Chicken with Peppers in Peanut Sauce

Updated with a picture!

The title is uninspired, although that night there were some inspired comments, although I’m not sure I could legally repeat most of them without getting arrested. But, regardless of its uninspired title, the food is yummy. (And a recipe of my own creation!) I’ll admit that most of the sauce measurements are just guesses - I do it until it “looks right” - a cooking tactic I learned from my mother. If its not salty enough, add more soy sauce. If it looks like too much peanut butter (and I always use just enough to make it look like a smidge too much in my eyes) use less. If the sauce is runny, add less water to start. If it’s too thick, add more. Crazy!

Ingredients:
1 cup rice
2 cups water
1 pound (give or take) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 large yellow onion
2 red bell peppers
3 cloves garlic
4 green onions (scallions)
1/4 c. soy sauce
1/2 c. smooth peanut butter
1/4 c. water
2 Tbs honey
Basil (3 Tbs fresh or 1 Tbs dried)

Combine rice and water in a pan, bring to boil, cover, and cook for about 15 minutes.

Preheat a non-stick pan over medium high heat. Finely chop garlic. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. Add to heated pan and sauté until chicken is no longer pink.
While the chicken is cooking, thinly slice the red peppers and onions. Add to pan when chicken isn’t pink. Cook until onions are just soft - about 7 minutes.
Add the rest of the ingredients. (I start with soy sauce, then peanut butter, give a little stir to see how things are shaping up, and then add water to make it “saucy.”) Add honey. Stir, and allow sauce mixture to just come to a boil Add basil and chopped green onions right before serving.
Serve over rice.

P.S. This is also really good with shrimp, as I used to make it before I started eating chicken again. I imagine if you pressed tofu and maybe added some more soy sauce/spice, it would be good with tofu as well. Also, to add to Jessica’s comment: I normally add some red pepper flakes, but didn’t have any on hand last time and it still tasted okay. I normally like my food a ton hotter than the man, so I take it easy and then add Tabasco sauce to everything.

Posted in chicken, recipes, rice || 3 Comments

Simple Sausage Pasta

So I used to make this dish back when I was a vegetarian and I used the fake “GimmeLean” sausage rolls. And my dear man even ate it then and raved. Last night was the first time I’ve ever made this dish with “real sausage” (even though I’ve been eating poultry again for over a year) and let me tell you, there were no leftovers.

Ingredients:
1 package turkey sausage (Hot or mild - I prefer hot)
1/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup cream (I used light last night but have used heavy in the past)
2 Tbs country Dijon mustard
1/4 cup (a good handful) chopped fresh basil
1/2 pound pasta (something small) cooked according to package directions

Start your water boiling for your pasta. (You’ll want it close by.) Remove your sausage from the casings and crumble and brown over medium high heat. When your sausage is done, add your pasta to the water (I use small shells and they normally take about 6 minutes to cook.) Add white wine and let cook off until reduced by about half. Turn heat wayyyyy down, add mustard and cream, stir to mix. Let simmer together for about 3-5 minutes. Add basil and pasta, stir to combine.

Now, yesterday, when I made it, I got hot sausage by accident and preferred it. Normally I got mild and added a couple of red chili flakes - you choose. Also, the sauce was really sparse, so I took about a ladle full of pasta water and mixed it in before I added the pasta and it worked well. Some tips, ya know?

Posted in dinner, pasta, sausage, turkey || No Comments

Cinnamon Rolls

I’ve been gone a long time, but no one reads this anyway, so hoo-wah! Things have been a little busy since my first post… I got married, went on my brief honeymoon, had my reception, celebrated Christmas and Thanksgiving, and um, worked and stuff.
Right.

And in the meantime, I got to try a recipe from one of my favorite food blogs ever: The Pioneer Woman Cooks. It’s actually the recipe that I found her blog through, and now I’m obsessed with her life and check her personal blog and her cooking blog about 3 times a day for updates. (Her life is much cooler than mine.)
These are neither simple nor quick, but delicious and well worth the effort. Her pictures are better, but this is a half recipe.

Ingredients:
2 C whole milk
1/2 C vegetable oil
1/2 C sugar
1 package yeast
4 C flour
1/2 C flour
1/2 heaping tsp baking powder
1/2 scant tsp baking soda
1/2 tbsp salt

Filling:
1 C melted butter
1/2 C sugar
Cinnamon (enough to make it look right)

Frosting:
1/2 bag powdered sugar
1/4 C milk
2 Tbs brewed coffee
1 tsp maple flavoring (add more to your liking - I needed about twice this)
2 tbsp melted butter
pinch of salt

Mix whole milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. Scald to just before boiling. Let cool until lukewarm (30-45 minutes, 105-110 degrees. Don’t kill your yeasties!) Sprinkle in yeast and let sit. Then add 4 C flour, stir mixture together. Cover and let sit for one hour. Add 1/2 C flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir mixture together.

Sprinkle surface generously with flour and form into a rectangle, roll the dough thin, maintaining a rectangular shape. Drizzle melted butter over dough. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Roll the dough toward you. Pinch the seam to seal it. Grease foil cake or pie pans. Cut rolls 3/4 to 1 inch thick and lay in greased pans. Cover the rolls and let sit for 30 minutes. Bake at 400 for 15 to 18 minutes.

Combine all frosting ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Generously drizzle frosting over warm rolls after they come out of the oven.

Eat all of them by yourself, then start again and serve those to your family.

Before baking.

Posted in breakfast || No Comments