Japanese Fried Rice

This will be your new favorite rice recipe.

4 servings

Ingredients

4 C. cooked rice or 1 cup uncooked rice

1 C. peas

2 Tbs. carrots, finely diced

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 C. onion, diced

1 1/2 Tbs. butter

2 Tbs. soy sauce

salt

pepper

Directions

1. Cook rice following instructions on package (Bring 2 cups water to a boil, add rice and a dash of salt, reduce heat and simmer in covered saucepan for 20 minutes).


2. Pour rice into a large bowl to let it cool in the refrigerator.


3. Scramble the eggs in a small pan over medium heat.
   Separate the scrambled chunks of egg into small pea-size bits while cooking.


4. When rice has cooled to near room temperature, add peas, grated carrot, scrambled egg and diced onion to the bowl.


5. Carefully toss all of the ingredients together.


6. Melt butter in a large frying pan over medium/high heat.


7. When butter has completely melted, dump the bowl of rice and other ingredients into the pan and add soy sauce plus a dash of salt and pepper.


8. Cook rice for 6-8 minutes over heat, stirring often.

Thai Chicken Satay with Spicy Peanut Sauce



I've always enjoyed Chicken Satay, but I've never made them myself.

So now's my chance.

Of course, there would have to be one ingredient that I'm unfamiliar with.  You can find tamarind paste in an Asian or Indian Market. Or, I was able to find a substitute recipe for the Tamarind paste.

Ingredients

Chicken Marinade
     Bamboo Skewers

    
     1 pound chicken
     1/2 cup coconut milk
     2 TBL curry Powder
     1 Teas salt
     1 Teas sugar
    
     Peanut Sauce
     3/4 cup coconut milk
     1 TBL red curry paste
     2 TBL fish sauce
     3 TBL peanut butter
     3 TBL sugar
     1 TBL tamarind paste  * 

    Chicken Marinade

     In Medium bowl, mix ingredients together, cut chicken into strips, add chicken to bowl, mix to 

     coat well and let marinade several hours.

     Peanut Sauce

     Add well stirred coconut milk to a pan, on a medium low heat.  As the milk warms, add the curry paste, mixing to
      break up.  When you see the red oil shimmering, add the rest of the ingredients.

    * Tamarind Paste Substitute

     1 TBL chopped dates
     1 TBL Chopped Prunes
     1 TBL Chopped Dried Apricots
     1 TBL Lemon Juice

Place all fruit into a small bowl and pour enough boiling water over them to cover completely.  Let stand 5 minutes, drain water.  Place drained fruit and the lemon juice into a food processor.  Blend to a thick paste.  Store in fridge.
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Enchilada Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti Squash is SO healthy.  It's also well liked by my family. 

This recipe has a little Mexican flare, which we all love.

I cooked the spaghetti squash first in the microwave, which only takes 15 minutes. If you’re partial to roasting it in the oven, by all means do that. You can cook the squash earlier in the day and scoop out all of the strands to use later. This will make dinner prep easy-breezy.

Just before serving, sauté some onions, garlic and red bell peppers, then mix them with black beans, corn and enchilada sauce before scooping the mixture back into the shells of the squash. A couple of minutes under the broiler will make the cheese all melty and golden brown.

This recipe can easily be made vegan (use vegan cheese) or gluten-free (use gluten-free enchilada sauce, such as Hatch). I went the easy route and used a canned enchilada sauce, but making your own enchilada sauce is pretty darn easy.  

A Helping of Healthy

There are more reasons to eat spaghetti squash besides its taste and texture. It’s a great choice when you’re looking for an easy way to replace more calorie-laden foods.

• One cup of spaghetti squash contains only 42 calories and 0.5 grams of fat. Pile it on to your plate!
• It’s a good source of Vitamins A, B6 and C, which are all powerful antioxidants.
• It’s a great source of potassium, which is good news for people with high blood pressure.
• If you’re following a low-carb diet, spaghetti squash may become one of your best friends. It has only 10 grams of carbs per 1 cup serving.

Enchilada Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

Ingredients

• 2 small (2 lb. each) spaghetti squash
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 (14 oz.) can black beans (drained & rinsed)
• 1 c frozen corn kernels, defrosted
• 1¾ c enchilada sauce
• ½ tsp salt, or to taste
• ½ tsp ground pepper, or to taste
• ⅔ c grated Monterrey Jack cheese
• 3 tbsp minced cilantro

Instructions

1. Using a large, sharp knife, pierce a spaghetti squash in several places.  Place the spaghetti squash in a glass baking dish and cook in the microwave on high for about 15 minutes, turning the squash halfway through cooking.
2. Before handling, let the squash stand for 10 minutes. Cut it in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds and fibers.
3. Using a fork, twist out strands of the spaghetti squash flesh and place in a large bowl. Let stand at room temperature. Save the shells of the squash for stuffing later.
4. Preheat the broiler.
5. Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet set over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the red bell pepper and cook until just tender, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cumin, and cook for 30 seconds.
6. Stir in the spaghetti squash strands, black beans, corn and enchilada sauce, and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Scoop the spaghetti squash mixture into the spaghetti squash shells and top with the Monterrey Jack cheese.
8. Place the stuffed spaghetti squash onto a baking sheet and place under the broiler. Cook until the cheese is melted, about 2 minutes.
9. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

Chicken Francese

 

Chicken Francese, sometimes called chicken French, is one of those rare restaurant dishes that's truly easy to cook at home. If you can make chicken cutlets, you can make this lemony, buttery recipe; the only difference is an easy pan sauce that brightens the whole plate. This version includes lemon slices browned in butter, which are pretty and tasty but entirely optional. Although the name suggests that it's a French or Italian dish ("Francese" means French in Italian), it's actually neither: Like spaghetti and meatballs, it's a mostly Italian-American invention. Serve with something starchy to soak up every drop of the sauce; pasta is traditional.

Featured in: The Single Best Thing To Cook With Chicken Breasts. 

 

 

 

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 1 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup olive oil
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 4 to 6 large boneless, skinless chicken cutlets (buy the cutlets thinly sliced, or buy regular boneless breasts and slice them in half horizontally to make thin pieces)
• 3 to 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced, seeds removed (optional)
• ½ cup dry white wine
• Freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon, more to taste
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 3 to 4 tablespoons freshly minced parsley 

Preparation

1. In a wide, shallow bowl, whisk eggs, milk, salt and pepper until blended. Place the flour in a separate bowl. Line a baking sheet with paper towels.
2. In a wide skillet, heat olive and vegetable oils over medium heat until shimmering.
3. Working in batches to avoid crowding the pan, lightly dredge the chicken in flour and shake off any excess. Dip into egg batter, let excess batter drip back into the bowl and place in the skillet. Fry, turning once, until golden brown on both sides, about 4 minutes per side. Adjust the heat as the cutlets cook so they brown slowly and evenly, with a steady bubbling. Transfer to the paper-towel-lined pan and repeat with remaining cutlets.
4. When all cutlets are browned, remove the pan from the heat and pour off the oil. Wipe out the pan with paper towels. Return the pan to low heat. 
5. If making the lemon slices (if not, skip to Step 6 below): Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter and then scatter the lemon slices over the bottom of the pan. Cook, stirring gently occasionally, until the lemon slices are golden and browning around the edges, about 3 minutes. Scoop out the lemon slices and set them aside. 
6. Add 3 tablespoons of butter, the wine and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Boil until the liquid is syrupy, 3 to 4 minutes. Pour in the stock, bring to a boil and cook until thickened into a sauce, about 5 minutes. (It will thicken more when you add the cutlets.) Taste and adjust the seasonings with lemon, salt and pepper; it should be quite lemony and not too salty.
7. Reduce the heat, tuck the cutlets into the pan and simmer very gently until the sauce is velvety and the chicken pieces are heated through, about 4 minutes. Turn the cutlets over occasionally in the sauce. Place the browned lemon slices on top. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve, spooning some of the sauce over each serving.