Stir-fried chicken and eggplant with black bean sauce

For this particular recipe I estimated most of the ingredient quantities because I started cooking without measuring out the liquid ingredients. I have a habit of just throwing together dinner without measuring out the amounts. Typically it turns out pretty awesome. I wanted to cook something Asian-y and delicious. See for yourself.

Stir-fried chicken and eggplant with black bean sauce
Ingredients

• 2 Chinese eggplants cut into large chunks
• white meat chicken cut into about 1 inch cubes
• 1 clove garlic thinly sliced
• 1/2 tsp ginger minced
• 2 green onion sliced
• 1/4 onion thinly sliced
• 1 tsp black bean sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp hoisin sauce
• 1/2 tbsp sesame oil

Procedure

1. Pour the sesame oil into a wok or large non-stick pan and turn the stove to medium heat. Cook the garlic, ginger and onion in the sesame oil. Cook until the onion becomes slightly transparent. 
2. Add the black bean sauce, soy sauce and hoisin sauce to the wok. Stir the contents of the wok occasionally.
3. Add the egg plant to the wok. Cook until eggplant turns from white to light brown and then add the chicken. Stir the contents of the wok frequently.
4. When the chicken looks almost fully cooked, add in the green onions. Cook until chicken is completely cooked and no longer pink. (About 10 minutes).
5. Serve with rice.

Baked Coconut and Oatmeal Breaded Chicken Nuggets

I had this craving for chicken nuggets but I didn't feel like buying bread crumbs or shelling out money for Chik-Fil-A. So I got coconut flakes instead and threw in some oatmeal and milk for this experimental breading/batter. I got the proportions wrong and the presentation wasn't that great, but that just means I know what I can adjust next time: more of the dry ingredients or less milk. As far as experiments go, this one was quite tasty. I ate it with some honey mustard, but it tasted pretty good without any dipping sauce.

The ingredients

Before baking

After baking. Looks are deceiving. These are actually pretty tasty.

Baked Coconut and Oatmeal Breaded Chicken Nuggets
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2/3 cup skim milk
• ~ 1 lb chicken cut into nugget sized pieces

Procedure

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
2. Mix the oatmeal, coconut flakes, flour and milk into a shallow dish.
3. Coat the pieces of chicken in the breading. Then place on cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 45 min. Serve with honey mustard or whatever dipping sauce you prefer.

Beef Stroganoff

Today I wanted to cook a recipe from scratch. I looked back at my recent postings and have found that I have been lazy lately. I've just been finding recipes on the internet to cook. So I picked something simple but delicious to cook--a Laureen Recipe. My goal this year is to simplify my recipes. I don't have enough time to cook for 2 hours a day. It also wouldn't hurt to spend less money on expensive ingredients or spices that I only use a little of.  Beef stroganoff is quick, simple, and delicious.  Notice how short the ingredient list is compared to some of the other recipes I have posted. Also, mushrooms are delicious. Most recipes call of ridiculous amounts of sour cream and beef broth, but I wanted to go healthier. On a side note, beef broth has way too much sodium in it and I don't think I'll ever buy it when I could just as easily use chicken broth.

Mushrooms and onions! Yeah!

I effing' love mushrooms!

Sexy and saucy.

Noms.

Beef Stroganoff
Ingredients

• 1/2 lb sirloin petite steak, cut into small pieces
• egg noodles
• 8 oz. baby bella/cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 3 tbsp sour cream
• 2 tsp corn starch
• 1/4 onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 tbsp butter
• salt and pepper

Procedure

1. Cook onions with the butter in a non-stick pan on medium heat. Stir occasionally.
2. In a pot, boil water and cook the egg noodles according to the package instructions.
3. Add in mushrooms, salt and pepper to the pan. Cook down the mushrooms until the pan is full of the mushroom juices.
4. Push mushrooms aside until they take up half of the pan. Add the beef to the pan (see picture above). Stir occasionally. Cook until the meat is no longer pink. 
5. Mix in the sour cream. Stir until evenly mixed.
6. Stir in the corn starch to thicken the sauce. Cook until sauce has thickened.
7. Serve beef stroganoff over the egg noodles.