Baked Chicken Egg Rolls

From allrecipes.com



Ingredients:
2 cups grated carrots
1 (14.5 ounce) can bean sprouts, drained
1/2 cup chopped water chestnuts
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups finely diced cooked chicken
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 pinch cayenne pepper
16 egg roll wrappers
nonstick cooking spray

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. Coat a large skillet with nonstick cooking spray and heat over medium heat; cook and stir carrots, bean sprouts, water chestnuts, green pepper, green onions, and garlic until vegetables are crisp, about 3 minutes. Stir in chicken until heated through, 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Combine cornstarch, water, soy sauce, 1 teaspoon oil, brown sugar, and cayenne in a small bowl; stir into chicken mixture. Bring to a boil over high heat and stir, cooking until sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes; remove from heat.
4. Spoon 1/4 cup chicken mixture on the bottom third of one egg roll wrapper. Fold sides toward center and roll tightly; place seam side down on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining filling and wrappers. Spray top of egg rolls with nonstick cooking spray.
5. Bake in preheated oven until lightly browned, 10 to 15 minutes.

Comments:
Egg rolls are relatively easy to make and aren't too bad for you if you fill them with a lot of veggies and bake, rather than fry, them. These were good, even though I left the water chestnuts out because Adam's not a fan.

Mango Chicken with Plum Sauce

From Taste of Home



Ingredients:
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
1/2 pound fresh snow peas, trimmed
2 large carrots, sliced diagonally
2 medium zucchini, sliced
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/2 medium sweet red pepper, sliced
1 can (4 ounces) sliced water chestnuts, drained
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 pound finely chopped cooked chicken breast (about 3 cups)
2 medium mangoes, peeled and mashed
1/2 cup plum sauce
2 cups hot cooked brown rice
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted

Directions:
In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt; stir in broth and teriyaki sauce until smooth. Cook and stir until thickened. Set aside.

In a large skillet or wok, stir-fry the snow peas, carrots, zucchini, onion, pepper and water chestnuts in oil until crisp-tender. Add the chicken, mangoes and broth mixture; heat through. Stir in plum sauce. Serve with rice. Sprinkle with almonds.

Comments:
This dish perfectly represents the difference between my food preferences and Adam's. I'd eat this every day. Seriously. Adam? He said it was ok and he'd like to have it again...in a year.

Anyway, left out the water chestnuts because they're on Adam's "hell no" food list. Also didn't add the almonds because... ok, because I forgot. Stir-fries require mad multi-tasking skillz and I failed on that one. Oh well. It was fine without them. I used my rice cooker for the first time in ages. I love it! I wish I didn't have to make 4 cups of rice to use it... but when I do it's the best rice ever. Do they make smaller rice cookers? I should google that later...

Korean-Style Beef Skewers with Rice Noodles

From Cooking Light



Ingredients:
6 tablespoons less-sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons sambal oelek (chile paste, such as Huy Fong)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 (1-pound) top sirloin steak, sliced against the grain into thin strips
1/2 cup water
8 ounces wide rice sticks
3 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions

Directions:
1. Prepare grill to medium-high heat.

2. Combine first 6 ingredients in a zip-top bag. Add beef to bag; seal. Marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes, turning once. Remove steak from bag; reserve marinade. Thread steak evenly onto 8 (8-inch) skewers. Grill 2 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Combine reserved marinade and water in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute.

3. Soak noodles in boiling water until tender; drain. Place noodles in a large bowl. Pour reserved marinade mixture over noodles; sprinkle with onions; toss. Serve with skewers.

Comments:
Pretty easy to make (especially when Adam takes over for the grilling steps.) I couldn't find "wide" noodles, so we ended up with regular rice noodles. The marinade/sauce is surprisingly sweet. Although, perhaps not since there IS 1/3 cup of sugar in it. But I wasn't expecting that so it was interesting. Adam says it's a keeper as well.

Vietnamese Turkey (Chicken) Wraps

From Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook



Ingredients:
3 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 to 1/2 tsp red chile paste
1/4 cup water
2 carrots, cut into matchstick size pieces
1 cucumber, seeded and cut into matchstick size pieces
2 tbsp finely chopped onion
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp peanut oil
10 oz boneless, skinless turkey breast, cut into thin strips
2 cups hot cooked rice
2 heads Boston lettuce, cleaned and separated into leaves
1/2 cup whole mint leaves
1/2 cup whole cilantro leaves
3 tbsp unsalted, dry-roasted peanuts, chopped

Directions:
1. To prepare the dipping sauce, in a small serving bowl, whisk together 2 tbsp of the fish sauce, the lime juice, sugar, and chile paste with the water; set aside.

2. In a medium nonreactive bowl, combine the carrots, cucumber, onion, and vinegar; let stand 20 minutes. Drain, discarding the vinegar, and place in a medium serving bowl.

3. In a large nonstick skillet or wok, heat the oil. Saute the turkey until no longer pink, 1-2 minutes. Sprinkle with the remaining tbsp fish sauce and place in a medium serving bowl.

4. To assemble a wrap, spoon about a tbsp each of the rice, turkey, and cucumber-carrot mixture into a lettuce leaf; top with 1-2 mint and cilantro leaves, sprinkle with peanuts and fold the lettuce leaf over to enclose the filling. Dip into the sauce.

Serves 4. POINTS Value per serving: 7

Comments:
I skipped the fish paste because that just sounds gross. Used chicken rather than turkey, iceberg instead of Boston, but kept everything else pretty much the same. I was not too impressed. I ate one lettuce wrap and then gave up on it - they were too messy! I ate the chicken with some rice and the dipping sauce. That was really good.

Shrimp Pot Stickers

From Cooking Light March 2008



Ingredients:
shredded cabbage
green onions
carrots
soy sauce
sesame oil
salt
shrimp
wonton wrappers
cornstarch
water
canola oil

Comments:
These are really called GINGER-Shrimp Pot Stickers but since Adam dislikes ginger I just left that out. I also nixed the dipping sauce. This is another very easy recipe since you dump the filling ingredients into the food processer and push a button. That's kind of hard to screw up. The first batch were, perhaps, a bit mushy because I didn't let the oil heat up long enough. Oh well. They still tasted good (or so Adam tells me because, hey, seafood, don't eat that.)