sage chicken and rice

1 large onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 celery stalks, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 tsp dried sage
1 1/4 cups chicken stock
2 chicken breasts, cut in 1-inch pieces - do not pre-cook
1 1/3 cups mixed wild rice and brown rice
14 ounce can chopped tomatoes
dash of Tabasco sauce
2 medium zucchini, thinly sliced
3 1/2 ounces lean ham, diced
salt and pepper

1 - Put the onion, garlic, celery, carrots, and sage in a large pan and pour over the chicken stock. Bring to boil, cover pan, simmer for 5 minutes.

2 - Add chicken to the pan, cover, continue to cook for another 5 minutes.

3 - Stir in rice, chopped tomatoes, Tabasco sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Bring to boil, cover, simmer for 25 minutes.

4 - Stir in zucchini and ham. Cook another 10 minutes uncovered, stir occasionally until rice is tender and heated through.

My notes: I skipped the ham because we didn't have any. I don't know how this would have changed the flavor, because I screwed up with the rice.

I didn't have wild rice, so I used only brown rice. This had 2 effects, neither of which went over very well. First, it doubled the cooking time - the step where it's supposed to cook for 25 minutes, I had to cook it for about an hour so the brown rice was soft enough. That meant I had to keep adding liquid to it to keep it from burning the bottom of the skillet. It's cooked in chicken stock and I kept adding water, which totally diluted the flavor. It ended up being pretty bland. I should have at least added some more chicken stock when continuing to put liquid in it.

It was good other than that, so I'm definitely planning to try it again.

This is from a Lowfat cookbook I have, and each serving is only 390 calories with 4 grams of fat.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Okay Rachelle, here is CJ's sweet and sour recipe. I don't know about you guys, but we love American Chinese food, but are too cheap to order takeout. So, we make it ourselves. CJ found this recipe online when I was sick pregnant with Ellie and not cooking. I didn't try it the first few times he made it (for obvious reasons of not wanting to be trying it again a few hours later), but now it is a favorite of the whole family. I love to serve it with alot of steamed broccoli (I steam it with the rice) and this time I made the fried rice to go with it. One of these days I will go all out and make my mother-in-laws spring rolls too. I will have to do that in the summer, however, when we are really active and can burn of all that oil.

Notes on the recipe. Don't add all the soy sauce at once, do a little at a time in case you don't like it too strong. For the pineapple juice, just buy a can of pineapple, use that juice, and then I like to put chunks of pineapple in the sauce. I also cut my meat pretty small to make sure it cooks all the way. Enjoy!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Batter:

1 egg

1/3 c. milk

1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

mix well and then add pork or chicken, cut to bite size pieces.

(this amount of batter will do about 2 chicken breasts, depending on the size)

Using fork to take pieces out, put in pan of hot oil to fry til golden brown. Take out and put on plate with paper towel.

Sauce:

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. white vinegar

1/4 c. pineapple juice (I use more)

2 Tbs soy sauce

1/4 c. water

2 Tbs cornstarch (or more, just mix with a little water, and add to boiling sauce til thickens)
Simmer sauce while you cook meat.

Black Beans and Rice Wraps

The protein of a poor college student. Black Beans. I love them, and love that they are good for you! This is a quick easy meal and tasty too!

Black Beans and Rice Wraps

1 tsp oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drain a little, but not all
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes, drained
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 plus cups cooked rice

DIRECTIONS
In large saucepan, heat oil over medium-high. Add onion, cook and stir until tender. Add beans, tomatoes, oregano and garlic powder; stir in rice. Stir and heat til hot. I cut up the tomatoes a little with my wooden spoon.

Serve on tortilla topped with shredded cheese and sour cream.

Fried Rice

First off, I would like to say that I am excited to join the blog! I love to cook and find new recipes. I have muchos to share, and hope they will be helpful.

I don't know about you guys, but I always make too much rice. This is a variation on a dish I used to make for Ches alot when he was younger. He loved it, and still does! Now it is a favorite side dish. I used to just make it up as I went, but then one day I found this recipe and tried it, and success! I loved it. It had the idea to put carrots in, which was a big hit! I hope you enjoy it. If you are interested and into chinese food, I can give you CJs recipe for sweet and sour chicken. I am afraid it is a fried food, so it is more of a special treat then a healthy meal, but we love it! Just as good, if not better then restaurant dishes.

Japanese Style Fried Rice

2 cups cooked rice (*left over rice is the best)(Rice must be cold, slightly hard, like old rice gets)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped carrot (I put in 1/2 plus cup)
1/4 cup chopped green pepper (I used 1/2 or more of frozen peas)
1/3 cup diced ham/pork (thickly sliced deli ham works)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp chicken bouillon
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp vegetable oil

PREPARATION:
Put a wok or a pan on high heat. Add oil to the pan. Wisk the eggs in a small bowl. Put the eggs in the heated pan and scramble very quickly. Stop the heat and remove the scrambled eggs from the pan into a dish. Put the pan on high heat and add more oil. Saute vegetables and ham until soft. Add garlic salt and chicken bouillon. Add rice and stir well. Add the scrambled egg that was cooked earlier to the rice mixture and mix together. Turn the heat down to low, add soy sauce and stir quickly. Stop the heat right away and serve.