Orange Chicken and Vegetable Stir fry

Lots of rain last night, so the kid's 5pm soccer game was cancelled.  That left me with no plans for dinner.  Let me explain, we take my parents to his games, not by force mind you.  My mom always has some plans for dinner... take out, eat out, leftovers or some plan ahead meal if it's a late game.  So now, it was either hope to get invited to dinner (I've only invited myself once), go out or come up with something.  When I phoned to tell them the game was cancelled, I got "see you tomorrow morning" from my mom.  Guess we're not going over there for dinner.

"What to do, what to do?"  OK, something easy, well let me rephrase that, something that I have ingredients for and don't have to run to Kroger for.  Hot dogs, corn and baked bean?  No buns, but there is bread.  Nah, we're going to Oktoberfest tomorrow.  I'll probably have a brat.  Pasta?  Nah, we had Italian sausage soup last night (that's another recipe to post).  Plus I want to go to Buca di Beppo on Tuesday.  What's in the frig?  Broccoli that I want to use!  OK, what's in the freezer that's quick to thaw?  Chicken!  I know there's some pre-cooked "shredded" chicken breast.  I also had onion, celery, and a red pepper.  Chinese would be nice.  I looked through my Chinese pinterest recipes and decided on .Orange chicken and vegetable stir fry.  I will definitely make this again using my own tweeks and freshly sliced chicken, not the desperate 'grab stuff from the freezer' chicken.  Also, I had to use garlic powder instead of the real stuff.  I used up my garlic in the soup yesterday.

Yummy vegetables!

The shredded chicken tasted OK, but, yeah, strips of chicken would have been much better. 

 Here's how I did, or would do it...

Orange Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry

Ingredients:

For the sauce:
  1/2 cup orange juice
  1 tbs grated orange zest

  2 big garlic cloves   

  1 tbs oyster sauce
  2 tbs rice vinegar
  2 tbs soy sauce

  1 tsp minced ginger

  1 tbs cornstarch

  1 cup water

  A dash of honey, sugar or agave

For the stir-fry:
  1 lb chicken breast cut into strips
  3 tbs cornstarch

  1 tbs soy sauce
  4-5 cups chopped fresh. vegetables such as broccoli, peppers, carrots, celery, onion, snow peas
  Oil for cooking
  salt and pepper to taste

Mix all sauce ingredients in a bowl, set aside.  Spice the chicken with salt & pepper.  Add the cornstarch and rub the chicken with it. 
In a large pan or wok, cook the chicken for about 2 minutes in about 1 tbs of oil over medium heat, just until cooked.  It will cook a little more later.  Remove from pan.  Throw in the vegetables and stir-fry for until crisp tender, about 5-10 mins., depending on how tender you like your vegetables.
Add the chicken back to the pan, mix.  Add the sauce, cook until it thickens. Serve over hot rice.

Easy Pumpkin Cake

I saw this recipe on Facebook this morning and wanted to try it.  Why?  Because I've been wanting to make something with pumpkin, 'cause ya know with fall arriving in two days, and it was easy.  The kid thought it was pretty good, especially because it's topped with whipped cream (I let him test it first).  I can't complain.  Although, I think next time I will do what another person suggested on the Facebook page where the recipe came from.  Use a spice cake rather than a yellow cake.  It just needs something else.

•1 box yellow cake mix
•1 – 15 oz. can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)
•1 – 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk (fat free is ok)
•1 – 8 oz. tub cool whip (lite is ok)
•½ bag Heath Bits
•Caramel Sundae Sauce

Instructions
1.In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix and pumpkin puree until a smooth batter forms.
2.Pour batter into a greased 9×13 baking dish, and bake at 350º, according to the directions on the cake mix box (approx 23-28 mins).
3.Remove cake from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes after baking.
4.Using the end of a wooden spoon to poke holes all over the top of the cake.
5.Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the cake. This should fill in the holes and soak into the cake.
6.Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
7.Remove cake from refrigerator and spread cool whip over top of cake. Sprinkle on the heath bits, and drizzle caramel over top.                                                                                                          8.Refrigerate for 3-4 hours, or overnight

I didn't add the Heath bits or caramel either.  Just didn't think it really needed it.

You just see a little bit of the sweetened condensed milk oozing out in the corner.  I never realized how much it tastes like caramel.

 

Montgomery Inn BBQ Sauce

I have another blog that's pretty much devoted to my son.  And I'm sorry to say I have neglected it for sooooo long.  I really should get back to it.  A lot of things have happened in the 3, yes 3 years since I really posted anything.  Horrible mommy!  And I admit that I've become a Pinterest fanatic, mostly recipes.  Occasionally I find one I can't pin, darn them!  So, I'm going to blog those recipes to hopefully help others out.  I will try to post a link or at least give the site from where I got the recipe.

I'll start with this one...

I've never had LaRosa's Montgomery Inn BBQ pizza. So last week I used up the rest of my Montgomery Inn sauce, last packet of Fleischmann's pizza yeast, some chicken strips from the freezer and mozzarella cheese and made my own.  It was pretty good.  It definitely needed more sauce.  I did a layer of sauce and the chicken that was cooked on a grill pan, could have used more chicken too!  Maybe next time I'll use cooked shredded chicken and toss it in the BBQ sauce.  Oh, and the pizza dough, I'm going back to making it in the bread machine or trying it with the Kitchen Aide mixer.  The Fleischmann recipe on their pizza yeast is OK if you're in hurry, but I'd rather have a nice "fluffy" crust.  This is just too thin.

Anyhoo, I found a recipe, two actually, for homemade MI BBQ sauce.  One I was able to pin, the other not.  Can't even copy and paste it.  So, I'm going to type it here...

Montgomery Inn BBQ Sauce

24 oz bottle of ketchup
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbs. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. chili powder
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 - 1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2  cup tarragon vinegar

Blend all ingredients in a pot.  Cook slowly until all flavors are blended.


Here's the original recipe.

Maybe I'll make it next week and see how close it comes to the real thing.


Update... I made the sauce today.  Not exactly Montgomery Inn, kinda close.  It's not bad, but I think it has too much vinegar.   The kid didn't complain.  I think next time I'll substitute half of the ketchup with tomato sauce.  That should take care of some twang.

Here's what my Montgomery Inn pizza looked like (sorry, just put up with the pictures from my little Nikon camera):