Sweet & Peach Chicken

For awhile now I've been on this sort of quest to find a good sweet and sour recipe. As fake and artificial tasting as the chinese food restaurant variety is, I still love it. So what I was looking for was never going to replace my take out sweet and sour, it just had to be good for a 'real' meal at home. Most recipes utilize ketchup in their sauces, which I was trying to avoid so I've never actually tried that variation of the recipe. I have made one with Kraft Catalina dressing which was good, but really not what I was going for as it was pretty watered down.

Then I stumble upon this recipe that I put on my 'to-make list' ages ago and just finally got around to doing so. The funny thing is, I had no idea that I was going to be making sweet and sour chicken. I thought it was going to be more fruity salsa like. Well, I was oh so deliciously wrong. This recipe turned out amazingly. Next time I might make one substitution though. Instead of using canned peaches, I might just substitute in an equivalent amount of pineapple. It would add a bit more of a kick to this sauce, and cut through a bit of the sweetness I think. Or I could just might omit the 1/2 Tbsp of sugar. Even though I was sceptical about adding it in because I thought the sauce would be sweet enough, I still did, but at a significantly reduced amount. I probably should have just gone with my gut instinct though.

Just as a warning again, I do cook / bake in huge quantities. These measurements that I include make enough to fill my wok right up to the brim. Mmm, yummy lunch leftovers for several days. But if you are aiming for just a one night meal for a family, try check out the quantities used over at  Kayotic Kitchen where I got this recipe from. For the most part I followed that recipe, but with a few slight changes.

Ingredients

1 Onion, chopped

2 Bell Peppers, chopped

1 Extra Large Can of Peaches (mine was 791 mLs I think), in juice (or syrup by I'm going healthy here)

1 Tbsp. Oil

2 lb Chicken, cubed

3 Garlic Cloves, minces

1 Tsp. Chili Peppers

6 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

2-5.5 oz Can Tomato Paste

1/2 Tbsp Sugar (optional)

1 Tbsp White Vinegar

Directions

~Chop your onion and pepper into chunks. 

~Cut the peaches into chunks, but reserving the liquid.

~Heat a large frying pan and then add you oil. When oil is hot, add your chicken and cook until it is no longer pink.

~Add in your onion and cook until onions start to soften. Then add in the bell peppers.

~When chicken is cooked through, mince garlic and add it in. Stir until garlic cooks but make sure not to burn it.

~Sprinkle in the chilli, stir to evenly coat the mixture.

~Pour in the soy sauce, and add the tomato paste and peaches with the juice. Stir.

~Sprinkle in the sugar and vinegar and give it a good stir.

~Place a lid on the pan and simmer until mixture is heated through.

Enjoy

Peanut Butter Oat Fudge Bars (No Bake)

So as I believe I've already mention, I don't currently have an oven. You think that's bad enough, but I also have a horrible suspicious that I don't actually have a working hot water tank either. As my last 3 showers have ended up being ice cold. Yeah, that may not sound out of the ordinary for some people, but trust me, I've lived here for over ten years and this is the first time I've ever had a cold shower in this house. Not good I tell you.

But back to the no oven issue, because you guys really don't care if I shower right? The one benefit of the internet. So I got all excited that I had an opportunity to make dessert for this weekend for people other than my direct family / coworkers. Then the awful realization hits, that not many good things can be made without an oven. Or so I thought, I have to take that back now, because I've found this recipe. It is utter, pure bliss. Trust me. Too good, and too easy not to try. And you don't even have to turn the oven on, just the stove top (you probably could get away with just using the microwave if you really are anti-heat right now). I'm not anti-heat ever. I just spent the past weekend in what was practically a dessert and loved it, only to have to return home to 15 degree cooler weather and hearing everyone complain about how 'hot' it is at 21 Celsius. Some people just need to go live at the top of Everest, because they obviously missed out when they were being taught geography, because we live in one of the coolest and wettest places around. Hmm, except when it starts raining they complain that the sun doesn't shine. Ever!

...End rant.

Return to food talk...

This recipe is doubled from what the original called for. If you want to half what I have posted here, prepare it in a 9x9 pan.

This recipe is from allrecipes.com.

Ingredients

2 C. Butter

1 C. Brown Sugar

4 Tsp. Vanilla

6 C. Quick Cooking Oats

2 C. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 C. Peanut Butter

1/4 C. of your favourite chocolate (I used milk chocolate bar), melted

Directions

~Grease a 9x13 baking dish (or a 12x12 as I did)

~In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in sugar and vanilla until dissolved.

~Add in the oats. Stir continuously while they cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until slightly softened.

~Divide mixture into 2 parts. Press half into the bottom of the prepared pan, reserving the other half for later.

~In a microwave safe dish, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter and stir well to combine.

~Spread mixture over top of crust and smooth with a knife.

~Place in fridge for 30 minutes or until chocolate has begun to set.

~Spread the reserved half of the oat mixture evenly onto the chocolate layer. Press gently to adhere it to the layer below.

~Melt remaining chocolate in the microwave on high heat and drizzle over top of the bar.

~Return to fridge for 2-3 hours to set completely.

~Cut into bars.

Enjoy (either straight from the fridge or at room temperature).

Spiked Pink Lemonade Slush

Well, I got a new blender...and it was the weekend...and it was my first summer holidays in 3 years. You want to know what I did?

These were good, and I'm not just saying that because they had alcohol in them. You could probably make this work without the alcohol, by just adding some raspberry juice in instead of the raspberry liqueur and then omitting the vodka.

You can't get anything better than raspberry and lemon, and then by combining them, this drink is amazing. This drink wasn't strong by any stretch of the imagination, so feel free to increase the alcohol concentration as you see fit. You probably would want to increase the vodka, because any more liqueur and this drink would start to get sweet (which it isn't by these measurements. It's just refreshing and light.)

Makes: 1 - 5 C. Blender Full  (about 3-5 drinks depending on your choice of glass)

Ingredients

4 C. Ice, divided
2 1/2 Shots Raspberry Liqueur (Sour Puss)
2 Shots Citrus Vodka
1/2 Can Lemonade Concentrate, frozen
2 C. Watermelon, cubed

Directions

~Place 2 C. of the ice in the blender. Blend to crush.
~Add in liqueur, vodka, lemonade and watermelon. Blend again to combine
~If it looks too thin, add in part or all of the other 2 C. of ice and blend again to combine.
~Serve immediately.

Enjoy