Chinese Food

Chinese Bulletproof String Beans and Minced Pork

April 12, 2019

Chinese Bulletproof String Beans and Minced Pork is going to be your new favorite fake-out take-out. It’s extra spicy & delicious. You’ll want to save room for seconds.

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I swear feeding kids can be just as hard as rocket science. At least I assume that rocket science is hard. Shoot, I saw the pictures of the drives needed to be able to photograph a black hole. Craziness!

But really, feeding my kids can be hit or miss. But this Chinese Bulletproof String Beans and Minced Pork was a hit!

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Slow Cooker Chinese Orange Chicken

July 25, 2018

Slow Cooker Chinese Orange Chicken- a great way of have take out at home. It’s made in the slow cooker so it’s as easy to make as it’s to call in an order.

My husband and I are going to see Dave Matthews Band tonight!!!!!!!!!

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Homemade General Tso’s Chicken- SRC

January 26, 2015

Oh, back to life. Back to reality.

We’re back from our Caribbean cruise vacation. It was such a wonderful time. A wonderful break from life. It was a wonderful way to celebrate my 30th birthday!

But we’re back home now and back to the normal grind. Back to work today…

But it seems like Tuesday will be a day at home, and maybe even Wednesday, because of this blizzard heading our way. Yay? I mean it’s great for another day ‘off’ but I’ll need to make up the time in the end and snow. But, damn, I love a good Nor’easter. I heart you already Winter Storm Juno!!

I am a Weather Channel junkie. JUNKIE. Whenever there is a big storm I watch the Weather Channel, or our local news channel, 24/7. I love tracking storms. I love watching the updates throughout the day(s) as they get more and more information from different areas to get more specific quantities of snow/rain with tides or wind gusts. Oh, it’s so damn exciting.

Plus, it’s a good break from reality so we get to veg out and I get to cook!! I have some fun recipes to get to work on too! I’ve had my eye on a brownie recipe for awhile that I gotta make. And I’m working on perfecting my chocolate chip cookie recipe. It’s getting there!!

And I know I am going to be making this General Tso’s Chicken again.

Hot damn, this General Tso’s Chicken is so freaking good. It will make you toss your take out menus in the trash. Okay, maybe you still need take out for your egg rolls and such, but I doubt we’ll ever order General Tso’s again. It is gonna be homemade for us all the way now.

This is another one of those instances when I love Secret Recipe Club as it helped me discover another great blog and recipe. I thoroughly enjoying checking out the recipes on Asiya’s blog Chocolate and Chillies. She posts delicious recipes while sharing about her life in Toronto as a stay at home mom to 2 little boys. Her recipes often pack some heat (from chillies!) since she is Indian and her husband is Pakistani. There were quite a few recipes that caught my eye, including her Chocolate Truffle Energy Bites, Black Bean Burger, Pasta with Spinach Pesto, Roasted Red Peppers and Sundried Tomatoes, but I picked out her General Tso’s Chicken recipe.

I stuck with the recipe with the exception that we love broccoli with our General Tao’s so I added that. Because of that addition I doubled up the sauce. If you don’t want broccoli then cut back the sauce to follow the recipe exactly as it was on Asiya’s blog.

So while the Northeast is getting slammed with snow, we’ll be cozy at home making chocolate chip cookies and another batch of General Tso’s Chicken, since we know take out is not getting through 24+ inches of snow!

General Tso’s Chicken

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1″ cubes (about 1 lb)
1 teaspoon orange juice
pinch of salt
1/3 cup cornstarch
3 1/2 tbsp canola oil, divided
2 Cups pieces of broccoli
1 inch ginger, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
5-7 dried red chillies
2 green onions, white part only, cut into 1 inch length

Sauce

5 Tablespoons rice vinegar
6 Tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
2 Tablespoons hoisin sauce
1/2 Cup water
1/4 Cup sugar
1 Tablespoon orange juice
2 Tablespoons cornstarch

Process

Marinate the chicken in orange juice and salt for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl and set aside.
Coat the chicken with the 1/3 cup cornstarch.
Over high heat, heat 2 Tablespoons of oil in a wok/large non-stick skillet.
Add the chicken and fry until cooked through. Remove and put on a paper towel lined plate.
Add the broccoli and stir every 20 seconds or so. After 2 minutes add 1/4 Cup of water and cover for 1 minute. Remove the broccoli, set aside.
Heat the remaining oil in the wok and add the garlic, ginger, and dried red chilies. Fry until you can smell the spices.
Add the sauce and mix. When the sauce boils and thickens add the chicken, broccoli, and green onions. Stir to coat everything with the sauce. Serve immediately with some hot steamed rice or quinoa.

Adapted from Chocolate and Chillies

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Check out all the other great Secret Recipe Club posts this month!

And be sure to check out my 3 years of Secret Recipe Club posts!!!!

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4.19-21: Weekend Recap

April 22, 2013

{Friday} up at 5am | crazy filled twitter feed | watch news | mbta is shut down | get Price up | our offices are closed | Boston has a shelter in place order | blogging | watch news ALL DAY! |banana bundt cake | Price did yard work | lunch | nap | pack | pick up Emily and drive to CT | Shake Shack | home | more news | bed

{Saturday} up early with Kemper | news | breakfast | lounge around w mom with the dogs playing around | Price arrives with the pick up | Fire House deli for late lunch | Pizza Express take out | watch tv | bed

{Sunday} breakfast from the Kneaded Bread | packed up the truck | price went home | nap with kemps | walked to Kris’ | went to dinner with Mom & Nanny at Panda Pavillion 3 | watched the good wife | bed

kemps

pasta fagoli soup

kemper morning

Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

February 25, 2013

Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken will quickly become one of your weekly recipes when you realize how easy it is to make at home.

Every month there I have Pricer pick out a recipe he would want me to make for my Secret Recipe Club post. Sometimes I give him a few suggests or restictions, like I’m not feeling like making cookie or pizza then, but other than that he gets pick. I love having him involved and I love to see what intersts him.

Well, this month I sent him over to check out the recipe index for Erin’s blog called the The Spiffy Cookie and he picked her Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken. It sounded good to me so I was looking forward to when I’d make it. We love to get Chinese food take out but 99% of the time I order shrimp as I do not like the quality of chicken dishes at Chinese food places so this would give me the chance to have some good Honey Sesame Chicken. Plus much cheaper, fresher, and healthier than take out.

This recipe was so super easy. There was very little prep and active cook time and the rest of it was just letting it do its own thing in the slow cooker. I got it all started by mixing up the sauce, adding it to the chicken, and let it be for about 3 hours. Around that time I cut up my brocolli and got my rice going in my rice cooker. When I needed to take the chicken out I added some corn stach to the sauce to thicken it and while I was cutting up the chicken I added my broccoli in my steamer basket to my rice cooker. Perfect for a great Sunday night dinner. Plus, I had very little clean up which is always a win as well.

I just about made the recipe exactly as Erin wrote it, with the exception that i steamed the broccoli instead of sauteeing it, and it came out exactly as described. Don’t you just love when that happens?! Plus it was super tasty. Overall, I think it was a little sweet to me but I typically LOVE really spicy Chinese food. If you do then maybe you can increase the amount of red pepper flakes or add some Siracha to the sauce. While this is a slow cooker meal I think it can be converted into a week night super meal by cutting up the chicken and cooking it in the sauce in a skillet while you cooke the rice.

I only wish I made a double batch so I would have had leftovers for all week. This def beats spending too much money on a sandwich or salad for lunch.

Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (1.25 lbs)
1/2 cup honey
2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1/2 onion, diced
2-1/2 Tbsp ketchup
1 Tbsp sesame seed oil or extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced, pressed or grated
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
1 cup dry brown/white rice
1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb broccoli florets

Directions:

Put the chicken breasts in crock pot.
In a small bowl, combine the honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic, and redpepper flakes. Pour over chicken in the slow cooker.
Cook the chicken on low for 3-4 hours or on high 1 1/2 – 2 1/2 hours, or just until chicken is cooked through.
Cook the rice according to package directions.
Heat 1 teaspoon olive oil in a skillet until hot. Add broccoli and saute 5-6 minutes or until cooked but tender. Or steam the broccoli instead of sauteeing.
Remove chicken from crock pot, leave sauce. Whisk the cornstarch into liquid in the crock pot. Replace lid and cook sauce on high for ten more minutes or until slightly thickened.
Shred chicken or cut into bite size pieces, then return to pot and coat with sauce. Serve chicken over rice with broccoli, garnish with sesame seeds.

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