Stir-Fry with Brown Sauce

I’m trying so hard to get back to cooking nearly every night! I never understood it before when my mom would tell me she was tired of cooking. I always have found cooking dinner to be so relaxing, so I couldn’t understand why someone wouldn’t want to do it. But over the last few months I totally started to understand it. But after standing on the scale and seeing what not cooking does to my gut is putting things into perspective and getting me back to cooking – so you should be seeing more stuff posted.

Stir-frys are easy. I love things I can cook quick but still taste delicious. My boyfriend said it would have been good with corn in it. This is definitely a dish I will remake and it will have corn next time.

Stir-Fry with Brown Sauce
(based on this recipe)

Ingredients
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil, or less
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp soy sauce
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup chopped broccolini
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1/4 onion, diced

Directions

1. In a small amount of oil brown the chicken on all sides. Don’t worry about cooking through. Remove and set aside.

2. Add the garlic, soy sauce, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup chicken broth. Stir together and bring to a simmer.

3. Add the chicken and vegetables. Cover with a lid and let simmer in the liquid for 20 minutes.

4. Stir the remaining chicken broth with the cornstarch.

5. Pour the broth and cornstarch into the stir-fry. Stir and simmer until the liquid thickens.

* serves 2
* 234 calories per serving (excluding the rice)
* Shared with What’s Cooking Wednesday

Mushroom Broccolini Risotto

This month at Food ‘n Flix we watched Sideways, hosted by Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor.

I first saw Sideways the year it had come out, back in 2005. My dad was sent to Blockbuster and told to get a comedy. He came back with Sideways. Being 18 years old and expecting something truly funny, I was not expecting the dark comedy he had brought home. We ended up turning it off.

Seeing it again these seven years later has made a mountain of a difference.

In Sideways two middle age men go on a trip through Southern California’s wine country. Honestly, until I saw this movie I had no idea that Southern California even had a wine country. I live in Sacramento, grew up in San Francisco, and went to college in Santa Cruz. I am very much a Northern California girl and always just thought of “wine country” as being Napa county. In fact, I have plans this summer to go wine tasting in Napa with several of my girl friends. I hope this happens because I’ve never gone wine tasting before. And I hope I’m not the driver.

For the recipe to share with Food ‘n Flix I decided to pick something and pair it with wine, since that was the overwhelming theme of the movie.

Here’s the problem. Well, there’s two. I don’t know much about wine and I’m cheap as hell. I originally googled what I should pair with a mushroom risotto and read that I should pair it with a Dolcetto. That sounds great and all, but the $20 bottle of wine from Bevmo really just wasn’t fitting this poor law student’s budget. Upon more searching I read that a chardonnay would be a good pair for this type of meal – and since the recipe called for dry white wine I decided I’d buy a wine, cook with it, and drink it.

This bottle of wine was about $10. I didn’t spit it out, so that’s a good sign.

It is a California wine, but not from the Santa Barbara area. This winery is actually in Sonoma County and is about an hour and a half away from where I live. This is definitely local wine. Though it was cheap, for this law student’s budget it was perfect. Websites indicate that “this Classic Sonoma County Chardonnay exhibits ripefruity flavors of pear, crisp green apple, vanilla and toasty caramel.” When it comes to wine I just taste fermented grapes, so what do I know.

I do like white wine more than red wine though – that is one thing I know. The reason though is because white wine doesn’t stain my lips and make me look drunk.

Risotto isn’t the easiest dish to make, but I think I pulled it off pretty well for this meal. Overall I was satisfied.

Find out about entering this month’s Food ‘n Flix here!

Mushroom Broccolini Rissoto
(serves 2)

Ingredients
1/2 lb arborio rice
4 oz sliced mushrooms
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup broccolini
1/2 onion, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup white wine

Directions

1. In a pot combine the mushrooms and the chicken broth. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and boil for 20 minutes. When it has finished boiling strain the mushrooms. Reserve the broth.

2. Bring another pot of water to a boil. Add the broccolini and cook for 3 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.

3. Ina deep skillet melt the butter with olive oil. Cook the onions for about 3 minutes. Add the rice and toast for 3 more minutes.

4. Add wine and stir for 2 minutes.

5. As the liquid evaporates from the rice, add 1/2 cup of the reserved broth to the rice. Continue to cook, bringing to a low boil, stirring frequently. Continue to add more broth (or water if you run out of broth) as the liquid evaporates, stirring consistently. Cook for about 20 minutes, or until the rice is cooked.

6. Fold in the broccolini, Parmesan, and mushrooms.

* serves 2

Egg Drop Soup

Soup soup soup! I’m all about it recently, as I’m sure you can tell by my recent posts. So rather than break away from the soup, here’s another recipe.

I probably shouldn’t eat this, because I have high cholesterol and egg is high in cholesterol… But shoot me. It tastes good.

Egg Drop Soup

Ingredients
6 cups chicken broth
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
9 oz shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 carrot, shredded
1 cup portobello mushrooms, chopped
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup peas, frozen

Directions

1. Combine the cornstarch and broth in a pot and whisk together until fully dissolved.

2. Turn heat up to medium and bring to a low boil. Add soy sauce and garlic and stir. Add the carrots and mushrooms, stirring and cooking for 2 minutes.  Add the shrimp and cook for 3 more minutes. Add the peas and stir.

3. Reduce heat to simmer. Slowly pour the beaten eggs into the soup. Stir.

* serves 2
* 364 calories per serving
* I shared this recipe with These Chicks Cooked Weekly Recipe Collection and What’s Cooking Wednesday?

Sausage Broccoli Noodles

Sausage Broccoli Noodles

Ingredients
4 oz uncooked pasta
2 links of sausage, I used a spicy chicken sausage
2 1/2 oz mushrooms, sliced
1 tbsp Brummel&Brown, yogurt spread or other butter substitute
1 tsp garlic, minced
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup broccoli
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Cook the broccoli in another boiling pot of water. Meanwhile, in a large skillet saute the sausage and mushrooms in the butter substitute, until the mushrooms are brown and tender. Add the garlic and cook 1 more minute.

2. Combine the cornstarch and milk until smooth; gradually add to the skillet with the mushrooms and garlic. Bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes, until thickened. Drain the pasta and broccoli and add to the sausage mixture. Stir in cheese and cook until melted.

* 518 calories per serving
* serves 2

Turkey and Mushroom Sloppy Joes and a Review

I recently won a giveaway over at the Crazy Cooking Couple. I typically don’t enter giveaways (though this win might change that!), but I was intrigued by the prize in this challenge. The Crazy Cooking Couple was giving away several varieties of Brad’s Raw Chips. The flavor I got was the Leafy Kale Vampire Killer. Basically, it was pieces of kale, that some process was done to them to get them crispy coated with a soy cheese substitute and garlic. They definitely weren’t the same as potato chips and I don’t know if they could satisfy my potato chip cravings, however, they definitely were yummy. I’d actually like to try some of the other variations of Brad’s Raw Chips. For example, there’s a sweet potato chip, a red bell pepper chip, and a sun dried tomato chip. I actually think one of those may be more suitable for craving a “chip” craving than pieces of greenery. However, it wasn’t until this moment that I have consciously eaten kale and it was good.

I received the kale chips last Tuesday and decided to serve them with my sloppy joe lunch.

Turkey and Mushroom Sloppy Joes

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
12 oz ground turkey
16 oz sliced mushrooms
1 cup onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup tomato paste
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp molasses
1/4 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp Sriacha sauce
4 hamburger buns

Directions

1. Heat a skillet over medium-heat. Add oil and swirl to coat. Add the turkey, cooking for 4 minutes, until brown. Stir to crumble.

2. While the meat cooks, place the mushrooms in a food processor. Pulse 10 times, or until finely chopped. Add the mushrooms, onion, and garlic to the pan with the turkey. Cook for 3 minutes, until the onion is tender. Add the tomato paste, red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, molasses, and salt. Cook for 5 minutes, until the mushrooms are tender and the liquid has began to evaporate.

3. Stir in the ground black pepper and Sriacha. Spoon 1/4 of the meat mixture onto each bun.

* makes 4 sloppy joes
* 374 calories per joe

* This sandwich will be entered at Kahakai Kitchen’s Souper Sundays!

Ground Pork and Bacon Wraps

I told you in my last post that after making the Swedish Meatballs I had excess thawed ground beef and ground pork. Rather than get out more meat to use, I decided to alter the recipes I had upcoming in my meal plan to make sure everything got used up. This meal initially was supposed to be chicken and bacon fajita. Since the ground beef was used in the tetrazzini, it only followed that the ground pork was going into the next dish: the fajitas, which I am going to call wraps instead since I did not use fajita sized tortillas.

The flavor of the ground pork plus the… more pork (bacon) was delicious. This was such an easy recipe, but still had a ton of flavor packed into the tortilla.

Ground Pork and Bacon Wraps

Ingredients
12 oz ground pork
3 slices bacon, diced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 1/2 cups mushrooms, chopped
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
4 multi-grain tortillas (I used La Tortilla Factory tortillas)

Directions

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-heat. Cook the pork until it is no longer pink in the middle. Set aside.

2. Cook the bacon until the bacon begins to release some oil.  Stir in the onion and bell peppers. Cook until the onions are translucent and the bacon is crispy. Stir in the tomatoes and mushrooms and continue to cook until the mushrooms are soft.

3. Warm the tortillas. Scoop 1/4 of the mixture into each tortilla. Roll and enjoy!

* serves 4
* 1 wrap per serving
* 413 calories per serving