Thursday, July 16, 2009

:)

I know it's ridiculous to post a picture of my table.. but it's our very first NEW piece of furniture we've ever had in the 6 years we've lived together. (Okay that's not true, we bought a mattress once, but does that count?) I love 4th of July sales! I'm so excited to have company now, we can all sit together!

So I realize that this picture doesn't look that great... but this dinner was soooo good. It is a recipe called Indonesian peanut chicken. I planned out to make dinner every night for two weeks. So far on Sunday we had Pot Roast, Monday we had manicotti, Tuesday we had the peanut chicken, Wednesday we had one of my favorite recipes a linguine pasta with garlic and zucchini... and today we had 'spicy mac and cheese' :)
Here are the recipes! I think they're great and pretty easy! The peanut chicken one is a little expensive because of the things you need to have on hand... but the linguine is pretty cheap!

Linguine with zucchini and tomato:
Takes me about 35 minutes to make

What you'll need:
Salt & Pepper
3/4 lb whole-wheat linguine
2 tb olive oil
1 small red onion (or more if you love onions like me)-halved & cut into 1/2-thick slices
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 zucchini-halved crosswise, cut lengthwise into 1/4'' thick slices, then cut into 1/4'' sticks
2 plum tomatoes (I use roma tomatoes because they're the same shape and I can't find plum here)-Quartered lengthwise, remove pulp and cut into strips
3/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

What to do:
1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente according to package instructions.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium. Add onion and garlic; cook, stirring frequently until translucent. 3-5 minutes. Add zucchini and 1/2 cup water; eason with salt and 1/2 ts pepper. Cover, and cook, stirring occasionally until zucchini is tender, about 10 minutes.
3. Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup pasta water; return to pot. Add zucchini mixture, remaining tablespoon oil, tomatoes, 1/2 cup parmesan, and reserved pasta water. Season with salt and pepper to taste; toss to combine. Serve immediately, sprinkled with remaining Parmesan.

Indonesian Peanut Chicken

Takes about an hour to prep and cook

What you'll need:
3-3 1/2 lb cut up broiler-fryer chicken
3/4 ts salt
1/2 ts pepper
2 tbs veggie oil
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup.. or more if you like onions!)
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/4 chili sauce (all I had was sweet chili sauce, still worked great)
1/2 ts ground red pepper (cayenne)
1 cup water
1/4 cup chopped salted peanuts
1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper

What to do:
1. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.
2. Heat oil in large skillet (I had to use a large and a medium to fit all the chicken) over medium heat. Cook chicken in oil about 15 minutes, turning occasionally, until brown on all sides (will still be sort of pink where the chicken doesn't touch the pan). Cover and cook over lowe heat about 20 minutes or until juice is no longer pink when ceters of thickest pieces are cut. Remove chicken from skillet with tongs. (I put mine on a plate covered with a paper towel)
3. Drain all but 1 tb drippings from skillet; heat over medium heat. Cook onion in drippings, stirring occasionally, until tender; reduce heat. Stir in peanut butter, chili sauce, and red pepper (the seasoning red pepper, not the chopped bell pepper). Gradually stir in water, stirring constantly, until peanut butter is melted. Once the peanut butter is melted, it will look runny.
4. Add chicken. Spoon sauce over chicken. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered about 5 minutes, spooning suace frequently over chicken; until suace is thickened. Serve sauce over chicken. Sprinkle with peanuts and bell pepper.



1 comment:

MandM said...

I like the table!