Sweet Pea Journey

Family, Friendship, Food, Fun and Everything in Between!

Author: Sweet Pea

Cooking

Easy Yummy Chicken Salad

This is a slight twist of a cold chicken salad recipe from my home town, which calls for loads of spices and toasted peanuts. Although I love my home town chicken salad dearly, my version is equally good and more kid friendly. Also, this recipe takes about 30 minutes to make, perfect for a week night dinner.

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Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, doesn’t matter if there is skin or bone
about 6 fresh green onions, divided
about 4 slices of fresh ginger
about 4 cloves of garlic, divided
a handful of Sichuan peppercorn. If you don’t have these, use black peppercorns
outside hard part of lemon grass, if you have some, if not, leave it out
1 small handful of fresh cilantro
2 TBSP oyster sauce
1 TBSP Hoisin sauce
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tsp powdered chicken bullion
chili oil, optional
2 TBSP soy sauce
1 tsp black Asian vinegar
1 tsp sugar

Method:

Put chicken breasts into a medium size stock pot. Fill cold water to cover chicken. Roughly slice 2 green onions lengthwise to release more flavor, bruise ginger slices and crush 2 garlic cloves. Put sliced green onion, crushed garlic, bruised ginger, Sichuan peppercorn and hard part of lemon grass into the pot. Turn the heat on high to heat up soup, until barely bubbling. Lower heat to low to keep stock from rapid boiling. Poach chicken breasts for about 25 minutes to fully cook them through. This poaching method will keep otherwise dry and bland chicken breasts juicy and tender for the salad.

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In the mean time, thinly slice the rest of the green onions, mince the rest of the garlic cloves, and slice the cilantro leaves.

Fish out chicken breasts, let chicken breasts rest and cool on the cutting board for a good 10 minutes. Remove bone and skin if any and put cooled chicken breasts into large ziploc bags.

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Lightly smash the chicken breasts with a rolling pin to loosen up the meat fibers. This step helps chicken meat to absorb more flavor of the sauce. Remove chicken breast from the bag and shred it into bite size pieces and put into a large mixing bowl.

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Add all the remaining ingredients into the mixing bowl, mix thoroughly and serve.

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Cooking

Blanched Prawns and Simple Vinegar Ginger Sauce

This dish is such a treat when prawns are in season. Simple cooking methods and sauce brings out the natural sweetness of the fresh catch. From beginning to end, this dish takes 10 minutes tops.

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Ingredients:

1 lb fresh head on, shell on prawns
2 TBSP black Asian vinegar
2 TBSP water, optional
1 TBSP grated or finely minced fresh ginger

Method:

In a large pot, bring about 4 to 6 cups of water to a rapid boil. In the mean time, prepare ginger and put into a dipping sauce bowl.

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Add black Asian vinegar and mix well. Take a taste of the sauce, this is quite strong, frankly. I quite love the strong sauce, however, if it is too strong to your taste, feel free to thin it out a bit by adding some water to it.

When water is boiling, add all prawns into the pot, heads on, shell on. Move them around in the pot to evenly distribute them. They will turn pink quickly. Leave them in the hot water for about 2 minutes, or just before the water comes back to a boil.

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Fish out all prawns and arrange them on a platter to cool.

Twist off the heads, peel the prawns and dip into the dipping sauce. Savor the fresh sweet taste from the prawn, the black vinegar and ginger really brings out and highlights the slightly sweet meat from the fresh juicy prawns.

Cooking

Tomato and Fried Egg Noodle

This noodle dish is such a comforting, healthy yet flavorful dish. You can easily make it a non-spicy version for kids. Such a quick treat!

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 roma tomato, sliced into wedges

1 small bundle of asparagus, bottom trimmed and cut at an angle about 1.5 inch pieces

a bunch of napa cabbage leaves, washed and torn into large pieces

2 green onions, thinly sliced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 chicken bullion

3 servings of thin dried Chinese noodles

2 spicy chilies, optional

Method:

Heat up about 2 TBSP vegetable oil in a medium size nonstick soup pot, pour the lightly beaten eggs into the pot, scramble for a minute or so, until the eggs are just set.

Add in minced garlic and tomatoes and stir fry for a minute or two until tomato wedges are softened and falling apart. Add garlic and chilies if using, stir fry until fragrant.

Add about 4 cups of water, bring it to a rapid boil. Add the chicken bullion to dissolve.

Add the super thin noodles into the soup. It will look like there isn’t enough water, but bare with it. Use a pair of chopsticks and move around the noodles constantly, so they don’t stick together. The noodles would soak up most of the liquid. Don’t panic. Add all the leafy greens into the pot too, yes, it will seem impossible… Looks like something like this:

Patiently and carefully turn the noodles over, on top of the leafy greens. Leaves will soon wilt into almost nothing.

Taste for flavor, add salt as needed. Add sliced green onions and serve!

Cooking

Soothing Tomato and Cucumber Egg Drop Soup

Yes, this is another version of egg drop soup. Look at it this way, this could be a healthier version, simply because there is tomato and cucumber as vegetables. Yet, tomatoes add a very surprising depth to the flavor, and cucumbers add freshness. This is such a quick and easy summer treat!

Ingredients:

1 roma tomato, peeled, sliced into wedges

1 cucumber, peeled, sliced thinly

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 green onion, thinly sliced

2 heaping TBSP of corn starch

1 cube of chicken bullion

salt to taste

Method:

Heat up about 4 cups of water in a soup pot, add the tomatoes first to bring to a boil. This step is crucial to let the tomatoes fully cook through, soften up and almost melting into the soup. This not only takes out the raw tomato taste, sometimes not everyone likes, and also this deepens the savory flavor of the soup and sweeten up the tomato pieces a bit.

Add cucumber slices and chicken bullion into the soup, and let it boil for a minute or so. Dissolve corn starch in about 1/4 cup of cold water and pour into soup. Stir the soup to evenly distribute the corn starch water. The soup will ever so slightly thicken up a bit but not too much.

Pour in beaten eggs, stir the soup as the eggs are being poured. Thickened soup and moving liquid will ensure the eggs will form very thin and small pieces and suspend in the soup like snow flakes.

Add thinly sliced green onions, kills the heat, taste for seasoning, add salt to taste or a bit more water if it is accidentally too salty.

Dish up and serve. You will be amazed how simple yet tasty this soup is, and everyone will love it.

Cooking

3 Ingredients Peanut Butter Cookies

This is such a treat. Extremely quick and simple, yet so satisfying. You will never expect how magical these cookies are.

Ingredients:

1 cup of peanut butter, smooth or crunchy

1 egg

3/4 cup of white sugar

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Mix all 3 ingredients together until smooth using a spoon. Drop about 1 TBSP of dough on a dry cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Leave enough space in between.

Optional: You can press the cookies down with the back of a fork to create the criss-cross pattern of a classic peanut butter cookie. Or, who cares how they look, they won’t last long sitting on a plate 😛

Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, slightly cook and enjoy these beauties warm with a cup of a coffee or warm milk!

Cooking

Secretly Healthy Ground Beef Tacos

I made ground beef tacos for dinner, aiming at getting vegetables in my kids. What? Yes, you read it right, vegetables, and here is how I did it.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef, the leaner version is better

1 yellow onion, medium size, diced

4 cloves of garlic, peeled, roughly chopped

2 carrots, peeled

1 yellow squash

1 ripe avocado

1 handful of fresh cilantro leaves

1 package of home style tortillas, flour, corn or wheat of your choice, or try make your own

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

1 lime

Method:

Heat up a dry nonstick pan over medium high heat, brown ground beef for about 8 minutes, break up the meat chunks thoroughly.

Add garlic and diced onion into the pan, cook for another 2 to 3 minutes until onions are softened. Grate carrots and squash directly into the pan over the meat mixture. Stir around, mix well and the grated carrots and squash would disappear into the brown goodness.

Add all seasoning into the pan and mix well. Taste for salt level, add more if desired.

Warm up tortillas as desired. Spoon some meat mixture into the center of the tortilla, squeeze lime juice, top with fresh cilantro and avocado and enjoy! Kids love these and they have no idea they are eating a healthy serving of various vegetables!

Cooking

Fried Egg with Radish Top Soup

This is a twist of classic Chinese Fried Egg and Tomato soup. I swapped out tomatoes not only because I used my last 2 Roma tomatoes in my Bison Picadillo dish, but also I wanted to get some leafy green into my kids. This soup is so easy and tasty, it is a perfect dish to seal an amazing dinner.

Ingredients:

4 large eggs

green leaves of a bundle of radish

1 tsp salt

1 chicken bullion

Method:

In a soup pot, yes, a soup pot, heat up 1 tsp of vegetable oil on medium high heat. Beat the eggs in a bowl lightly and pour into the soup pot. The eggs will immediately start to sizzle. Don’t rush, let the eggs fry a bit on it’s own to form almost an egg pancake at the bottom, for about 20 seconds.

Use a wooden spoon, roughly break up the eggs, push the eggs around and form bite size pieces. It’s important not to scramble the eggs, otherwise you won’t be able to have large egg pieces later on in the soup.

Once eggs are all set, add about 4 cups of water, drop in the bullion cube and let it completely dissolve. Bring the water to a boil. Immediately kill the heat and drop in the radish tops.

Push the radish tops into the soup and let the residua heat cook the leaves until they are wilted. Serve immediately or cooled.

Cooking

Bison Picadillo

All I had to say was WOW. This dish was way better than I expected. Frankly I did not expect both of my kids tear up this dish over rice. Give it a try, it is quick and easy enough for a week night dinner. And yes, I had jalapeno, onions and tomatoes in this dish normally kids would shy away from.

Ingredients:

1 package of ground bison meat

1 large russet potato

1 jalopeno

2 Roma tomatoes

1 medium size yellow onion

3 cloves of garlic

1 tsp salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp smoked paprika

2 beef bullion cubes

Method:

In a large nonstick pan, brown bison meat over medium heat, break up any lumps with a wooden spoon, for about 8 minutes. Be patient. If the meat seems watery, the liquid will evaporate as the meat is browning. In the mean time, peel and mince the garlic, dice the yellow onion. Seed the jalapeno pepper and mince, dice the tomatoes, peel and dice the potato.

Add garlic and onions into the browned meat, cook for about 3 minutes until garlic and onions are softened. Add diced potato and jalapeno pepper. Add about 2 cups of water and beef bullion cubes. Lid on and let the potatoes cook through, about 5 minutes. Ensure the water is not fully evaporated during the 5 minutes. Add more water as needed to ensure the potatoes are cooked through and tender. Add tomatoes and cook for another 2 minutes. Add all seasonings and stir thoroughly to combine and let the flavor develop.

Serve over rice, inside of a home made tortilla, inside of a savory version naan bread, or simply spoon from the pot, anyone would love this dish!

Cooking

3-Ingredient Melon Drink

This one was amazingly good! I had to say, it surprised me too. Try it on a hot summer day, you get fruits into your kids, and they are super happy thinking they just got treats. And the bonus? There are literally only 3 ingredients!

Without further due, let’s dive into the details:

Ingredients:

2 cups of cubed seedless watermelon, chilled or frozen

1 cup of cubed cantaloupe, chilled or frozen

1 lime

Method:

Dump watermelon and cantaloupe into a blender, zest the lime and squeeze the juice into the blender. Blend until no more chunks of melons are visible.

Serve up and watch happy faces!

Cooking

2 Bean Salad with a Mexican Twist

In a pinch of time and really sad fridge collection on a weekday night, I whipped this baby up for dinner. Man, I gotta tell ya, this is one amazing salad that you will feel GREAT eating it. Also, this recipe is so versatile, use whatever you have in the pantry, the end result is still going to be super delish!

Ingredients:

1 can of black beans

1 can of chick peas

1 can of corn kernels

1 tomato

1/2 bundle of fresh cilantro

1 small onion, red preferred, but I only had a white, so that would do

1 avocado

about 2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp ground cumin

1 lime

1/2 tsp smoked paprika, or any sort of chili powder for a tiny bit of heat

Method:

Open canned beans, rinse under running water on a strainer to remove any excess starch. Drain well and put into a large bowl. Drain corn and put into the same bowl.

Cut up tomatoes, onions, avocado and any other vegetables you have or prefer into small pieces and put into the bowl with beans.

Finely chop cilantro and put into the same bowl. Zest the lime into the bowl too, only the green outer skin, not the white part, that will make the salad taste slightly bitter.

Drizzle olive oil, add salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder, squeeze the fresh lime juice directly into the bowl, mix well. The cilantro, lime juice and cumin will give that unmistakable Mexican flare of the salad.

Optional, you can always add grilled chicken, shrimp, salmon, steak, whatever you like to make it more filling and satisfying.