Honey-Lime Chicken (3 Star)

This is one of my absolute favorite chicken recipes. It is slightly sweet and tangy, fresh and smokey. Last night we ate it with buttered baked potatoes and a huge green salad drizzled with left over Cafe Rio dressing. (Try making your own dressing! Click here for Prudy's recipe.)





Click here for the chicken recipe and here for the dressing recipe, courtesy of Prudence Pennywise.

Cucumber Peanut Salad (0 Star)

The other day I bought a bunch of cucumbers because they had an amazing sale price. Then they just sat in my fridge for a while because I didn't know what to do with them. I do that sometimes--buy something that's on a great sale and then let it rot in my fridge because I didn't know what to do with it.

Luckily, I found a delicious recipe this time and my cukes were saved from a rotten fate. I liked the fresh, clean taste of cucumbers in this salad paired with the peanuts, cilantro, and coconut. However, I used only one Serrano pepper (the recipe calls for 1-2) and (woowee!) it must have been a spicy one because it made the salad way too spicy for Brandon and I. Next time I will start with half and go from there. Aside from that, I really enjoyed this, and paired with grilled chicken strips, it made a healthy, light meal, loaded with crunch and flavor.



Click here for the recipe and beautiful photos, courtesy of 101 Cookbooks.

Spicy Chili Chicken (3 Star)

For Christmas, one of Brandon's sisters gave him a Korean cookbook. We've had fun trying recipes from it and this recipe is now one of our favorites. I doubled it and made some changes to suit our tastes, but the original recipe is from "Quick & Easy Korean Cooking" by Cecilia Hae-Jin-Lee. This is spicy, (but easily toned down to suit your spice-level) full of vegetables, and cooks up like a stir fry.



Spicy Chili Chicken
doubled and adapted from "Quick & Easy Korean Cooking" by Cecilia Hae-Jin-Lee

3 Tablespoons olive or grape seed oil
2 to 2 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2-inch slices
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into thin strips about 2 inches long
1 large onion, cut in half, then cut into 1/2-inch wedges
2 zucchini, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/3 cabbage, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely diced
1/2 bunch green onion, cut into 1-inch lengths
3 Tablespoons Korean chili paste called Gochujang, which can be purchased at Asian markets (this is half of what the original recipe called for)
2 Tablespoons soy sauce (this is a lot more than the original recipe called for)
1 Tablespoon sugar (this is more than the original recipe called for)

Heat two tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high to high heat. Add the chicken, sweet potato, and onion and stir-fry until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables begin to brown, about 10-15 minutes. Add one more tablespoon of oil (if necessary) to the pan and add the zucchini, cabbage, and garlic and stir-fry another 3 minutes, until tender-crisp. Add the green onion, chili paste, soy sauce, and sugar and cook stirring, until combined.

Serve immediately with hot rice.

Chap Chae (4 Star)

Yay, a four star dinner recipe! My boys love this meal, although some of them pick out the veggies and only eat the noodles. Does that count? I guess I'm counting it as liking the "meal".

Amazingly, my eldest son ate all of the veggies in his chap chae last night. This was a big deal because he rarely eats veggies. His comment was they didn't taste too different, they mostly added crunch.

These noodles are very fun for kids. They are sweet potato starch noodles (but taste nothing like sweet potatoes--they actually have very little flavor, absorbing whatever flavor is added to them), sometimes called Korean glass noodles. I purchase them at our local Asian market. I've never looked for them at the regular grocery store, so I don't know if they are sold there. But the Asian market is fun! Try it out. (By the way, I have recently discovered that the Asian market is the best place to buy sweet potatoes around here! They have the best kind and they are fresher than the ones at the grocery store.) Nutritionally speaking, I'm not sure how great these noodles are. I think they are a step up from Ramen (what isn't?) and they are gluten free, if that's a concern for you.

Chap Chae is a Korean dish. I used the recipe from Steamy Kitchen. She lists certain vegetables, but really, you can use whatever veggies sound good to you. I used carrots, onions, yellow pepper, green cabbage, spinach, and zucchini this time and it was excellent. The cabbage actually turned out great because I shredded it fairly small and it became a bit translucent and blended with the noodles so the boys who picked out their veggies ended up eating the cabbage, not even noticing. Whatever veggies you use, just stir-fry them to tender crisp and you're good to go. I've also used bits of scrambled eggs in this, with success.

This recipe does have a lot of sugar in it, so I decreased it by half, and we were all thrilled with the flavor.

You can also change the noodle to veggie ratio to fit your liking. I made ours with lots of noodles to compensate for the veggie picker-outers.



Click here for the recipe.