Orange Chicken and Fried Rice

My husband has been emailing me Orange Chicken recipes for months now.   I looked over all of the recipes that he sent me and came up with one of my own.  Since he had been requesting it for so long, I decided that Father's Day would be the perfect day to make it.  I don't normally like to create new recipes for special occasion meals, so I was a bit nervous the whole time I was making it.  The orange chicken that my husband normally gets for take-out is fried.  I wanted to create a much healthier version that still had the take-out feel.  This recipe got his stamp of approval!

Ingredients:

• About a Pound of Chicken Cut into Bite Sized Pieces
• 1 Tablespoon Honey
• About 1 1/2 Tablespoons Sesame Oil
• Orange- 1 Tablespoon Zest and 4-5 pieces of peel
• a couple dashes of ginger
• a pinch of Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• 2 teaspoons corn starch
• 1/2 Cup Orange Juice
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1Tablespoons of Soy Sauce
• Salt and Pepper

Salt and pepper the chicken.  Heat sesame oil in skillet.  Add in orange peels and stir for about a minute.  Next, add in the chicken stirring and flipping to make sure it is cooked throughout.  

While chicken is cooking, mix together ingredients for sauce.  Place minced garlic, soy sauce, orange juice, ginger, orange zest, crushed red pepper flakes, and honey in a small food processor and mix well.  Pour mixture into small bowl and whisk in cornstarch.  Remove orange peels from chicken skillet and discard.  Pour sauce mixture into chicken skillet and simmer for about 5 minutes sauce will thicken.  

Fried Rice

• 1 Egg
• 2 Cups of Rice
• About 1 1/2 Cups Broccoli- cut into bite size pieces
• 1 small to medium Carrot- diced
• 1/4 Cup diced Onion
• 1 1/2- 2 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce
• 2 Cups of Water
• 1 Chicken Bouillon Cube
• 1/2 Cup of Frozen Peas
• Drizzle of Olive Oil

Drizzle olive oil into bottom of medium sauce pan and heat.  Add onions and lightly saute for about a minute. Pour in rice and stir to coat.  Add in water and bouillon cube, cover and simmer about 12 minutes or until all of liquid is absorbed.  In a large skillet drizzle a small amount of olive oil and heat.  Add carrots and saute for about two minutes.  Add broccoli, peas, and a couple tablespoons of water and cover.  This will steam the broccoli.  It will only take a few minutes so don't let your broccoli turn to mush.  Push the veggies to one side of the skillet.  On the other side crack an egg and scramble it.  

Once it is cooked all the way, combine the veggies and scrambled egg.  Make sure the egg is in really small pieces.  When the rice is done cooking, dump it into this large skillet and mix with the veggies.  Add soy sauce, turn heat to high and "fry" the rice, stirring throughout.  This will only take about 2 minutes.  

Place a layer of rice on plate and top with the Orange Chicken and Sauce.  Enjoy!

This recipe was featured on the Marvelous May Menu be sure to check out all of the other recipes and menus for recipes, ideas, and inspiration.  

Tracy's personal favorite take-out recipe is our Teriyaki Beef and Broccoli.  

Skinny Spinach Mac & Cheese

Mac and cheese is a go to kid friendly food at our house, but I don't always have time to make it from scratch.  And although the kiddos do love Kraft Mac and Cheese there is absolutely nothing healthy about it, so I am trying to work in some other options.  This is super quick to make and you don't have to feel guilty about eating it! I usually serve this as a side dish but you could easily double the recipe and serve as a main dish for Meatless Monday or you could add some grilled chicken to make a one pot meal!

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Uncooked Small Shell Pasta
• 3-4 Fresh Basil Leaves (diced)
• About 4 Handfuls of Raw Fresh Spinach
• 2 Wedges of Chive and Onion Laughing Cow Cheese Wedge
• 3-4 Tablespoons of Milk (I used 1%)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Serves about 4 

Cook pasta according to package- drain and return to pot.  While pasta is cooking, chop the spinach.

Add spinach, basil, cheese wedges and milk.  Stir together keeping stove at a VERY LOW heat until cheese is melted.  The spinach will cook perfectly during this time too.

I served with Herb Butter Corn on the Cob (which as you can see I cut off the cob) and Sweet Cajun Chicken.

This recipe was featured on our 30 Days of Dinners June Menu, Make sure to check out all of the other great recipes on this month's menu!

Marvelous May Menu

Spring is officially here!  The weather is warm and we are starting to think about bathing suit season...Yikes!  I guess we should all pay a little more attention to what we are eating.  We spent the last few weeks experimenting with new recipes and taking some of the tried and tested and making them a little better for our waistlines.  We love to cook even more in the spring and summer because of all of the possibilities added with the availability of so much more seasonal produce!  We also love that we can fire up the grill a few nights a week which gets our husbands involved in some of the cooking too!
The Magical Moms March Menu Madness and Appetizing April Menu feature many of our favorites so be sure to check them out!
*Recipe coming soon

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
			1 Mexican Chicken Chopped Salad	2 Skinny BBQ Chicken Pizza on the Grill, Honey Grilled Pineapple	3 Athenian Chicken, Henderson Hummus {updated}	4 Buffalo Chicken Salad with Homemade Low Fat Spicy Ranch
5 Red Pepper Turkey Burger Sliders, Baked Sweet Potato Fries with Cinnamon Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce	6 *Beef and Barley Soup, Fresh and Fancy Fruit Salsa	7 Peppered Steak Salad with Low Cal/Low Fat Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing	8 Skinny Suiza Enchiladas	9 *Maple Chili Glazed Pork, *Krazy Quinoa	10 Lemon Grass Skewered Shrimp, Lemon Orzo Salad with Asparagus and Tomatoes	11 *Steak Fajita Lettuce Wraps
12 Coco Loco Chicken, Sweet Potato Crisps	13 Black Bean and Corn Potatoes, Zucchini Chips with Chive and Onion Dipping Sauce	14 Slow Cooker Rotisserie Chicken,	15 *Chicken Tacos, *Fresh Corn Salsa	16 *Mediterranean Chicken and *Quinoa	17 Orange Chicken Brown Fried Rice, Secret Fruit Salad	18 Grilled Chicken, Awesome Asparagus Risotto
19 Spaghetti and *Turkey Meatballs	20 Low Carb Italian Chopped Salad	21 Kahlua Pork  Tostadas with pineapple salsa	22 Turkey Gyros	23 *Steak Carnitas	24 Deep Dish Portabello {Pizza}	25 *Tequila Lime Shrimp, Brown Rice
26 Parmesan Spaghetti Squash, Cucumber Salad	27 Lean Mean Chicken Bacon Machine (Gluten Free), Strawberry Spinach Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette	28 Hot and Spicy Fajita Piles, Cilantro Brown Rice	29 Gluten Free Bacon, Onion and Garlic Pizza	30 Fiesta Lime Grilled Chicken, Oven "Fried" Zucchini with Spicy Garlic Dipping Sauce	31 Teriyaki Beef and Broccoli

Awesome Asparagus Risotto

Ingredients:

• 1/2 teaspoon salt (for water)
• 1 Tablespoon Unsalted Butter
• 3 small shallots- minced
• 1 cup (uncooked) arborio rice
• 4 Cups of Chicken Broth
• 1 lb of uncooked asparagus, cleaned  and cut into bite sized pieces
• Cooking Spray
• 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
• Salt and Pepper to tast
• 1/3 cup of grated Parmigianno-Reggiano Cheese

Makes 6 Servings

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Blanch asparagus for 2 minutes.  Remove and place in bowl of ice water.  This will stop the cooking process and make sure that your asparagus don't turn to mush!  They will also stay a very pretty green color.  Set them aside.

Bring Broth to a simmer and keep warm.  Spray a medium pot with cooking spray (to prevent rice from sticking)- melt butter.  Add shallots and cook until translucent about 5 minutes or so.  Add in the rice and mix with butter/shallot mixture- cook for about 2 minutes.
Add lemon juice and cook (about 1 minute) until all juice has been absorbed.  Make sure to stir continuously so rice doesn't stick to the sides of the pot.  Add broth to rice 1/2 cup at a time.  Continuously stir until all liquid is absorbed.

Repeat 1/2 cup at a time until all broth has been absorbed.  This process will seem like it is taking forever, but really its about 20 minutes.  When rice consistancy turns creamy and the rice is slightly chewy but not mushy remove from heat, add cheese, and stir.  Add in asparagus.  Salt and Pepper to taste.

Making risotto is very time consuming, but the result is a very tastey addition to any dinner.


This recipe was featured on the Marvelous May Menu, be sure to check out the rest of the May Menu.