Sweet & Sour Chicken

It feels like I've been doing international cooking the last two days!!! First Italian, meaning pasta and than yesterday I made Chinese. I love to eat Chinese, specially their house special fried rice and their sweet and sour chicken. I have the best Chinese restaurant around my house and they are super fast which is a big plus. 

Yesterday was a try cooking Chinese kind of day!!! and I found this awesome and easy sweet and sour chicken recipe, the easy part made it more appealing to me, LOL!!! If you like the combination of sweet, sour and easy this is your kind of recipe. And if you like Chinese but like to know what you put in it by doing it yourself, this is for you. Give it a try!!!! 

Ingredients:

2-4 whole boneless chicken breasts

3 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 green pepper cut in strips

1 small onion, sliced

1 cup diced celery

1 chicken bouillon cube dissolved in 1/2 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

1 can diced chunk pineapple, undrained

3 tablespoon cornstarch

2 tablespoon water

Directions:

Cut chicken into thin strips.

Pour oil in hot wok and heat cook chicken

Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for 5-10 minutes. Stir constantly then let it simmer for 3 minutes. Serve over rice.

Now, tell me!! doesn't this look good?! It was sooooo good and the colors made it look pretty. I should've add some green in it but I'm not a fan of celery and I used red and orange peppers because they were already in use and the green pepper was not. I really needed to get rid of them before opening the vacuumed sealed green pepper. But next time for sure I will.  

My hubby and I really enjoyed this meal and to top it off, we had brownies for dessert which made my chocolate lover husband a happier eater. I was sooo happy to see him happy and enjoying his food. 

Have a great day and keep warm!!!!

Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin with Pasta

Last night was a pasta kind of night, so I went ahead and checked what I had in my refrigerator and pantry to make my kind of pasta. My husband always says that my sauce is very different and my mother in law enjoys it too because the tomato taste is very mild.
This  is my own recipe because I just start throwing seasonings, spices and veggies to make a delicious meal. So, I'm going to try my best to tell you how I did things and what I put in each item.

Bacon Wrap Pork Tenderloin with Pasta

Ingredients:
1 pound pork tenderloin
4-5 bacon strips
salt
pepper
1/2 lime
1/2 tsp garlic powder
a little cayenne pepper
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1/2 orange pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 1/2 cup traditional spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup water
salt to taste
spaghetti, elbows or your choice of pasta
olive oil

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with foil paper and spread a little olive oil on it.
Cut your pork in 4-5 strips, squeeze the lime on the meat (I like to do this in all types of meat I cook) season your meat and wrap each strip with bacon. Place your meat on the baking sheet and cook for 1 hour, then turn and cook it for another 25-30 minutes or until bacon is golden brown.
Follow the instructions on the package to cook the pasta and have it ready for when your meat and sauce are ready. You can also cook it last.
While your pork is cooking start chopping your veggies and gather all your ingredients for your sauce. In a pan pour some olive oil and after is hot put in the garlic and onions cook it for about 3-5 minutes, then throw in the peppers, sauce, Italian seasoning  and salt to taste. Let it simmer for about 5-8 minutes, taste and add more salt if needed. Use the water if you want to make your sauce less thick but if you like the strong tomato taste and a thick sauce don't use it. Give it your own twist if desired!!
When meat is done cut in round pieces, serve on top of pasta and sauce. It is delicious!!!! I think I did pretty good telling you all the ingredients and steps, What do you think?

This was delicious and different!! It had a good taste but it wasn't so strong, the garlic was on point and the tomato taste was mild.

 The peppers gave it a nice colorful look and taste. My husband and I enjoyed it very much. I sent some left overs with him to work and kept some for me, and they taste very good reheated too.

Hope you can try it and remember that you can add and take, make it your own by adding your own touch.

Chicken & Broccoli Homemade Calzone

Last night I wanted to make a special breakfast for dinner for my awesome working husband and after I had everything planned and ready to cook my waffle maker decided it wasn't going to work appropriately and so my plans went down the drain and feeling the way I was feeling, that was not a good thing. But God had better plans allowing us to go out and enjoy a good evening and a nice burger with delicious fries :) sounds awesome doesn't it!!!!

Today I decided I wanted to make some type of hot pocket or calzone for dinner and so I started my search for ideas and came across this delicious recipe.

What you’ll need:

1/2 batch pizza dough

2 large chicken breasts

2 cups steamed broccoli

2 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup Alfredo sauce ( I made my own, no store bought in this recipe)

2 cups cheddar cheese

1/2 cup olive oil

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Parsley, dried

Kosher salt

Black pepper

Instructions

Season chicken breasts to taste with black pepper, kosher salt, garlic powder and onion powder. Bake at 350 until cooked through.

Roll your dough out, about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into 4 sections.

This was one of my already cut sections

Spread 2 tsp of cream cheese over the center of the dough. Add 1 tbsp. of Alfredo sauce on top of the cream cheese. Cover with diced chicken, broccoli, and cheddar cheese. Fold up 2 of the ends to cover the filling then fold the other 2 ends up, completely covering the filling.

Dampen your fingers and gently moisten the edges of the dough to seal, making sure to pinch the seams tightly. If the outside of the dough is sticky, lightly sprinkle with flour. Place upside down on a baking sheet.

 In a small dish, mix together 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp parsley, and a pinch of salt.

Lightly brush your olive oil mixture onto the top of each pocket.

Cut a small slit in the top to allow steam to vent and allow to rise in a warm place for about half an hour.

Bake your homemade hot pockets in a preheated oven (400 degrees) for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

This is where I prayed to the Lord "please put your hands over this and allow for it to taste delicious" Hey, I can have a little help!!!!

And as you can see they came out looking super nice and tasting delicious!!! We enjoyed it very much and because they came out so big we saved two for another time.
My husband said: "they were deeeelish" and he even told me how to spell it. So glad I had the help of the Almighty.

Have a good rest of the day!!!! Be blessed :)

Honey Mustard Baked Chicken

Yesterday when I was getting ready to make dinner I decided I wanted to make a different kind of sauce for my chicken, one that had never made before and that my hubby would like.
The recipe I found had curry in it but I had no curry at home and it was extremely cold to go out to the store plus I'm a little sick with a cold. Ok, so the point is I decided to go without the curry and add my own touch in it.

Here is what the original recipe says you need:

1 (3 pound) whole chicken, cut into pieces

 1/2 cup butter, melted

 1/2 cup honey

 1/4 cup prepared mustard

 1 teaspoon salt

 1 teaspoon curry powder

And this is What I used:

4 Chicken drumsticks 

3 tbsp butter

1/2 c honey

1/4 c mustard

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper Or more if you want 

dried fruits- cherry and cranberries

seasoned salt ( This is when I thought I had messed up my sauce!!! Can you believe that when I was pouring a "little" bit of this in my sauce the lid completely came off and half of the salt came down on top of my sauce!!! But thanks to God I was able to spoon almost all of it out and just kept a little bit more of what I wanted in the sauce. I was sure it wasn't going to be salty because the chicken itself didn't have any other seasonings in it.) Saved by the bell!!! LOL :)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Place chicken pieces in a shallow baking pan, skin side up. Combine the melted butter or margarine, honey, mustard, salt and curry powder and pour the mixture over the chicken. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 1/4 hours (75 minutes), basting every 15 minutes with pan drippings, until the chicken is nicely browned and tender and the juices run clear. In the last 30 minutes I added the dried fruits and turned the heat a little higher so my chicken would brown a little faster. 

I served it with sweet potatoes which I cooked in the same baking pot as the chicken so they would soak the honey mustard flavor. Ahhhh!! So good.

Yes, I know it looks really good. Now let me show you a close-up of the chicken so you can start liking your fingers.

This sauce was so good, and even with what happened with the salt it was perfect in flavor. My husband ate every piece of it and licked his fingers, that's how good it was. The sweet potatoes were to die for with all the flavor they soaked up. 

I have a little confession to make!!!

I got to say that I had to do it!!! Do what? I had to!!! I had to bake a fresh blueberries cake and have it after this delicious meal. 

There are two pieces missing in that cake but the biggest was my hubby's, who by the way had another piece before he brushed his teeth to go to bed. 

This was a piece of heaven (my piece was smaller then that) the tartness of the lemon juice and blueberries in the cake with the sweetness was the perfect combination. 

But like always, I sent some to work with my hubby, his metabolism is faster than mine is and I know he is going to need something make his day a little sweeter. 

Have a wonderful day and keep yourself warm, I know I am!!!

Fresh Strawberry Bundt Cake

The last dessert recipe that I made 2013 was sooooo delicious!!! It was the best bundt cake I have ever made and that is not just coming from me and my hubby, my family could not stop eating it. We had some last night and also had some for breakfast this morning, that's how good it was.

Here is the recipe for this delicious treat.

Ingredients:

1 cup margarine (2 sticks)

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

3 tbsp. (divided)

Zest of 1 lemon (1 tbsp.)

2 ½ cups flour

½ tsp baking soda

8 oz. sour cream

12 oz. fresh strawberries (diced)

1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven 325° F (175° C)

Spray bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray

Mix butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Add eggs and 1 tbsp lemon juice, mixing well

Add baking soda and sour cream, continue mixing

Stirring by hand, add the flour

Fold in the strawberries

Pour batter into bundt pan

Place it into preheated oven for 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean

Allow to cool for 20 minutes in pan

Invert onto serving plate to cool completely

Mix remaining 2 tbsp lemon juice and powdered sugar to make glaze

Drizzle icing over cake

This cake is so moist and the tartness of the lemon gives it a delicious touch. I really recommend you to try it is amazing. 

 Have a blessed and happy new year 2014!!!