Sweet Chili Chicken Stir Fry Bowls

This recipe is from Budget Bytes and more specifically is one of 15 items on the Emergency Preparedness menu. I had doubts about liking this meal. I typically do not like sweetness in my entrees – only in my desserts. The coconut milk and pineapple ingredients concerned me. But this was surprising. I liked it. It was a combination of spicy, sweet, and sour. My husband Shawn really liked it.

I started making the coconut rice first. This part of the meal takes the longest. I measured out the jasmine rice.

I prepped the garlic and salt.

And I opened the can of coconut milk. This was my first time using this ingredient.

I put this all in a pot and started cooking it.

So at this point I was supposed to be preparing the broccoli, but I ended up buying a steam in bag broccoli product instead of broccoli from the produce section. So I saved the broccoli preparation until the end.

So I moved on to the chicken prep. I bought chicken breast tenderloins from the grocery store. I put those tenderloins in a brine in the morning in preparation for the meal. I have a negative relationship with chicken breast so I always brine it now. It was perfect. Not dry and it absorbed the salt. I cut the tenderloins into bite-sized pieces.

Then I put oil in the wok to heat and added the chicken.

It was time to move the rice to its next stage. Take it off the heat, but let it sit covered and undisturbed. This was the rice after the cooking stage. It smelled quite good during the cooking.

Back to the chicken. It was done cooking. I actually had a bit more chicken than what was called for (about 7 ounces over).

The recipe had a link to a sweet chili sauce, but I bought some from the store anyway. It gave you that choice. I will try making my own next time. Turns out I already have all the ingredients to make it.

I added this sauce and the pineapple tidbits to the wok.

I continue to cook this and mix it together.

The rice was ready. I was not able to use all the rice in the pan. Some was stuck to the bottom. And inexplicably some rice did not get cooked? I am not a fan of cooking rice on top of the stove. But I have never put anything in my rice cooker except rice and water. Also it really wasn’t a good time to experiment with how to do this in the rice cooker.

I cooked the broccoli in the microwave so the bowls were ready to set up. It consisted of rice on the bottom, broccoli around the perimeter, and sweet chili chicken in the middle.

Curried Red Lentil and Pumpkin Soup

This recipe is from Budget Bytes and more specifically is one of 15 items on the Emergency Preparedness menu. This was easy, but I was not thrilled with it. Not sure if the lentil substitution I made caused the problem, but the result was not compelling enough for me to try again with the correct type of lentil. If you look at the photo on the recipe site, you can see mine does not match. House smelled amazing though.

I grated some ginger and pressed some garlic.

And added them to the pot with the oil.

Next I added the lentils, curry powder, and pumpkin purée.

The Lentils

So due to the bare grocery shelves during this pandemic, I could not find dry red lentils. The dry lentils are in the bulk buy section of the store. The section where the stuff is in bins and you scoop it out into a bag and are charged by the weight. The first week, they were completely wiped out. And the following weeks, it was decided by the grocery store that it would not be hygienic to provide this service because too many hands would be touching the scoops and lids. So I found canned lentils. This means instead of the lentils expanding and softening with the liquid in the soup, they were already soft and expanded. I made some palak dal that required dried red lentils, but was able to find them that time.

The can of lentils

The canned lentils drained

Then I added the vegetable broth.

The Vegetable Broth

This recipe called for 6 cups of vegetable broth. I found two cans which gave me 4 cups of broth. Each can yielded almost 2 cups each.

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I needed another two cups and decided to use my Better Than Bouillon vegetable base. (First time!)

I added 2 cups of water to a pot and 2 teaspoons of the base. I let it heat up and dissolve while stirring.

I added all the broth to the main pot.

Finishing Up

This cooked for 30 minutes, but it did not thicken much. We ate it at that point, but in diagnosing the outcome I decided to put rest of the can of lentils in the pot and cook it for an hour. (I had only put in one cup to begin with). I thought it possible that the 1 cup of dry lentils would have produced more volume than the 1 cup of “wet” lentils. It got slightly more thick and had a bit more solid material in it.

Skillet Pineapple BBQ Chicken

This recipe is from Budget Bytes and more specifically is one of 15 items on the Emergency Preparedness menu. This came out okay, but the chicken thighs needed their own seasoning. The salt and pepper added before cooking them was not enough. The recipe was counting on the sauce (which was tasty) to flavor the chicken. I do not normally brine my chicken thighs, but for this recipe next time I will.

I got the chicken out and weighed it to see if I had the right amount. Then I put salt and pepper on each side of each piece.

I put the oil in the skillet, let it get hot, and then added the chicken.

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I opened the can of pineapple slices, drained the slices, and kept the juice.

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After the chicken was cooked, I removed it from the pan and set it aside. Then I added the pineapple juice to deglaze the pan.

Next I measured out the barbecue sauce and added it to the pan.

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I mixed it around and let it thicken.

Then it was time to add the chicken thighs back to the pan. I dredged each chicken thigh and pineapple in the sauce ending with placing thighs in the pan and placing a pineapple slice on top.

I turned on the broiler and put the skillet in the oven for 5 minutes.

I had sliced up the jalapeño pepper.

And placed the jalapeño peppers on top along with sliced green onions.

I served this with jasmine rice.

Weeknight Pasta Sauce

This recipe is from Budget Bytes and more specifically is one of 15 items on the Emergency Preparedness menu. This came out great. It does benefit from cooking longer so the minimal time is good for a weeknight. The optimal cooking time is better for a weekend.

I thawed out two 4 ounce beef patties. I had to use beef patties because the grocery stores were wiped out of ground beef. So I thawed these out and then took them apart.

I added olive oil and the beef to the pot and cooked the beef until it was browned. I added onion powder to this mixture.

Then I measured out two tablespoons of butter and added that to the pot to melt and incorporate.

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Then I added the can of crushed tomatoes.

Finally I added the Italian seasoning and mixed that all in. The minimal time for this simmering is 30 minutes. Because I was also baking some focaccia to go with it, I let this simmer for an hour.

I served this on top of some angel hair pasta and topped it with an Italian cheese blend.

Easy Rosemary Garlic White Bean Soup

This recipe is from Budget Bytes and more specifically is one of 15 items on the Emergency Preparedness menu. This came out better than expected. I was not expecting a lot from a bean soup, but it was delicious.

There were some optional add-ins suggested and I opted to use the bacon add-in. Also a month ago when I was shopping for the ingredients the canned goods were wiped out in the grocery stores. I could not find the cannellini beans. I bought great northern beans instead.

The recipe required three cans of beans. But to start one can of beans was set aside to be puréed. I put the whole can including the liquid in a blender.

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Then I drained the other two cans of beans.

I cut four strips of thick cut bacon in half and cooked them in the pot. The original recipe wanted you to heat olive oil in the pot. I cooked the bacon and set it aside for later and used the bacon grease for the next step instead of the olive oil.

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I minced some garlic and added it to the pot to sauté.

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Then I added the puréed beans and the drained beans.

I measured out the rosemary, thyme, crushed red pepper, and black pepper.

And added it to the pot.

I used a can of vegetable broth and then some chicken broth to get to a 2 cup amount. The vegetable broth nearly covered the required amount so it was just a little bit of chicken broth that I added. The recipe asks for either vegetable broth or chicken broth so I thought mixing them would be fine.

I added the broth mixture to the pot.

I stirred everything together to incorporate it. Then I brought the mixture to a boil with the lid on. And took the lid off to continue cooking at a simmer for 15 minutes.

While the soup was cooking, I returned to the bacon.

I sliced it up into smaller pieces.

After the soup was done cooking, I added the bacon.

I stirred it in and let it cook a little bit more. The soup got a little bit thicker as it cooked.

One Pot Chili Pasta

This recipe is from Budget Bytes and more specifically is one of 15 items on the Emergency Preparedness menu. I did not really like it and will not be making it again. The pasta part really just stuck out as an odd taste and texture.

I started out thawing the beef patties. I had to use beef patties because the grocery stores were wiped out of ground beef. This recipe required 1/2 pounds so that equaled two of the beef patties.

Then I prepped the garlic.

I started cooking the garlic in the pan with some oil.

Then I added the beef along with onion powder and browned it.

Next I added the flour and chili powder.

And mixed that all together.

I drained and rinsed the two bean types – kidney and black beans.

Added them to the pot and mixed them in.

Next I added the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce.

Next I added the corn. It was supposed to be frozen, but I already had some thawed corn kernels in the refrigerator. I was not able to find frozen corn kernels when I was shopping weeks ago so I bought whole frozen corn. I heated two ears and then sliced the kernels off with a knife for an earlier recipe. I ended up with two cups of corn and saved a cup for later use. (This ended up being that later use).

Next I added the dried macaroni and beef broth. I mixed everything together and cooked it for 15 minutes with the lid on. I had to check on it and stir it a couple of times because the pasta was sticking to the bottom of the pot.

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After it was done cooking, I measured out some shredded cheese and added that to the pot.

I mixed the cheese in and the chili was ready to eat.

One Pot Teriyaki Chicken and Rice

This recipe is from Budget Bytes and more specifically is one of 15 items on the Emergency Preparedness menu. It was okay and I will likely make it again. I thought it could have used more sauce. Also I did as instructed in the recipe and used chicken breast, but per usual the chicken breast was too dry. I will use chicken thighs next time.

I cut the chicken breast into small pieces.

And I prepped the garlic and ginger.

I put oil and the pan and cooked the garlic and ginger.

Then I added the chicken. I partially cooked the chicken (just until it was no longer pink on the outside).

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Next I added the uncooked jasmine rice and stirred it around.

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And then I added the water.

I put a lid on and cooked for 10 minutes.

I had measured out the vegetables. It was frozen broccoli and peas. I was just going to use broccoli, but the bag was mostly the stems so I separated out the florets and added some peas to get it up to 10 ounces. It was supposed to be 12 ounces. Next time I will aim for purely broccoli florets (if that exists) and use snap peas.

So I tossed the vegetables on top and put the lid back on.

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After 5 minutes, I removed the pan from heat and mixed the vegetables in a bit better.

Next I added the sauce – soy sauce, brown sugar, and toasted sesame oil.

Finally, I mixed the sauce throughout in the pan and added some green onions.

Skillet Cheeseburger Pasta

This recipe is from Budget Bytes and more specifically is one of 15 items on the Emergency Preparedness menu. This came out okay. It did taste like I was eating a cheeseburger. I was unsure about adding the relish because I am not a pickle fan. It was so little that I thought I would not notice it. I will leave it out next time.

I started with two 4 oz. beef patties because I was not able to find ground beef when I went to the grocery store. I added it to the pan with the olive oil.

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While browning the ground beef, I added onion powder instead of onions. Next I added the flour and then I added the tomato sauce.

I measured out beef broth and added that to the pan as well.

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I also added the uncooked pasta and mixed everything together.

While the skillet continued cooking with a lid on, I shredded some sharp cheddar cheese.

Then I slowly added handfuls to the skillet.

When I finished adding all the cheese, I added the small amount of relish.

I mixed to incorporate that and the final step was to add the sliced green onions.

Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili

This recipe is from Budget Bytes and more specifically is one of 15 items on the Emergency Preparedness menu. This came out merely okay. I will not likely make it again. Maybe I just like the red chilis better. Also I prefer black beans over all the other beans.

I pressed some garlic.

And diced a jalapeño pepper. The pepper was directly from my freezer. I was supposed to scrape out the seeds, but I decided to leave them in.

I got one of the chicken breasts out. It was supposed to be about 12 ounces, but this was only 10 ounces.

I placed all of these things along with some onion powder in the bottom of the slow cooker.

Then I drained the two types of beans – pinto and great northern. The recipe called for cannellini beans, but of course the grocery store was all out of those.

And I measured out the spices – cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper, and black pepper.

And this all went into the slow cooker along with salsa verde. I put the salsa verde through my smaller food processor to get rid of the onion chunks.

Next I measured out the chicken broth.

And pour it into the slow cooker.

Then I stirred it all together, put the lid on, and cooked it on low for eight hours.

When the cooking was done, I removed the chicken breast and used two forks to shred it.

I mixed the chicken back in the slow cooker and mashed some of the beans as the instructions stated.

I served it Monterey Jack, tortilla strips, and sour cream as toppings.

Garlic Noodles with Beef and Broccoli

This recipe is from Budget Bytes and more specifically is one of 15 items on the Emergency Preparedness menu. This came out well and it was delicious. I have a variation of it before. I had doubts about using ground beef instead of the beef I usually expect with beef broccoli, but it was great.

The beginning of the recipe involved making the sauce that you add at the end. It called for melting the butter in the microwave, but that does not seem to be safe here especially after the butter explosion incident. So I always melt butter in a skillet.

After the butter was melted, I just removed the pan from heat and used it to add the rest of the sauce ingredients – oyster sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, and sesame oil – and mix them.

I mixed all the ingredients together and put the sauce aside.

I started boiling the pasta and while it was boiling, I started the meat mixture. I put the butter in the wok and melted it.

Due to the pandemic, there was no ground beef at the grocery store. I found beef patties instead and decided to just thaw and convert them back to ground beef. Each patty is 4 ounces. I needed 8 ounces so I thawed two patties.

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Then I put it on the wok to brown it.

I pressed some garlic. No matter what the instructions say unless it is a very special circumstance, I press the garlic. I do not want to bit into garlic pieces so this method is best for me.

The meat was almost done so I added the garlic.

I measured out the frozen broccoli.

And added it to the wok.

The noodles were finished cooking and drained so I added them to the wok.

And I added the sauce from skillet.

Then I used a spoon and a pasta fork to mix all the ingredients together. It was especially necessary in order to make sure the sauce coated everything.

The final step was to add the chopped green onions and red pepper flakes.