Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken with Fried Rice

I have had some SERIOUS happy cooking mojo lately.

This is another pinterest recipe gone good.

And other than being a little time consuming, it was SO easy. I'm definitely putting it on my "recipe staples" list.

We've been updating our laundry room this week...

And by updating I mean we poured concrete counter tops, ripped out and patched, mudded, and sanded drywall, painting, etc. etc.... bla bla bla.

And by WE I mean my husband did almost all of that by himself... (I'm pregnant...I have excuses.)



So needless to say I have been NOT cleaning. And NOT doing laundry.

Other than playing with my adorable baby kid all day, I'm starting to get kind of bored.



Solution: Make everything I want from Pinterest.
You should do it too.

But first, make everything from my blog. :)

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken with Fried Rice

Ingredients:
3 chicken breast, cubed
salt and pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup olive oil

Sauce:
3/4 cup sugar
4 TBS ketchup
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1 TBS soy sauce
1large garlic clove, minced or grated

Fried Rice:
2-3 cups cooked brown rice
3 TBS olive oil
1 cup frozen peas and carrots, thawed
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/4 cup soy sauce

Directions:
For the Chicken:
Preheat oven to 350.

Season the cubed chicken with salt and pepper. Coat completely with cornstarch and then dip in the eggs. Heat the oil in a skillet and cook the chicken until browned but not COMPLETELY cooked through.

Mix all of the sauce ingredients in a bowl. Pour the chicken in a greased 9x13 dish and pour the sauce mix evenly over the top of the chicken

Bake for an hour, flipping the chicken every 15 minutes. (This is the relatively time consuming part.)

For the Fried Rice:

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium/high heat. Saute the peas, carrots, onions, and garlic until softened. Lower the heat to medium, push the vegetable mixture to one side and scramble the egg in the center of the pan. Once the egg is cooked add the rice and soy sauce and mix everything together. Fry until completely heated through. 

This is the first time that I actually made fried rice successfully. And by successfully I mean it tasted like the kind you get at a restaurant. 

Recipe by: Life as a Lofthouse



I paired this with baked egg rolls....YUM-O.

Baked Pork Egg Rolls

I made the most delicious food this week.

Each new recipe I tried not only was a success, but was so good I wanted to make it again and again and again.

That doesn't always happen you know.



Sometimes (or you know, every single night) I spend hours on pinterest pinning and reading all these beautiful and delicious recipes....and then I never make them.

Or I make them and they turn out like crap.
Or I make them, but change all of the ingredients and they turn out delicious!

On that note...

BIGGEST INTERNET RECIPE PET PEEVE EVER: When someone comments on a recipe that it was so gross and they'd never make it again or it was ridiculously hard and impossible even for a genius....BUT THEY DIDN'T FOLLOW ANY OF THE DIRECTIONS!

OR

THEY CHANGED HALF THE INGREDIENTS!

Ok, listen. You have all the right in the world to use whatever ingredients or technique you so choose...
BUT if someone posts a recipe saying "this is good if you use this and do it this way"....you really don't have the right to change everything and then give the original recipe a bad review.

This hasn't happened to me.

But every time I read a recipe I read the comments to see what the general feedback is and there's always that one person that's like "Well I changed the first five ingredients...and I didn't cook it as long as you said. I definitely will not recommend this recipe to anyone!"

So please...change all the ingredients if you want (I do it all the time.) Experiment with cooking time. Change it however you want...but know that if it turns out super disgusting, it might not be the ORIGINAL recipes fault.

I'm just saying....

Ok I'll get off my little rant. I started out trying to tell you that I always read pinterest recipes and never try them. And this week all the ones I tried were AMAZING.

Starting with these baked egg rolls.

My husband and I rarely eat any fried food. But I have a thing for asian food, specifically all the asian food that is fried.

So a recipe that is baked (and therefore must be in the "incredibly healthy"category) is worth trying.



Also, unlike Spring Rolls these egg rolls are REALLY easy to make. (I'm not dissing the spring rolls, but those took forever to roll.) It just takes a little water on the corners of the egg roll wrappers and they roll right up. 



The original recipe didn't include any pork, but I wanted the egg rolls to be a bit more filling so I decided to add ground pork.

Super great addition!

I'm usually not a huge fan of egg rolls with just cabbage.
Egg rolls with pork...YES.



Serve with rice and dipping sauce. I made a 50/50 soy/rice vinegar dipping sauce and bought a bottle of sweet chili sauce (my fav!)

Baked Pork Egg Rolls

Ingredients:
1 lb ground pork
1 bag cole slaw
1 pkg egg roll wrappers
Kikkoman garlic teriyaki sauce
soy sauce
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp ground ginger
salt and pepper
cooking spray

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375.

Put the coleslaw in a microwave safe bowl with a very small splash of water and microwave for 5 minutes. Drain any extra liquid.

 Brown the ground pork. Season and pour a splash of the garlic teriyaki in right before it's completely cooked (I just poured some in, it was probably a couple tablespoons at most) just so it's slightly flavored but not completely wet.

In a large bowl mix the cooked ground pork, heated coleslaw, garlic, ginger, a little salt and pepper, and a splash of soy sauce. Place a bit of filling in the center of each egg roll wrapper. Keep a small bowl of water next to you and with your finger rub a little water around each corner. Fold three corners in and then roll towards the remaining corner. Make sure the inside of that last corner has water on it so when it wraps around it will stick to the roll.

Place the egg rolls on a greased baking sheet and spray the tops of the egg rolls with cooking spray.

Bake 15 minutes and then flip the egg rolls. Bake an additional 10-15 minutes.
Let cool a few minutes before serving. Serve with sweet chili sauce or soy.

These were best served fresh, although I had a few left over that I reheated the next day and they tasted fine. The wrapper just wasn't as crispy.

Recipe adapted from: Joyful Abode

Peanut Butter Filled Peanut Butter Cookies

I literally have like 8 jars of peanut butter at my house right now.

So naturally I decided to make peanut butter cookies. I actually did even better than that. I made peanut butter FILLED peanut butter cookies.

I'd love to say these are originals. And in a way they are.

But in another way...they are so not. For one thing I am NOT the first person to come up with peanut butter cookies. And I'm probably NOT the first person to fill them with peanut butter. AND I totally didn't make up the cookie recipe.


BUT I did decide to fill them without any outside inspiration whatsoever (outside of the rumblings of my stomach). AND I did make up my own filling.


So there. Non-original originals.

The cookies are a Jif recipe. I figure Jif knows how to make peanut butter, so their peanut butter cookie recipe is probably trustworthy. Turns out it is.

Go figure.


The filling is made of peanut butter, powdered sugar, and a dash of milk.

Tell me you don't want to eat that with a spoon.
You do.

Take a teaspoon of cookie dough and press in the center with your thumb, creating a little boat. Fill with about a teaspoon of the filling. 

Take another teaspoon of cookie dough and put it on the top, pinching around the edges to seal the cookie. 

Press the center with a fork and bake!

Peanut Butter Filled Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup shortening or butter

1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar

3 tbsp of milk

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 3/4 cups of flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

Filling:

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1/3 cup milk

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease a couple cookie sheets. 

Combine the peanut butter, butter, brown sugar, milk, and vanilla in a bowl. Beat until well blended. Add the egg and beat until well blended. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the peanut butter mixture at low speed. 

For the filling beat the peanut butter and powdered sugar in a separate bowl until combined. Gradually add in the milk until consistency is creamy but "spoonable." You may use more or less than the 1/3 cup of milk. 

For each cookie, take a teaspoon of cookie dough and press in the center with your thumb creating a little boat. Fill with about a teaspoon of the filling. Take another teaspoon of cookie dough and put it on the top, pinching around the edges to seal the cookie. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. 

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until set and just beginning to brown. Cool for 2-3 minutes on the baking sheet and then move to a cooling rack to cool completely. The recipe makes 2 dozen.

Ooey-Gooey.