Easy Asian Lettuce Wraps

On a cool, windy spring day (make that, week) like this,

I always want something light and springy 

(think beach-body ready)

but something equally comforting when the wind is howling like it is...

Something for when you are torn between
curling up on the couch or hitting the 'dread' mill.  

These Asian Lettuce Wraps are the answer!

And, you guessed it...

next time I make them,

I will make more because the leftovers were just as tasty.  

Not only are they delicious,

they were also sooo fast,

so you will have time for the couch and the gym 

because you won't be in the kitchen for hours!  

Started by browning up 2# of ground chicken in a tablespoon of olive oil,
topped with 1 tbsp of minced garlic, 1/2 tsp of ground ginger,
salt and pepper, to taste.

While that was browning,
I chopped up 2-3 Green Onions and tossed them in.

Then added 1 cup of chopped cashews,
for a little browning and flavor actions.

For the sauce,
I didn't even feel the need to mix it up separately.

Just added 1/2 cup of Hoisin Sauce. 

Hoisin is a thick and pungent sauce typical of Chinese cooking.  
It has a strong fermented soy and vinegar aroma. 
So, it goes a long way in a dish! 

1/4 cup of soy sauce and
1 tbsp of Sriracha (my boys all added more!)

Stir it all up and this is what you get...

A pan full of great flavors and textures!

I loved the smell of the ginger,
but the Hoisin is what brought the kids in from the yard.

Each leaf of butter lettuce was filled with a couple spoonfuls of the meat.

Could have easily been paired with some rice for a carb or
shredded carrots for more texture and veg.

We were all hungry and fighting for more! 

RECIPE:

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

2# of ground chicken (pork, turkey, beef would all work great!)

1 tablespoon of olive oil, 

1 tbsp of minced garlic

1/2 tsp of ground ginger

salt and pepper - to taste

3 green onions - chopped

1 cup of chopped cashews

1/2 cup Hoisin Sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tbsp Sriracha - more if desired

Additional Options:

Cooked Rice 

Shredded Carrots

Directions:

• Brown meat in pan with olive oil over medium heat, add garlic, ginger, salt & pepper. 
• Chop onions and cashews while meat is cooking. Add to pan. 
• Add sauces, stir well and serve in butter lettuce leaves. 

Sesame Chicken and Broccoli

The first week of spring weather is here and

Mother Nature, 

if you are listening…

we're good with it, 

so these warmer sunny days can be here to stay. 

No more yanking us around with cold days, 

I'd like to pack up my boots and snow pants and leave them hidden until next winter.

K, thanks! 

With this beautiful weather, 

it can be hard to reel the kids in for dinner, 

but not if you serve up this

Sesame Chicken and Broccoli…

the aroma literally brought them in from the great outdoors

and I couldn't shake them, 

so I let them help me in the kitchen. 

That is another story in itself…

best part about kids helping in the kitchen is that 

soon they will be cooking for me!  

At least that is what I keep telling myself!

For a family size (but no leftovers - because it is THAT good) meal,

started with 3 eggs and 3 tbsp of corn starch

whisked together in a bowl large enough to 

add the chicken to for coating. 

I love this recipe! 

I love starting with eggs and corn starch…

I just know that a great texture will result from those two ingredients! 

Next, cut up 

2.5# of boneless, skinless chicken thighs

and add them to the egg batter.

If you haven't tried them yet, 

these boneless, skinless chicken thighs are the way to go! 

Not only to they have great flavor and texture, 

but they are also about half the price of chicken breasts.  

So, 2.5# of boneless skinless chicken is costing me just over $7

compared with nearly $15 for breast meat.  

When the pan with a couple tablespoons of your preferred vegetable oil 

was sufficiently pre-heated, 

pour the chicken, egg and starch mixture right into the pan. 

Here is where some patience will come into play. 

Don't over-stir!

You have to give the chicken and batter, if you will, enough time to brown up a bit,

in order to achieve that ideal, light, crispy texture. 

Here you can see the browning that is underway. 

While the chicken was cooking, 

my helpers were getting the other fixings prepared. 

Landon chopped up some broccoli,

which can be added to the pan towards the end to avoid mushy-broccoli syndrome. 

Ryker was measuring out the ingredients for the sesame sauce, 

which really makes the meal! 

He added 3 tbsp soy sauce,

2 tbsp water

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil (my favorite!)

3 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp rice vinegar

1 inch of freshly grated ginger

1 tbsp minced garlic

2 tbsp sesame seeds

1 tbsp corn starch

It took both of them to grate the fresh ginger…

but, at least they weren't fighting! 

The broccoli was added and tossed a bit!

The sauce was whipped together…

It starts out pretty thin, 

but once added to the pan, 

the corn starch would do its thing

and next thing you know you have a nice, thick, sweet, nutty sauce over all of the delicious-ness.

(Sorry Jerry, I know you hate that word!)

Pour it in, 

stir it up 

and let is start to bubble just a little bit! 

Serve over rice and top with some scallions. 

I was REALLY disappointed that there weren't any leftovers! 

I'm already trying to come up with a time when I can make this again and 

manage to get some more for myself! 

RECIPE:

Time: 45 minutes

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

3 eggs

4 tbsp of corn starch - divided

2.5# of boneless, skinless chicken thighs

3 tbsp vegetable oil

Broccoli

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp water

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil 

3 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp rice vinegar

1 inch of freshly grated ginger

1 tbsp minced garlic

2 tbsp sesame seeds

Directions:

• Whisk together eggs and starch. 
• Cut chicken into bite-sizes chunks, add to egg, toss to coat. 
• Preheat oil over medium high heat, add chicken and egg mixture. 
• Stir occasionally, until no more pink remains. 
• Measure and combine soy sauce, water, sesame oil, brown sugar, vinegar, ginger, garlic, corn starch and sesame seeds. Mix well. 
• Add broccoli to pan and pour sauce over. 
• Allow to heat for about 5 minutes before serving over rice. 

Make-Your-Own Sweet and Sour Chicken

How is your first week of fall going?

Pretty exciting week around here...after quite the wild and winding road called life, my big brother is finally getting married.

Couldn't be happier for him and his bride, their family and farm.  We can wait to celebrate with everyone!

But before we pack up and head out, I have a few more recipes that I want to share with everyone.

As you have probably guessed by now, I'd much rather feed my family at home than pay someone to do it for me.

So, in an effort to keep up with their ever-changing favorites, I attempted my first ever sweet and sour chicken...which was a success, if I do say so myself!

Perhaps a little tedious, but I still prefer that over eating out, 

at least on MOST occasions.

For starters, I took a package of chicken tenders, nearly 2# which was about 12 tenders, 

cut them up into bite size pieces,

 doused them with 1/2 cup of corn starch and tossed to coat.

Easy enough!

Next, I whipped up 3 eggs to serve as my batter or wash before par-frying (partial or pre-frying) 

in 1/4 cup of canola oil, for starters, more was added as necessary.

Before moving on, make sure that your oven is preheating at 325 F.

Just using a toothpick, the chicken was dipped in the egg and then placed in the pan.  

Frying for 2-3 minutes per side, until nicely browned, giving great texture.

Until both sides are browned. 

Then, they are placed in a 9x13 baking pan to hang out for a bit before finishing off in the oven.

Now, for the sweet and sour sauce, combine

1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 tbsp soy sauce 

and 1 tsp garlic powder.

Whisk together until smooth.  

When all of the chicken was browned, 

1 chopped green pepper, 1 can of pineapple chunks and the sauce

were added to the chicken.

Top with sauce and pop into the oven for 20 minutes.  

Flip, turn, or stir and give them another 20 minutes of oven time.

Just serve over rice

and 

enjoy all of the flavors and textures of this Asian inspired dish!

RECIPE: Serves 6. 

Ingredients:

1 Package of chicken tenders (roughly 2#)

1/2 cup of corn starch

3 eggs

1/4 cup of canola oil

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup ketchup

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp soy sauce 

1 tsp garlic powder

1 chopped green pepper

1 can of pineapple chunks

Garnish with:

Parsley

Green Onion 

Sesame Seeds

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325F. 

Cut up chicken tenders into bite sized pieces. 

Coat with corn starch. 

Preheat oil in sautee pan. 

Whisk up eggs. 

Using a toothpick, dip chicken into eggs and then add straight to pan for par-frying, 2-3 minutes on each side. 

When both sides are browned, place in 9x13 pan. 

Mix up sauce with sugar, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce and garlic. 

After all chicken is coated and browned, add pineapple, green pepper and sauce. 

Bake for 40 minutes, stirring after 20. 

Potsticker Burger and Asian Slaw

Being the huge fans of potstickers that my family is, I wanted to try to come up with a recipe so that we could enjoy all, well, at least most, of the flavors and textures of these Chinese delights, without the gluten...

After a little brainstorming and research, came up with all of the ingredients to put together a burger reminiscent of the delicious filling of a potsticker, which turned out to be a nice little Asian meal.

I'm thankful for the way that kitchen staples can be assembled with different combinations to come up with so many varieties of flavor profiles. 

The possibilities are endless!

The burger started with 1# of ground pork, added to it was 1 tbsp minced garlic, 1/2 inch of fresh grated ginger, 2 tbsp sesame oil, 1 sliced green onion, which was about 3 tbsp, 1 egg, 1 cup of shredded cabbage and topped with salt, to taste. 

All those goodies were combined by hand and roughly quartered for the patty-making process. 

Four burgers of approximately the same size were placed in a pre-heated grill pan 

for cooking over medium heat. 

When grilling or cooking most meats, 
I always error on the side of turning less often rather than more often. 

That helps to get those nice, caramelized, grill marks which are great texture.
And, helps trap the juices inside!

These were grilled for at least 5 minutes on each side before flipping.

  

Flip as often as necessary to cook fully, just not too soon.  

While the burgers were cooking, a nice little Asian slaw was whipped up. 

This started with 3 cup of shredded cabbage, 2 tsp of minced garlic were added as well as another 1/2 in of freshly grated ginger, another green onion and seasoned with salt to taste.

The dressing consisted of 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar and 2 tbsp sesame oil finished with 1/4 cup sliced almonds for added texture.

**Just can't get enough texture!**

Top these potsticker burgers with some of this Asian slaw, serve with your favorite potsticker sauce

and you won't even miss the wontons!

RECIPE:

Ingredients:

Burger:

1# of ground pork

1 tbsp minced garlic

1/2 inch of fresh grated ginger

2 tbsp sesame oil

1 sliced green onion (which was about 3 tbsp)

1 egg

1 cup of shredded cabbage 

Salt, to taste

Asian Slaw:

3 cup of shredded cabbage

2 tsp of minced garlic

1/2 in of freshly grated ginger

Green Onion - sliced

Salt -  to taste

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp on sesame oil

1/4 cup sliced almonds

Directions:

Combine burger ingredients well and divide into 4 even patties. 

Grill over medium heat for at least 5 minutes/side before flipping. 

While burgers are cooking, combine the slaw ingredients. 

Serve burgers with slaw and your favorite potsticker sauce.