Recipe here.
Oh my goodness, this was delicious. So, so good. So good. Did I mention this was so, so good? I believe I am in love with Budget Bytes. At first, I was predisposed to dislike it, because of the perky tone of the author, and expressions like "Ooey gooey" which I detest so much that I previously refused to make any recipe that used this revolting phrase. (Ditto "guilt free." I refuse to feel guilty for eating, and I resent the assumption that I'll make a recipe because it won't make me feel guilty.) But I have forgiven her everything, because the recipes at this blog are so, so amazing. I'm totally buying her book. Probably for my birthday, because I usually get at least one Amazon gift card.
This recipe for Sesame Chicken seriously tastes like something you'd get at a Chinese restaurant, and we all devoured it extremely quickly, especially Baby B, who pronounced it "Ummy." The sauce, in particular, is rather wonderful. The first time I made it, I forgot the sesame seeds, and it was still wonderful.
The only thing I'd change about this is the coating you put on the chicken. Mine didn't stick at all. It still tasted good, but I'd prefer it to stay on the chicken. So the next time I make this, I'm going to try dredging the raw chicken in cornstarch before dipping it in the egg/cornstarch mixture, in the hopes that it makes the coating stick this time. If it doesn't, the next time I might try plain flour, although I suspect that would make it too crispy. Oh well, whatever happens, this recipe is an absolute winner, and I add it to our regular rotation of recipes.
One more thing is that the estimated serving sizes are tiny. We finished off this entire recipe between the three of us, and although we are pretty greedy people, we're not extraordinarily greedy. And one of us is two years old. So. Yeah.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Recipe review: Chicken in peanut sauce from BudgetBytes.com
Recipe here.
This is a wonderfully filling, subtly flavored stew. It completely satisfied all my cravings for Asian food, without having to spend $40 plus tip to feed my hungry humans. If it's a little lacking in fire, that's all right--that's why we had some extra Sriracha on the side.
The only thing I'd change about this recipe is to add more chicken to it. This makes a lot of sauce, and it would be nicer to have an extra half-pound of chicken in there.
I served this with sides of basmati rice and steamed broccoli. I give it an A+.
This is a wonderfully filling, subtly flavored stew. It completely satisfied all my cravings for Asian food, without having to spend $40 plus tip to feed my hungry humans. If it's a little lacking in fire, that's all right--that's why we had some extra Sriracha on the side.
The only thing I'd change about this recipe is to add more chicken to it. This makes a lot of sauce, and it would be nicer to have an extra half-pound of chicken in there.
I served this with sides of basmati rice and steamed broccoli. I give it an A+.
Week's meal plan: Sunday, March 2, 2014
I forgot to document last week's meals and groceries. And now I have forgotten everything. Can I blame baby brain when my baby is more than two years old now?
This week, we had a decent amount of food left over from last week's shopping. Oats, yogurt, eggs, peanut butter, carrots, celery, oranges, cheese, etc. So this week's shopping, although there was a lot of it, wasn't that expensive.
This week's meals:
Breakfasts: steel cut oats with plain unsweetened yogurt and frozen berries, OR toast and eggs
Lunches: peanut butter sandwiches, carrot and celery sticks, apples
Snacks: oranges
Desserts: grapes
Dinners:
1) Chicken in peanut sauce from Budget Bytes, sides of rice and steamed broccoli (this makes a lot of sauce, so there will be leftovers for another meal)
2) Sesame chicken from Budget Bytes, sides of rice and steamed broccoli (probably no leftovers, because we are very greedy)
3) Spaghetti and beef-zucchini meatballs (made by Mr. B, so no recipe here) with homemade tomato sauce made by moi, will make lots of leftovers
4) Hamburgers made by Mr. B with whole wheat buns made by moi, side of roasted butternut squash
5) Miracle mac and cheese from Budget Bytes, side of steamed broccoli
6) and 7) leftovers
This week's groceries:
Fruits and vegetables:
Red grapes, 1.22 lb 2.78
0.75lb broccoli crowns, 0.96
2.35 butternut squash 2.30
1 lime 0.38
4.09 lbs Fuji apples 4.83
0.69 lbs zucchini 0.47
1.22 lbs sweet onions 1.20
Bulk:
Whole wheat rotelle 0.44
1 lb whole wheat spaghetti 0.99
1.08 lb unbleached flour 0.35
0.27 lb panko breadcrumbs 0.44
1.29 lbs basmati rice 2.32
Dairy:
Organic Valley 2% milk, 2 x 1/2 gallon: 6.76
Meat:
3 lbs chicken breast 7.39
3 lbs grass-fed ground beef 8.62*
1 lb mild Italian sausage 3.18
Cans:
Taste of Thai lite coconut milk 1.57**
WinCo brand diced tomatoes, 3 cans: 1.74
Frozen:
WinCo brand mixed berries 2.26
Etc:
Orowheat whole wheat bread 2.68
Total: $51.66
*We got this from our local organic co-op, because it really doesn't cost any more than the factory-farmed beef you get at WinCo and it tastes so much better. Also, we feel a bit better about eating a cow that at least got to eat grass, which sounds nicer than eating grain, from the cow's perspective at least.
**For reasons I do not understand, the full-fat coconut milk costs 50 cents more. I do not understand this. However, I don't mind lite coconut milk, so that's fine with me.
Observations: I think we did really well this week. I have a nagging feelings that I could do this so much cheaper if we ate more vegetarian or vegan meals, but Mr. B made a special request for more meat. He and Baby B just love their animal protein, I guess. Several of my friends have gone vegan for their New Year's Resolutions this year, but I can't do this (not that I really want to) because I'd have to make two separate dinners for my adorable carnivores. I still don't feel good about the amount of supermarket-brand chicken we're eating, or about the pork sausage, but at least I can feel better that we supported a kinder sort of cattle farming by buying grass-fed beef.
Further observations: I found myself scowling with irritation as I walked through the organic store on my way to get ground beef from the butcher. Here's the thing: I believe in all the same social and political and animal rights causes as the people who run that place, but there's something so insufferably smug about it. When I first moved to this town, before we had Baby B, I used to shop there a lot more often, but that was before the cost of daycare put us on severe austerity measures. I adored that shop. But these days, now that I'm counting my pennies extremely carefully, I feel judged by...well, I'm not sure, really, by my former self more than anyone else, I suppose! In the "old" days, I tried to get everything organic, and was baffled that some people didn't care about factory farms and pesticides and the like. Fast forward to today, and I'm mostly annoyed at the younger Mrs. B for her snotty, privileged assumptions that other people wouldn't all love to eat better-quality foods, and also for her failure to understand other people's different priorities. Sadly, I have resigned myself to feeding my family on non-organic produce, but my family also has to remain solvent, so we'll eat the conventionally produced stuff.
Here's what I really wonder about organic food. Is it truly better for you? I know it's better for the soil, and kinder to animals, etc etc etc. But I somehow manage to be shamelessly healthy even though I eat spinach and celery and apples that are no double steeped to the very fibers of their being in pesticides. Perhaps I will pay for this in years to come? Or maybe the whole thing is absurd and over-exaggerated. In my 20s, I honestly thought my health would fail if I didn't consume upwards of 20 vitamin pills and other supplements every day. But when I stopped taking them all, guess what happened to my health? Nothing! I'm just healthy. I read study after study that says vitamins don't do you any good, so I've more or less stopped taking those; all I take now is an iron pill because of my lifelong anemia.
I don't know what the conclusion to this is. Maybe I'm delusional to think that it's ok to feed my family what I do. Maybe I'm right. 100 years in the future, who will care?
This week, we had a decent amount of food left over from last week's shopping. Oats, yogurt, eggs, peanut butter, carrots, celery, oranges, cheese, etc. So this week's shopping, although there was a lot of it, wasn't that expensive.
This week's meals:
Breakfasts: steel cut oats with plain unsweetened yogurt and frozen berries, OR toast and eggs
Lunches: peanut butter sandwiches, carrot and celery sticks, apples
Snacks: oranges
Desserts: grapes
Dinners:
1) Chicken in peanut sauce from Budget Bytes, sides of rice and steamed broccoli (this makes a lot of sauce, so there will be leftovers for another meal)
2) Sesame chicken from Budget Bytes, sides of rice and steamed broccoli (probably no leftovers, because we are very greedy)
3) Spaghetti and beef-zucchini meatballs (made by Mr. B, so no recipe here) with homemade tomato sauce made by moi, will make lots of leftovers
4) Hamburgers made by Mr. B with whole wheat buns made by moi, side of roasted butternut squash
5) Miracle mac and cheese from Budget Bytes, side of steamed broccoli
6) and 7) leftovers
This week's groceries:
Fruits and vegetables:
Red grapes, 1.22 lb 2.78
0.75lb broccoli crowns, 0.96
2.35 butternut squash 2.30
1 lime 0.38
4.09 lbs Fuji apples 4.83
0.69 lbs zucchini 0.47
1.22 lbs sweet onions 1.20
Bulk:
Whole wheat rotelle 0.44
1 lb whole wheat spaghetti 0.99
1.08 lb unbleached flour 0.35
0.27 lb panko breadcrumbs 0.44
1.29 lbs basmati rice 2.32
Dairy:
Organic Valley 2% milk, 2 x 1/2 gallon: 6.76
Meat:
3 lbs chicken breast 7.39
3 lbs grass-fed ground beef 8.62*
1 lb mild Italian sausage 3.18
Cans:
Taste of Thai lite coconut milk 1.57**
WinCo brand diced tomatoes, 3 cans: 1.74
Frozen:
WinCo brand mixed berries 2.26
Etc:
Orowheat whole wheat bread 2.68
Total: $51.66
*We got this from our local organic co-op, because it really doesn't cost any more than the factory-farmed beef you get at WinCo and it tastes so much better. Also, we feel a bit better about eating a cow that at least got to eat grass, which sounds nicer than eating grain, from the cow's perspective at least.
**For reasons I do not understand, the full-fat coconut milk costs 50 cents more. I do not understand this. However, I don't mind lite coconut milk, so that's fine with me.
Observations: I think we did really well this week. I have a nagging feelings that I could do this so much cheaper if we ate more vegetarian or vegan meals, but Mr. B made a special request for more meat. He and Baby B just love their animal protein, I guess. Several of my friends have gone vegan for their New Year's Resolutions this year, but I can't do this (not that I really want to) because I'd have to make two separate dinners for my adorable carnivores. I still don't feel good about the amount of supermarket-brand chicken we're eating, or about the pork sausage, but at least I can feel better that we supported a kinder sort of cattle farming by buying grass-fed beef.
Further observations: I found myself scowling with irritation as I walked through the organic store on my way to get ground beef from the butcher. Here's the thing: I believe in all the same social and political and animal rights causes as the people who run that place, but there's something so insufferably smug about it. When I first moved to this town, before we had Baby B, I used to shop there a lot more often, but that was before the cost of daycare put us on severe austerity measures. I adored that shop. But these days, now that I'm counting my pennies extremely carefully, I feel judged by...well, I'm not sure, really, by my former self more than anyone else, I suppose! In the "old" days, I tried to get everything organic, and was baffled that some people didn't care about factory farms and pesticides and the like. Fast forward to today, and I'm mostly annoyed at the younger Mrs. B for her snotty, privileged assumptions that other people wouldn't all love to eat better-quality foods, and also for her failure to understand other people's different priorities. Sadly, I have resigned myself to feeding my family on non-organic produce, but my family also has to remain solvent, so we'll eat the conventionally produced stuff.
Here's what I really wonder about organic food. Is it truly better for you? I know it's better for the soil, and kinder to animals, etc etc etc. But I somehow manage to be shamelessly healthy even though I eat spinach and celery and apples that are no double steeped to the very fibers of their being in pesticides. Perhaps I will pay for this in years to come? Or maybe the whole thing is absurd and over-exaggerated. In my 20s, I honestly thought my health would fail if I didn't consume upwards of 20 vitamin pills and other supplements every day. But when I stopped taking them all, guess what happened to my health? Nothing! I'm just healthy. I read study after study that says vitamins don't do you any good, so I've more or less stopped taking those; all I take now is an iron pill because of my lifelong anemia.
I don't know what the conclusion to this is. Maybe I'm delusional to think that it's ok to feed my family what I do. Maybe I'm right. 100 years in the future, who will care?
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