodles, the thinnest kind is better
Spring roll wrappers (not egg roll wrappers – wrappers of rice and not flour)

Shredded cabbage, a couple of shredded carrots

__________________________________________________________

Skin chicken thighs, cut into chunks, including fat
Grind meat (food processor is what Byron uses) until it looks like hamburger
Cook in oil till done, drain, reserving juice
Put juice/drippings back in pan and add lemon grass, garlic, onion, pepper – cooking about 5 minutes

Add teriyaki sauce, lime juice (juice of one lime) – thicken to gravy consistency
Mix with chicken mixture

Use hot water – as hot as you can stand it – wrappers will soften faster the hotter the water donut over soften) – use as little water as possible, if the wrapper gets too slippery it might turn into a mess for that wrapper

Add filling, rice noodles, fresh mint, cilantro, shredded carrots and shredded cabbage
Wrap up on cloth napkin and/or kitchen towel, cloth napkin best, wrapper will stick if you try wrapping it on the counter.

Dip in sweet chili sauce or your favorite dipping sauce

Makes 24-26 spring rolls – could make more, depends on how much filling you put in them.

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

HONEY LIME CHICKEN ENCHILADAS
~ Tannis/Collector of Recipes & Sonlight Forums

6 T. honey
5 T. lime juice
1 T. chili powder
1/2 t. garlic powder
1 lb. chicken, cooked and shredded
8 flour tortillas
1 lb. (4 c.) Monterey jack cheese, shredded
16 oz. green enchilada sauce
1 c. heavy cream

Mix honey, lime juice, chili powder, and garlic powder and toss with shredded chicken. Marinate for at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour about 1/2 cup enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan. Fill flour tortillas with chicken and three cups of shredded cheese. Mix the remaining enchilada sauce with the cream and leftover marinade. Pour sauce on top of the enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining cup of cheese. Bake for 30 minutes.

Notes: These enchiladas are fantastic, but definitely on the sweet side! I serve them with crockpot beans to balance out the sweetness. We use ten tortillas and regular whipping cream.

Chloe's Virus Killing Soup

I'm posting some recipes I've eaten this week or have cooked recently as a start to my cooking blog. I make this soup a few times a year and keep it in 2 cup portions in the freezer. It's delicious at any time and especially nice when the family isn't feeling well to be able to pull out a serving or two of virus killing yummness from the freezer.

Chloe’s Virus Killing Soup

One chicken
Appx 15-30 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 Tbs salt
3-4 Thyme sprigs
Cayenne pepper (to taste. I use about a tsp)
Fresh Rosemary sprigs
Fresh ground pepper

Place chicken and other ingredients in a soup pot (I use my pressure cooker) and cover with water or chicken broth (I really like those boxes of organic chicken broth). Cook on stove top until chicken starts to fall apart. Remove from heat. Strain out chicken and stuff and set aside until cool enough to chop. Reserve broth for next step.

1 large onion (coarsely chopped or sliced)
1 fennel bulb (sliced thin)
1 leek (sliced thin)
4-6 stalks of celery (coarse chopped)
large red pepper (coarse chopped
1/2 lb. carrots (coarse chopped)
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 C good White Wine
salt and pepper

Place oil in bottom of large pot and heat. Add onion, fennel, celery, pepper and leek and sauté until onion just transparent. Add wine and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Cover the vegetables with chicken broth from chicken--add more broth from can or box if you don't have enough broth from chicken and simmer veggies until just tender.

Frozen green beans
Frozen peas
zucchini
flat leaf parsley (chopped)
1-2 cans chopped tomatoes with juice
salt and pepper to taste

Add these above ingredients and simmer until everything is tender. Add chopped chicken, salt and pepper to taste.

No virus can withstand this soup.

You can also add cabbage with the end ingredients if you like (I do!), or any other veggies your family likes. Sometimes I'll throw in whatever is in my veggie bin in addition to the above.

The next day add egg noodles and turn it into chicken noodle soup.

Chicken and Mozzarella Ravioli with Sausage and Marinara Sauce

June 8

Chicken and Mozzarella ravioli from Costco with some polish sausage (from Costco) cut up into the sauce.
Sauce courtesy of Classico (from Costco). See a trend here?

Ok, mostly we actually COOK dinner, we've been doing a lot of that lately, but today was easy dinner.

Side dishes: fruit, cut up vegetables and mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert.