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Thursday, March 31, 2011

Almost Take-out Orange Chicken


Unlike my last post...this recipe would not be placed in a low-fat category.  However, it is DELICIOUS!  I thought it would be fun to try my favorite Chinese take-out recipe at home so that my family had an eat-out night without the price or difficult choice of where to go.  I had a hankering for Chinese, a wok screaming to be brought out of the dark basement, and a recipe that seemed easy enough to follow (having everything prepped beforehand really helped, too).  Though I won't be making this very often, (I hate the smell of fried food in my house...outside of my house is acceptable, of course), it is a change from our normal meal "routine"!

Orange Chicken, Panda-Style
Courtesy of: Family Feasts for $75 a Week

Serves 6

2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil, plus more for frying
1/2 cup, plus 1 Tbsp. cornstarch, divided
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Orange Chicken Sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. water
Grate zest of 1 orange

Stir-fry
1 Tbsp. peeled and minced ginger (or 1 tsp powdered ginger)
1 tsp. minced garlic
Dash of red pepper flakes
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp. sesame oil

1. Place cubed chicken in a large bowl.  Add egg, salt, black pepper, and 1 Tbsp. oil.  Mix well.  Stir together 1/2 cup cornstarch and flour in a large shallow bowl.  Add Chicken pieces, a handful or two at a time, and stir to coat evenly.  Tap off any excess.
2. Pour about 1 inch oil in a wok or deep, heavy skillet and heat to 375 degrees or until heat starts to ripple.  Add chicken pieces, a small handful at a time, and fry until golden and crisp, 3-4 mins.  Remove chicken and drain on paper towels.  Cook rest of chicken, keeping an eye on the oil temperature.  The heat may need to be turned down for the second batch of chicken to prevent burning.
3. Once all chicken is cooked, reserve a couple tablespoons of oil from pan in a seperate bowl.  Clean wok. (Very important...just wipe out with paper towel.)Combine sauce ingredients in a large measuring cup and whisk until sugar is dissolved.
4. Heat wok for 15 seconds over High heat.  Add reserved oil back into pan.  Add ginger, garlic, red pepper, and green onions; stir-fry 2-3 minutes.  Add sauce and bring to a boil.  Add cooked chicken, stirring until well mixed.  Combine remaining 1 Tbsp cornstarch with 1/4 cup water until smooth; add to skillet with orange sauce and chicken.  Heat until sauce is thickened; stir in sesame oil.  Serve with rice.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Orecchiette with Roasted Peppers


This is a fantastic, healthy pasta dish I discovered from Cooking Light magazine about a year ago.  While providing a healthy mix of veggies, it also satisfies those warm carb cravings with the hot pasta.

This recipe has several steps, but stick with me and you'll find a dish you can easily make again and again!

Orecchiette with Roasted Peppers
courtesy of Cooking Light

2 bell peppers (red, yellow, or orange)
8 oz. uncooked orecchiette (or similar) pasta
1 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. minced garlic, divided
8 oz. cherry tomatoes, halved

Dressing:
3 Tbsp. white wine vinegar (you can use any vinegar and it tastes great!)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp. ground pepper

3 cups loosely packed spinach or arugula
Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat broiler.  Cut peppers in half and place skin side up on foil-lined baking sheet.  Broil for ~15 mins, until blackened.  Place hot peppers in a ziploc bag and close for 10 mins allowing for pepper to steam.  Peel and cut pepper into strips.
2. Cook pasta.  Drain.
3. Heat 1 tsp. oil in large non-stick skillet.  Add 1/4 tsp. garlic; cook 30 secs.  Add bell peppers and tomatoes and cook 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat.
4. Combine remaining 3/4 tsp. garlic, vinegar, and next 5 ingredients in small bowl and whisk.
5. Add to bell pepper mixture along with the pasta and toss.
6. Place spinach in a large serving bowl.  Pour pasta mixture over spinach and toss.  Serve with parmesan cheese.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Hot Bagels

When you grow up in New Jersey, you are spoiled by a couple of things:

1. Close proximity to New York City and all that has to offer
2. The coolest, most fantastically beautiful historic homes, EVER
3. 24 hour diners
4. Fresh, hot bagels made in a local bagel shop (yes, they have shops specifically for bagels and nothing else!)


My first time visiting New Jersey was about 8 years ago when my husband and I began dating.  As with any new relationship, we were excited to share stories about our past and introduce each other to the life experiences we had growing up.  On that first visit, Andrew and I took a walk through his small hometown of Ramsey, NJ, visited his highschool, country club golfcourse, and his first job...at the local bagel shop.  All it took was one bite of those huge, fluffy pillows of warm dough and I was hooked!!

8 years and many bagels later, we decided to find a bagel recipe that was easy (could be made the same morning we wanted to eat them), delicious (of course), and reminded us of those wonderful New Jersey bagels.

These instructions are for making the dough in a bread machine-I will give mixer directions following the recipe.

Place ingredients in bread machine as follows:
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
4 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp dry active yeast

Once ingredients have been added in order instructed, select dough cycle.  After the first kneading cycle finishes, stop the machine, remove dough, divide into 8 sections, and form bagels (make a "snake" and connect ends). Cover and let rest for 15-20 mins.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  While the oven is heating, fill a large pot with water and heat to a boil.
Line one baking sheet with parchment paper and one with a kitchen towel.
Boil each bagel (no more than 2 at a time) for 45 seconds each side.  Remove and place on kitchen towel allowing the towel to absorb some of the moisture.
Place bagels on parchment-lined baking sheet.  Place in oven and immediately reduce the oven temperature to 425 degrees.
Bake for 17-25 minutes-towards the end of the cooking time, flip bagels to allow other side to lightly brown.
Let cool on wire racks and enjoy!

To do this recipe in a mixer:
Place the lukewarm water in mixer bowl and sprinkle yeast on top.  Let sit for 5 minutes before adding remaining ingredients.  Using the kneading attachment, mix/knead for 15 minutes.  Let dough rest for 5 minutes before continuing with the rest of the recipe.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Crispy Kale


Do not be afraid of dark, leafy greens!  I used to think of dark greens (i.e. spinach) as that nasty stuff Popeye squeezed into his mouth from a can.  I don't know anyone who watched that show and seriously thought that that green glob was really going to make them any stronger.  Personally, it made me a bit queasy. 

Anyway, aside from the canned and frozen varieties of greens, (which have already been steamed and pressed into either a can or square shape), I had no idea how to prepare the fresh greens other than raw in salad or steamed.  When we received kale as part of our CSA, I knew I would have to be a bit creative.  I heard about roasting it in the oven and decided to give it a try.  Little did I know, it was going to be so addicting!  I kept popping them in my mouth like they were fresh, hot french fries, or m&m's, or gummy colas. (Replace with whatever is your non-healthy addiction...these are just a few of mine!)

Here's the recipe for a quick and easy way to get those dark, leafy greens into your diet without ever knowing it was good for you!

Crispy Kale: (serves 4)
1/2 lb. fresh kale, leaves removed from the dense stems
olive oil
seasoning salt

Preheat oven to 350. 
Wash the kale and dry thoroughly using a salad spinner. 
Toss with olive oil until lightly coated. 
Place on a foil lined baking sheet and sprinkle with seasoning salt.
Bake for 12-15 minutes until crisp.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with more seasoning salt, if desired.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Our first CSA

All of our goodies!

The biggest carrot I have ever seen!

Mushrooms from Kennett Square, PA!  Made me miss our old, stinky, mushroom-capital town.


Blood oranges...never had one before.  FANTASTIC!!


Aren't these the most beautiful eggs? 

We are looking forward to our next pick-up on Wednesday! 

Down to business with biscuits

This biscuit recipe has become my go-to recipe, it seems, for about the past 3 weeks.  I recently picked up the book, Family Feasts for $75 a Week, by Mary Ostyn.  She is a mom, blogger, penny-pincher, cook...you name it, she can do it!  She and her husband have 10 children (biological and adopted) so saving money is a priority.  I'm all for good-quality, homemade food on a budget.  We roughly spend $80/week on groceries so having quick, go-to recipes with staple food items is a must!

For meals, I like to prepare a main dish, vegetable/salad, and a bread.  Though this doesn't always work for every meal, I feel like my meals are more balanced when I provide all three.  And while those tubed-shaped biscuits may be easy and extremely fun (yet dangerous) to open, I prefer to get my hands a bit messy and spend the few extra minutes whipping up my own biscuits.  And trust me, the "flaky, peelable layers" in a tube will never be as flaky and buttery as these!

Still want those tube-shaped biscuits?

This recipe is for roughly 16 biscuits.  I cut it in 1/2 when I make them to save time and end up with about 7-8 BIG biscuits.

4 cups AP flour
2 Tbsp. baking powder
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. cold butter, cubed 
2 cups milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Whisk together the dry ingredients.  Cut in the cold butter until evenly distributed.  Add milk gradually just until dough pulls away from the bowl. (May not use all of milk...add slowly).  Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead several times until smooth.  Pat or roll into 1-inch thickness.  Cut biscuits and place on an ungreased baking sheet or in an ungreased baking pan.  Bake until brown 13-15 minutes.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Why we joined a CSA

Andrew and I recently joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Program with Breezy Willow Farm, which starts today!  You may be asking, "What is that?".  It is a program that supports local farms and locally grown foods.  We pay into a "share" of the farm and receive back fresh fruits, vegetables, grains, honey, and eggs!  As you can imagine, this will be a very exciting time for this blog, because I will never really know exactly what I am getting until about the day before pick-up!  So our menu will always be changing with the seasons.  For example, today I will be picking up apples, blood oranges, grapefruits, mushrooms, carrots, garlic, spinach, butternut squash, eggs, Lavendar-Rosemary Bread, and Apple Crumb Bread!  What a great assortment for March!

Back in November, we rented the movie Food, Inc. (which I highly recommend), because I had seen an episode of Oprah discussing the movie.  In the movie, experts, farmers, activists, concerned mothers, etc discuss the state of our nation's food supply.  In simple terms, how Americans are willing to settle for easy, cheap, overly processed foods, in order to save time and money without thinking of the long-term effects.  The movie had such an impact on me.  I knew we needed to make a change in our eating habits here at home...one reason this blog was created...and make wiser choices with the brands and items we purchase at the grocery store.  (If you watch the film, you will never be able to buy chicken from 2 certain brand names...I will leave it at that!)

Though we can't stay local all year, I try to buy things when they are in season (they're much cheaper too). Like not buying fruits and veggies that were ripened on a truck instead of the vine.  So, that means no strawberries in the wintertime, big whoop!  But, did you know that pineapple, mangoes, and papayas are in season right now?!  Fantastic!  It's a great time to try something new! 

And have you ever had an egg fresh from a chicken?  If so, you know what I'm talking about.  My mom recently asked me to describe how they tasted different from a store-bought carton of eggs and the only answer I could give was they tasted like the grass the chicken ate that morning.  I know, sounds gross, but what I am getting at is it tasted like it was from the earth, not a refrigerated truck.  And certainly not like it was shipped from Illinois or Indiana.  I don't have to worry about them being recalled, because I know the very farmer they came from and what the chicken ate that morning.  I know that it saw the sun, socialized with it's neighbor the sheep (we actually saw one riding on a sheep's back) and, even got some exercise!  Can you tell me anything about the chicken who laid the eggs that are sitting in your fridge right now?

I could do a whole post with a Christian perspective of how animal treatment should be taken into consideration when making our food choices, so I will save that for another time!  But after seeing the film, I understand how many people choose to become vegetarians when they learn how animals are treated in this country (before and during slaughter).  When animals are only seen as a product to sell, their worth becomes such that is reflected in their treatment.  I believe that God gave us certain animals (chickens, cow, pigs, etc) for the purpose of consumption, but not with the intention of forgetting where they came from and the gift they provide for our lives.  Respect for the animal means respect for your food, which to me, translates into respect for our own bodies.  By educating ourselves, taking responsibility, and making wiser decisions, we too can enjoy the beautiful, healthy, bountiful fruits of the earth.

I look forward to sharing our CSA experience with all of you and hopefully sharing some excellent recipes too!  Find your local farm online and start supporting local farmers today!  (And rent Food, Inc....you might just learn something new!)
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