Sweet and Sour Chicken

I've been making this recipe for over a year now and it is by far my favorite sweet n sour chicken recipe - it beats out Wanchai Ferry and any packet you may buy (trust me I've tried quite a few varieties) and it is super easy!! I am linking up (a day late!) with the Tuesday Lineup of Bloggers: Tasty Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, and Tuesdays at the Table! Thanks to all of you for hosting!

Here's what you'll need to get started:

Cut up chicken (this is about 1.5lbs), 2 teaspoons cornstarch, 1 egg white. All you'll need to do here is mix the cornstarch and egg white (also can add a little salt here but I always forget) and pour it over the chicken, mix it in well and then let the mix rest for 15 minutes.

Crockpot Spaghetti

I needed a super fast and easy crockpot meal the other morning and I just grabbed what I had on hand to make this meal. It turned out to be Delicious. (yes with a capital D). I got this idea from Stephanie O’Dea’s cookbook – which I won not too long ago at Dining with Debbie’s Crockpot Wednesdays!! Thank you Debbie, I LOVE this cookbook; in fact I have just about every other page marked to try.

For my sauce this is what I had on hand:

Korean Roast Chicken Thighs - Crockpot Style!

I am linking this recipe up with Cooking Thursday at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom and Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life as Mom, check them both out for some great recipes!!

I've seen the link for this recipe on many menu plans since I started blogging so it's been on my to-try list for awhile now. It's something that I know my boys would love so I was hoping to adapt it to a crockpot meal so they can have yet another yummy recipe on the nights I'm away at school. (Sometimes they even save me some!)

My plan of attack for changing this recipe to crockpot was basically... nothing!! I just gathered the ingredients:

Crockpot Potato Chowder

It's Crockpot Wednesday over at Dining With Debbie! I am going to be using my Crockpot all this week to test out some new recipes. School starts back again in a few weeks and I'll have night class 3 nights in a row - so my crockpot is going to be working hard!! Very thankful for the recipes I know I can find over on Debbie's website!

The weather has finally turned cold around here and I was in the mood for something to warm us up, and what better than a steaming hot, creamy bowl of potato chowder?? I don’t know why this popped into my head, I’ve never made it before and I thought the recipe looked a little boring… so I decided to make a few changes!! And now we have a new meal in the regular rotation (well, at least the winter rotation)!

Here is what you need:

Cream Cheese Ranch Chicken

Ranch is a big hit around here, so anything with a ranch packet added in automatically makes the try list! This is the second time I've made this meal, and the second time I've said, why oh why didn't I buy low sodium broth/cream of chicken!??! Be warned, you should definitely go low sodium on this, but we got past the saltiness because this is really yummy!

Here is what you need:

Alfredo Sauce with Penne & Chicken

This meal makes me think of my best friend because it was something we often cooked together whenever we wanted to stay in and hang out instead of dress up and go out, it was simple, delicious, and fun to make together.

Of course, we always used jarred Alfredo sauce, back when I didn't care about calories (oh how I miss those days).

But then I stumbled across a fellow blogger after seeing one of her comments on a post of mine, I was browsing through her recipes and found a recipe for Weight Watchers Alfredo Sauce - I nearly jumped off my seat! I decided to make it as soon as I could to see if it was really as good as she said it was!

It was delicious!! In case you are wondering, the recipe comes from Arlene at The Food of Love, go check her blog out, she has tons of amazing recipes!

I doubled Arlene's recipe so here is what I used:

Curry From a Packet

The first meal hubby ever cooked for me was a curry stew, I had never had curry before and it was so wonderful that it became a regular meal on the menu plan! I normally use a packet called Vermont Curry- Mild... I actually have 3 of them in my pantry, but I've had a Hawaiian Curry packet in my pantry for a long time and I figured it was time to try it.

Here it is:

 Can you tell by how wrinkly it is that it's been rolling around in my packet bag for quite some time?

Pizza

If you went ahead and made your homemade cheese, you should definitely treat yourself by using it to top a homemade pizza! And if you have store bought cheese, that's okay too!

I've experimented with many different crusts, and I still do, but this has been the favorite that I make when I'm not in the mood for experiments. I found it here. There is also a good recipe for a chunky sauce on that page so take a look! Basically, I follow the directions, but I don't use semolina flour, I add molasses, and I use more yeast.

So, here is what you need:

Kung Pau Chicken

I've blogged before about my boys obsession with Asian food, but this recipe just drives them wild. If you think the singing and dancing at the mention of Cashew Chicken was a little wacky, you'd love to see them go nuts when I mention Kung Pau!

And the best part? It keeps me from going nuts, because it takes all of 10 minutes to make. You know why. Say it with me: PACKET!!!! 

Here is your very best friend in the whole wide world, the packet: 

Shoyu Chicken

I found this recipe about a year and a half ago and I make it at the very least monthly in our house. We were living in my apartment at the time and Hubby asked me if I had ever had Shoyu Chicken... I didn't even know what it was. He said it was something he had pretty frequently when he lived in Hawaii (12 years!! no fair!)

So I looked up a recipe online, mainly I was looking for something very simple and a recipe where I wouldn't have to run to the store, it was 10 in the morning and we were going to be looking at houses all day!

I found this recipe on RecipeZaar, and I had everything we needed to make it, so I threw it in the Crockpot and we went on our merry way to go find our dream house. (Nope, we didn't find it that day, but we eventually did).

I really haven't changed much of anything from the original recipe! It is good as is, but read on to see how I make it and how it turns out.

Here is what you need:

Wanchai Orange Chicken... boo!

I suppose everyone has an off night when it comes to cooking - a night where just nothing comes out the way you wanted or expected it to, whether it be a new recipe that didn't turn out right, or a quick and easy meal you thought you'd try to save some time. I've fallen into the latter category this week! 

Cashew Chicken

So, have I mentioned we love Asian food at our house?? Funny thing is, I used to hate trying new things, the only thing I would get from a chinese take out was those fried up little chicken pieces with sweet n sour. And now I eat something different every week - heck I even MAKE it!

With a little help though! Thanks to the packets I've found (and will be telling you more about soon) I'm able to cook up some seriously delicious food that gets raved about. Last night my boys (hubby and stepson) were actually dancing around the house singing "we're having cashew chicken!!" (over and over and over again). The dog joined in on the singing. It was insane. It was hilarious. It is definitely a good life!

This is the third Wanchai Ferry kit we've tried, and while all of them have been good, this one takes the cake, not only for taste but because it is seriously easy and gets to the table faster than I can load a dishwasher (maybe I'm a little slow in that area..)

Crockpot Chicken and Dumplins

I just recently discovered Crockpot Wednesday's over at Dining with Debbie! I love to use my Crock Pot and since I have class at night on Mon and Wed it is pretty much the only way my family gets a home cooked dinner. Yesterday I made this delicious meal and you can read how to make it for yourself below or you can click here to skip my rambling and go to the printable version.

This meal does not use a packet, but it does use cans! Cans are kind of similar to packets right? Just open them, dump them in, and toss them (into your recycling bin - unless you are trying to hide the cream of mushroom evidence from a very picky 13 year old who HATES mushrooms, in which case you wrap it in dirty paper towels and put it at the bottom of the trash can - the Earth will forgive me).

So here's what you need for this meal...