Baked Sweet & Sour Chicken

My second ever attempt at "chinese" food! Success!!!

I saw this recipe on Pinterest....yeah thats right Pinterest....Anyway click the link below for the recipe. It was easy to do and produced amazing flavor!

http://life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.ca/2010/09/baked-sweet-and-sour-chicken-with-fried.html

Served it on a bed of Quinoa. If you have yet to try quinoa...I suggest you do it! Fantastic and Versatile.

So try this one out today! Easy, fun, and very tasty!

Cory

Honey Ginger Chicken w/ Dilled Baby Carrots and Beet Greens

Our weekly produce box from Pilgrims Produce is starting to pick up, this week we got first of the season baby carrots. If you have never eaten a carrot fresh right from the garden, you are missing out!! Our weekly newsletter had a recipe from Greens! Glorious Greens! I will tell you what I did.

I started with 2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped, 1 small new onion chopped and baby carrots quartered with greens trimmed, cook in olive oil over medium heat for 2 to 3 mins. Then add beet green leaves, sliced in 2 inch chunks, add a bit of water, cover and cook for 6-8 mins. Remove from heat, season with salt and pepper and stir in 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill. Serve.

For the chicken, I dip chicken pieces in beaten egg, and tossed around in a bag with flour, salt and pepper and garlic powder. Then I friend skin side down first in some canola oil over medium high heat in a pan. Doing this will ensure you get oven "fried" chicken. Turn after 5 mins, cook for 5 more. Remove from pan and place on roasting pan or baking sheet. Bake @ 375f for 40 mins. I brushed on the sauce twice during baking, which I made on the stove in a saucepan, 1 clove of garlic minced, 2 tbsp fresh ginger minced, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 4 tbsp creamed honey and 1 tbsp butter. Cook garlic and ginger in butter until browned, add remaining ingredients and bring to boil. Simmer for 5 mins and remove from heat.

I accompanied the meal with a fresh spring mix salad and quinoa. Delicious. The skin on the chicken is so crispy and tasty. The freshness of the Ginger and the sweetness of the honey bring great taste to this chicken dinner!

Enjoy

Smoked Salmon w/ Quinoa & Spring Mix Salad

We are so very lucky, my father sends us all kinds of fish from Haida Gwaii. This smoked sockeye is to die for. Dad does a very nice job smoking the fish, not too much salt, the flavor is incredible. I threw these on the BBQ, and served on a bed of Quinoa with dill, feta, garlic and balsamic.

We buy our Quinoa in big bags from Costco (Thanks Shawna), Its become more regular then rice in our house! I just cook it like rice in the cooker, and voila...tasty little quinoa.

I mixed 2 tbs of balsamic vinegar, 2 tbs olive oil, 1 tsp minced garlic, 1 tsp dried dill, 1 tsp whole grain mustard, salt and pepper and 1/2 cup feta, crumbled. Pour over the cooked quinoa, mix and serve.

Eat tons of salad too, we have been having a huge salad every night, trying to get the boys to fill up half of the plate with salad....no problem there!!

Enjoy!

Cory

Quinoa with Sweet Chili Pork and Rainbow Chard

I love, love, love Quinoa! It is an awesome food that our family has really enjoyed.
In the summer we would do Quinoa with fresh asparagus and lemon and feta. So good!!!


I have to be honest, I have not looked around much for this product. I have only purchased mine at superstore. It is organic quinoa, And I think I purchased for $1.65/100g. So I have no clue if its cheap or not elsewhere! I know its not cheap for us to eat as a family all the time. But it is great once in awhile!

I started off cooking the quinoa in chicken broth rather then water, the flavor is amazing!! Make sure you rinse your tiny little quinoas before cooking. Same cooking ratio as rice. I used 2 cups to 4 cups broth. Brought to a boil, covered, and then simmered for 15 mins, remove from heat and let rest for 5 mins.

At the same time the Quinoa was cooking, I started my boneless cubed pork loin over med high heat.

 Rough chopped some beautiful rainbow chard, peppers and onions.

Once the meat was almost all cooked, I added the vegetables and sweet chili sauce!











Once Quinoa was done, I added meat mixture to the quinoa pot, mixed up, added some fresh feta cheese, gave a good mix, then served!!

Awesome quick meal, about 20 mins total time. And relatively cheap. Quinoa is not cheap like rice, but again, it is amazing, and we love it as a "treat" once in awhile!!.

Total cost:
Quinoa: $2.50
Pork: $3.00
Vegetables: $2.00
Feta: $1.50

$9.00 meal!! for 6, plus extra! So try some Quinoa Today!! Its awesome, filling and healthy!!!