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

Crispy "fried" Chicken

I love a good crispy piece of chicken. I know the skin is not good for you, but when you are eating fried chicken...who cares!

This is an easy way to get a crispy skin. I start with taking 2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp each of dried rosemary, sage and thyme, garlic powder, salt and pepper and mix well in an ice cream pale or large ziplock. Beat together 3 eggs in medium size bowl. Dip chicken pieces in egg mixture, add to flour and shake until coated. Add piece to a pan on med high with some olive oil. Cook for 2-4 mins flip once, remove, cook in oven at 375f for 30-45 mins, depending on size of pieces.

Frying the chicken before gets you a beautiful crispy skin in. The flavor of the herbs beats shake and bake anytime!!!

Chicken, mashed potatoes, garden salad....delish!

Enjoy,
Cory

Chicken Stew w/ Cornmeal Dumplings

I was so stoked for this meal for 2 reasons!! First being, I love stew and dumplings, Second, my wonderful mother in law got me a 7qt kitchen aid dutch over. It is the perfect one pot item to have. It cleans fantastic, never burns food, and is ideal for browning on the stove, then finishing in the oven. We also have the 3.5 qt size, which for smaller soups and meals is perfect as well!!

It doesn't take much for mild inspiration. Shelby and wyatt bought some broccoli at askews yesterday, but we already had a bunch in the fridge. I had some boneless skinless chicken thighs frozen so this was easy!! My cornmeal dumplings come from Better Homes modified with Whole wheat flour rather than white. The stew was just simply the vegetables we had in the fridge at the time!!

For the vegetables I used carrots, red onion, celery, bok choy, minced garlic.
Sweated them out for 10-15 mins. Removed from pot, Browned my cut up chicken in a little oil, added the vegetables, used 2 cartons of low sodium chicken stock, topped the rest up with water. Simmered for 1.5 hrs. At this point I added cut up broccoli cooking another 30 mins. I then added flour and milk and simmered until thick.

 Dumplings are so simple to make. Almost every cook book has some form of dumpling. These had corn meal, flour, baking powder, cheddar cheese, pepper, oil, milk, eggs. I dropped them in wooden spoonfuls, which filled my whole surface of the pot.

Cooked for covered for 15 mins while simmering. Poke with a tooth pick in the middle of  one, if it comes out clean you are good to go!!

Delicious. The dumplings with cheese and cornmeal were an excellent addition to a tasty chicken stew. Very simple, very easy!! I am surprised at how few of people actually cook soup. It is easy!! And best of all CHEAP!!! Its one meal you don't have to sacrifice money for taste. So make a soup today!!

Cory

Rosemary Roast Chicken

We were at superstore, and usually never buy any meat there. But they had a few packs of 2 fryer chickens for 30% off..The meat "expired" the next day, but looked good and we knew we could freeze one.

The meat was so tender. I made a simple rub of Rosemary, sage, salt and pepper and a knob of butter. Roasted @ 350f for 2 hrs. It fell off the bone!!

It was nice to have a roaster chicken. Its something we have not had for years. Once in awhile, especially in summer, we would pick up a rotisserie chicken from Superstore and take it to the beach!

One benefit of a roaster is you could make soup after too. Boil that carcass with some veg to make a nice stalk, then add your favorite veggies!

We bought a few of these Primavera buns from Superstore as well. You can find them in the bulk bagel section. They usually are 99c each in groups of 3.




They are flippin Delicious. They are filled with roasted red peppers, spices and cheeses. We are frequent fans of them! Great for a sandwich, or some salmon burgers that we made...you will see them tomorrow!

I love this meal because it does not break the bank either. But our family devoured that chicken. Shelby and I each took a breast, Boys had the drums and wings and I ate some of the thigh.


Cost?

Roaster $8
Bun $1
Rice $1
Corn $ Free.

$10 for a yummy roast chicken dinner!!
Enjoy!
Cory

Honey Garlic Chicken thighs w/ Smashed Veg and Garden Salad!

I love coming home to cook after grocery shopping! Your pantry and fridge are full of tons of ideas and selections.

At superstore, they had cases of thighs with legs attached for $14.99. And they are huge pieces of chicken! They come frozen in a 5 kg box, $1.36 lb. Not too bad!.

We had company over and took out half, which was 6 pieces. Chopped to legs off for the kids and the adults had the thigh.

To go along with the chicken, we mashed up some white potatoes (2.99 for 10lb @ quality greens, okanagan grown). With some carrots and cauliflower. I boiled the carrots and potatoes until almost tender, then threw in cauliflower to steam down.

Added some butter and milk, some basil and parsley, salt and pepper, and mashed up! Leave those skins on!! Healthy and way less work!

Perfect side dish, cheap, healthy, spuds, carrots, cauliflower!

I threw the chicken in with some salt and pepper @ 375f for 1 hr 15 mins. (they were frozen) In the meantime I took creamed honey, minced garlic, 1/4 cup butter, melted in a saucepan.

Throughout cooking, I poured sauce over the chicken. I basted 3 times with the mixture.

The result? Beautifully sticky chicken!! Crispy skin and nice moist meat.

I made a nice garden salad to accompany the meal. beautiful peppers from Swan lake nursery land! Shop local people, don't forget we are blessed to live in an area that still has local produce, support local or one day they will disappear.

And honestly, they were a fraction of the cost as peppers from superstore or walmart!!

So get out there and support local. for those of you in Armstrong, you should buy your meat from Askews, not Superstore! Wouldn't you rather have quality meat from real butchers!!! Not pre packaged hamburger and steaks from another province, shipped into the stores!! Its not more expensive to go to Askews. Most of the time the meat is cheaper there then Superstore or Wal-mart. Thats my challenge for you today!!! Shop local!! I did buy those chicken legs from superstore, but I'm not saying don't not buy stuff, just be aware! We buy 95 percent of our meat from askews or the Butcher shop in Vernon.

So serve up some honey garlic chicken this week at your table!! Don't buy the pre packaged sauce. Have honey in your house!! It is wonderful and healthy.

And you know whats in your honey garlic sauce!!!




Total meal cost: $14.00, 4 adults, 5 kids, 2 babies. CHEAP!!!

Cory