Homemade General Tso's Chicken

Alright, the amounts are going to be total guesses. I didn't measure anything and was using a few different recipes to figure out what to do so just taste the sauce and see what you think.

Chop up a chicken breast into pieces whatever size you like. I did chunks, my dad did big strips.

Mix together 3 eggs and about 1/2c corn starch. Dip the chicken in that batter and fry in some oil until golden and cooked inside.

For the sauce. Saute some minced garlic (maybe a teaspoon) in some oil. If you have real ginger or whole dried chilies saute that. I used powdered and paste. When the garlic is cooked add 1/4c water, maybe 1 tsp? chili paste (I added WAY too much the first time so if you don't like spicy start slow and add more from there. I added a couple tablespoons and had to double the rest of the ingredients and it was still pretty hot), 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, 4 tablespoons soy sauce, 4 tablespoons sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger. Stir and lightly simmer until it reduces a bit. Because I didn't want a ton of sugar it won't thicken all the way so I added a dash of corn starch to it. If you add more sugar it should gel when cooked.

I'm pretty sure thats everything I did. Like I said, I don't measure anything. I just grab a spoon and scoop stuff. So taste it and adjust to your tastes. You want a little tang (the vinegar), a little spice and a little sweet. Also, I should have doubled how much sauce I made. This was enough to coat the chicken, but I wanted more to cover my broccoli and rice. You could probably vary this recipe a lot. Add pineapple juice, more vinegar, and less spice for more of a sweet and sour, no spice and orange zest and orange juice for more of an orange chicken. I might have to try more stuff with it. The batter is awesome too. Very similar to a beer batter. 

Pork Tenderloin, Wilted Spinach and Cranberry Salad

I'm back on the diet (again) lol. I'm not being super strict again. Everytime I do I feel like crap. I've been about 50-60 carbs the last 3 days. I figure thats not too bad. I'm mainly avoiding the granola bar, 3 cookies, and 2 mikes lemonades lol.

I thought I'd write down what I made yesterday though because it was amazing.



I made this pork. Basically you look a pork loin like normal, I used salt and pepper and seared the outside, then baked it for about 20 minutes at 425. Then when its almost done, maybe 5-10 degrees away, I took it out and mixed some dijon mustard and some real seedy stone ground regular mustard and put that all over it. Then I carefully patted some brown sugar on it while hitting the thermometer and burning my hand lol. I used as little brown sugar as possible. I baked it till done. It was quite amazing.

I then made a wilted spinach cranberry salad. I looked at recipes online but couldn't find one so made it up. It was frozen cranberries, maybe 1 tablespoon of white sugar, some water. I simmered it till it started to combine. Then remembered pepper and added a small dash of that. I added maybe a tsp of olive oil, then a bunch of spinach and turned off the heat and put a lid on it. After a few minutes I tossed it all up. It was delicious!

That was all served with deviled eggs. It was somewhere between 20-30 carbs for the whole meal. It was great too.


Tonight was bacon cheeseburgers with coleslaw. Again, delicious.

TGI Friday style Korean Tacos

Another meal I made this week (I'm writing these down so I don't forget them) was Korean tacos based off TGIFridays. I soaked fajita meat in soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger and green onion. I fried it up and sliced it up and served it in corn tortillas with finely chopped lettuce (didn't have cabbage) and a sauce of soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar. I also had broccoli that I used some of the (boiled) marinade on, basmalti rice that I cooked with a bit of cilantro, basil olive oil, and ginger, and a side salad with soy ginger dressing.

Menu for 1/6/13

Back on the diet.....

Breakfasts
Smoothies
Sausage Links
Bacon
Eggs

Lunches
Salads
Balsamic Mustard Chicken Breast
Steak (for salads)
Meatloaf
Greek Meatballs/Salad
Tuna
Chicken Salad

Dinners
Bratwurst, Sauerkraut
Sauilsbury Steak, Green Beans
Orange Chipotle Chicken
Hamburgers, Bacon, Veggie?
Pork Loin stuffed with Sun Dried Tomato, Goat Cheese, Spinach
BBQ Pork
Chili
Meatloaf, Cole Slaw
Balsamic Garlic Crusted Pork Loin
Southwest Chicken Breast
Chorizo & Potatoes
Taco Lettuce Wraps

I also have lots of random meat in the freezer... I need to do inventory and figure out some things.

Metza!

It... was.... delicious.....

I took 1 pound of ground beef and mixed in McCormick Tuscan seasoning, italian seasoning, garlic and onion powder. I then smashed it super flat on a cookie sheet. I used 10% fat beef and  it shrunk quite a bit so becareful with the high fat stuff. 

I then baked  it for maybe 20 minutes at 450. When it was done I spread pizza sauce on it and put on my toppings (here it was salami, pepperoni, italian sausage, pineapple, olives, jalapenos, feta and goats milk cheddar). I then baked it another 10 minutes or so till the cheesy was all cooked looking. It was pretty epic. I have enough for dinner and lunch tomorrow. Probably should of been 3 meals but eh, lol. 

Fragrant Shredded Beef Stew Recipe

I worked a weird shift yesterday/today so I threw this fragrant shredded beef stew in the crockpot early this morning before I went to bed for lunch when I woke up.

Ingredients

1 1/2 

cup of 

reduced-sodium chicken broth

1/4 

cup of 

sherry vinegar

2 

celery

1 

large onion

1 

large red bell pepper

3 

garlic

1 

tablespoon of 

ground cumin

1 

teaspoon of 

salt

1/2 

teaspoon of 

freshly ground pepper

3 

pounds of 

flank steak

1/2 

cup of 

packed fresh cilantro leaves

1/2 

cup of 

chopped pickled jalapenos

10 

corn tortillas

Preparation Instructions

Combine broth, vinegar, celery, onion, bell pepper, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper in a 6-quart slow cooker. Add beef, submerging it by tucking the vegetables under, over and between the pieces.

Put the lid on and cook on low until the meat is fork-tender, about 8 hours.

Transfer the meat to a cutting board; let stand for 10 minutes. Shred the meat with 2 forks and return it to the slow cooker. Stir in cilantro. Garnish with jalapeno and serve warm tortillas on the side.

I did some tweaking based on what I had. I used red wine vinegar - I might use less next time. It was a bit sour or maybe acidic and I assume it may have been this? I used some chopped red, orange, and yellow bell pepper and some jarred roasted red pepper. I used a bottom round steak. I also used just a few whole jalapeno slices since I didn't want it real hot. I cooked it on high for about 5-6 hours. Any longer and it would have been overdone. It had cooked down more than the picture which I actually preferred. I just ran the fork around and it fell apart and I scooped it in a bowl with more cilantro, some green salsa, wished I had had an avocado, and ate it with corn tortillas. It was really great to wake up to.

Perfect Crock Pot Ribs!

So I made ribs yesterday in a crock pot and they actually turned out perfect! Its a first for me. Normally when I cook meat in a crock pot all the excess water in the meat comes out and doesn't burn away so the meat basically boils which is just terrible if you're wanting a "roast". The other issue I have is I get stuck at work and the meat cooks WAY too long. Over cooked meat is just awful. Its mealy and lost all the fibers that make it meat. So I tried a couple of things differently this time.

First, get these! You still have to wash the crock pot out, but the horrible burnt on mess isn't there!

The next thing I did was look for something to hold the meat up and off the bottom. You can put potatoes and veggies down there and they'll soak up the liquid. I did that with my corned beef which was amazing. I didn't want potatoes though. I couldn't think of any other food items that would work. Then I remembered this!

My veggie steamer basket! It has little legs on it. Opens up pretty wide. And fit nicely in my crock pot. I sprayed it with olive oil and piled the ribs on it. They were still half frozen. I squirted some Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce all over them. I have a simple (cheap) crock pot and hated being forced to cook food all day so I went and bought one of these for around $10. 

Its super easy to program and I can use it with  my crock pot, rice cooker, or anything. I set it to turn on the machine which was set to high at 11am and turn off at 5pm. I got home about 6:45 (see, stuck at work late!) and they were cooled down and quite tasty! They needed a bit more bbq sauce on them but I just opened a can of beans grabbed the sauce bottle and ate!

I'll start

I have the following planned:



French dip sandwiches
fresh melon
pretzels



Crockpot jambalaya, creole style
sweet rolls with garlic butter


Grilled hamburgers
--topped with provolone, avacado, tomatoes, pickles, lettuce
spinach
potato salad

BBQ pork sandwiches
broccoli
baked potatoes

Beans
cornbread

Stew
homemade bread

Spaghetti
Sweet rolls