Freezer to Oven: Honey Teriyaki Chicken & Rice

 Oh my!  This is a great home-made take-off of Asian Teriyaki Chicken & Rice dishes you get at your favorite Asian restaurants like Panda Express.

I did some slight variations like used a little over 2 pounds of chicken and two 12 ounce packages of frozen stir fry vegetables.  I also used a tri-blend rice instead of jasmine.  Also, I used Avocado Oil instead of olive oil.  And I did the No Freeze Option.  This is supposed to make 6 servings but I ended up with 8.  I froze the leftovers.

Here's the original recipe and directions:

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed

1 Tbsp Onion Onion Seasoning

1/2 tsp Seasoned Salt

1 (16 oz) package frozen broccoli stir-fry vegetable blend

4 c cooked and cooled jasmine rice (1 1/3 c uncooked)

1 bottle Honey Teriyaki Sauce

1.  In large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add chicken, Onion Onion Seasoning and Seasoned Salt.  Sauté until chicken is cooked through, about 5-6 minutes.  Cool.

2.  In a greased freezer to oven-safe 13x9-inch baking dish, combine chicken with remaining ingredients.  Toss to coat.

3.  Cover with plastic wrap, then aluminum foil.  Seal well, label and freeze.

4.  To bake from frozen, preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Remove foil and plastic wrap.  Loosely replace foil.  Bake 1 hour.  Remove foil; stir.  Recover and continue baking 10-15 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F on an instant-read food thermometer.

Serve with Asian-style green salad.

No Freeze Option:  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Prepare through step 2.  Cover with foil.  Bake 35-40 minutes, stirring halfway through.

Nutrition Per Serving:

Calories: 450

Total Fat: 7g

    Sat. Fat: 1g

Cholest: 85mg

Sodium: 1,550mg

Carbs:  62g

Fiber: 2g

Sugar: 22g

Protein: 35g

Baked Orange Chicken

 Do you like Orange Chicken from Chinese restaurants?  Well, this matches it with one exception - it has some heat.  And I didn't use the full jar!  I didn't serve it over rice like the recipe indicates.  Oh, did I make a mess in the kitchen!  Warning - you need at least an hour to make this.

Here's the original recipe on our website.  Yes, I did some substitutions and other modifications based on our dietary needs.

• Liquid eggs (egg substitute)
• eliminated the salt
• Avocado Oil - reduced the amount for frying.
• snow peas instead of the red bell pepper
• reduced the Orange Pepper Sauce to about 3/4 of the bottle

If you don't like spiciness - then I would recommend using the Sweet & Sour Pineapple Sauce.

I was a little late on taking the pictures.  This is what remained of the chicken breast that was cut up into bite sized pieces.

Dredging the chicken pieces in cornstarch.

Then dipping them in the egg & Garlic Pepper Seasoning mixture.

Frying the chicken pieces.

Draining the fried chicken on a paper towel.

Placing the cooked chicken and the snow peas on an aluminum foil lined cookie sheet.  Covered with the sauce.  Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

The recipe says it serves 8 - I didn't dish up very well - had 2 servings leftover and we didn't have seconds!

We did enjoy it - even though there was a party going on in our mouths!

Pesto Turkey Burgers

 We love eating burgers.  However, we're not into all the bread with having to watch carbs and gluten.  Yeah, we had fried potatoes - that's kind of why we eliminated the buns.  I probably should have prepared a vegetable like green beans but spaced out on the time.

Original recipe is on a previous blog post from 2016 or you can print it out from our website.  Here are the modifications:

• Avocado Oil instead of the Olive Oil
• 99% fat-free ground turkey instead of lean
• regular bread crumbs instead of the panko bread crumbs
• Liquid egg substitute instead of regular egg
• sliced medium cheddar cheese instead of mozzarella cheese
• didn't mix the pesto with the mayonnaise
• no extra salt & pepper (not listed in the ingredients but mentioned in the instructions)

Oops!  I just noticed that the parmesan cheese was to go into the pesto and I had added it to the ground turkey.  Oh well, it was still delicious.  The pesto that was supposed to be mixed with the mayo, I sprinkled on top of the burger while I was grilling it before adding the cheese slices.

This makes 6 patties (except I only made 5).  Grilled 2 of the patties and froze the rest for a later meal.

This was the Dried Tomato & Garlic Pesto Mix with water.  Microwaved.  The Avocado Oil was added afterwards (another oops!) 

Here I was mixing the ground turkey, bread crumbs, egg, half of the pesto, and the parmesan cheese before forming into patties.

This is "grilling" the patties along with the potatoes.  After flipping, I topped it with the remaining pesto mix.  Then the cheddar cheese slices.

The whole meal took about 30 minutes. It's kind of nice to look back at some of the old recipes and make them again.

Bayou Pork Fried Rice

 Another delicious dinner prepared in about 30 minutes.  Of course, I did some modifications.  That's the neat thing about our Tastefully Simple recipes, they can be modified to meet your own tastebuds!

The original recipe is on our website.  My modifications include:

• 
  using our Avocado Oil instead of the vegetable oil
• using liquid eggs instead of whole eggs
• using Madagascar Pink rice instead of white or brown rice (note:  this takes longer to cook)
• eliminating the green onions

I also didn't use salt and pepper as the directions indicated.  I didn't use as much of the Bayou Bourbon Glaze or broth (actually used half the amount called for as I had ran out of the Bayou Bourbon Glaze).

Scrambled the eggs while waiting for the rice to cook.

browned the pork that was cut into strips.  I screwed up and bought chops that had bones instead of the boneless.  So didn't have as much meat as the recipe called for.

added the rice and frozen veggies.

added the sauce then the scrambled eggs.

This makes 6 servings.  Because I didn't fix another vegetable to go with it, we ended up having a second helping.  I froze the remainder to have at a later date.

Citrus Herb Chicken with Strawberry Salsa

Oh my!  This was delicious!  I plan on using the leftover chicken and salsa on my salad for lunch today.  This recipe came from our Dairy & Grain Free meal kit a couple of years ago.  Perfect Weight Watcher's recipe - it is only 2 Personal Points (due to the avocado oil).

The original recipe can be found on our Tastefully Simple website.  I did some modifications - actually I eliminated a couple of items that we don't care for.

• sliced green onions
• jalapeno pepper

This recipe calls for advance preparation - marinating the chicken at least 2 hours before cooking.

I also made up the salsa right before cooking the chicken so it had a chance to mingle the flavors.

We didn't grill the chicken but "fried" it on the stovetop.

I served it with steamed broccoli seasoned with our Seasoned Pepper.  This recipe makes six servings.  We will be using the leftovers for our lunches.  You could easily freeze the marinated chicken (before grilling).  Not sure what you would do with the extra salsa as that wouldn't freeze well.

You could use pork instead of chicken.

Bon Appetit!

Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya

 Well . . . I haven't actually done the 14-Day reset as planned because I was sick with COVID.  Last night, I did use one of the recipes for dinner.  

The actual recipe is Shrimp & Sausage Jambalaya.  I did lots of substitutions so if you want to see the original recipe, click on the above link.  I will need to cut the spices for next time as it was a little bit too spicy for my husband (I liked it!).  Oh, we had stewed tomatoes instead of crushed or diced.  I will use the diced next time.  And I may add more mushrooms.

Here's my modified recipe:

1 Tbsp Avocado Oil

13 oz smoked turkey sausage, sliced

1 1/2 lbs chicken breast, cut into chunks

4 mushrooms, cut in chunks

1 cup sliced celery

2 tsp Onion Onion Seasoning

1 tsp Garlic Garlic Seasoning

1 (14 oz) can no salt added crushed tomatoes

3/4 cup unsalted chicken broth

1 1/2 Tbsp Simply Salsa Mix

1 tsp smoked Paprika

2 tsp chili powder

2 (12 oz) pkgs frozen riced cauliflower

1.  In large saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add sausage, chicken, celery, mushrooms, Onion Onion Seasoning and Garlic Garlic Seasoning.  Cook until chicken is no longer pink, sitrring occasionally.

2.  Stir in tomatoes, broth, Simply Salsa, paprika and chili powder.  Stir in riced cauliflower.  Bring to a simmer.  Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.

Makes 5 servings.

Reset Day 2 plus some Prep

 Yes, some prep for tomorrow's breakfast.  I was finally able to find the broccoli slaw at a local produce market.  

Results from yesterday - had a hard time getting to sleep last night as I had a slight headache and my stomach was making noises like it was hungry.  However, this morning was much better.  Stepped on the scales and I'm down 2 pounds!  Love it.  The headache was probably the result of sugar withdrawals.

Breakfast this morning was the same as yesterday.  Like I indicated, I had to do some switching of menus.  We ate lunch out today.  So, I had a small chef salad with vinegar & oil dressing.  About the only thing on the salad I probably shouldn't have is the cheese.

My afternoon snack was Turkey Avocado Bites.  I used some of our leftover smoked turkey breast.  Since I don't care for avocados or grape tomatoes, I used a sweet mini-pepper.

This afternoon, I prepped tomorrow's breakfast, Breakfast Broccoli Hash.  I did not make any substitutions.  I did use the Spinach & Herb Seasoning rather than our favorite Rustic Herb Seasoning.  In the morning, I'll do steps 3 & 4.  Will let you know what that will look like.

  

Tonight's dinner is one of my favorites - Citrus Herb Roasted Salmon.  No substitutions.  However, if you don't like fish, you can substitute chicken.  The menu indicates to serve it with Sauteed Green Beans.  However, we are having steamed broccoli.

    

My evening snack will be an apple with peanut butter (menu says to use unsweetened almond butter - the peanut butter we use is pure peanuts, no added sugar or any other ingredient - doesn't even have salt).

Hope this encourages you towards a reset to healthy eating.  

Reset Prep and Day 1

Oh boy . . . plans didn't go so well.  The weather got in the way Sunday afternoon that we decided not to do the grocery shopping until yesterday.   And shopping wasn't easy . . . most of the shelves in the grocery store were empty.  We didn't get half the items.  So, went across the street to the other grocery store - was able to pick up a few more items.  Because we did the shopping so late in the afternoon, I didn't get the prep work done in advance.

This morning, I made the Simply Salsa Egg Cups

for today's breakfast as well as for Day 3 and 5.  However, I may switch Day 2 for Day 3 or 5 as we were not able to purchase the items needed for the Day 2 breakfast (more about that later).  Listed below are the items I used.  For the chopped items, please do it in advance before cooking.

Ingredients

8 oz 99% lean ground turkey 

1 red bell pepper, chopped 

1 Tbsp Onion Onion Seasoning 

3 tsp Simply Salsa Mix

4 cups fresh baby spinach leaves, chopped (I actually tore mine into small pieces)

6 large eggs plus 3/4 c egg substitute

1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In large skillet over medium-high heat (I actually used medium heat), combine turkey, peppers, Onion Onion Seasoning, and Simply Salsa mix.  Cook and crumble until no longer pink, about 6-8 minutes.  Drain off excess liquid (I didn't have any).  Stir in spinach.  Remove from heat; let spinach wilt.
3. 
   Divide mixture among wells of greased muffin pan (12 count); set aside.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and milk; salt and pepper as desired (I didn't use any).  Divide among wells of muffin pan.
   
   
   
5. Bake 17-20 minutes or until knife inserted in the center comes out clean (it took mine about 23 minutes).  Let stand 5 minutes; carefully remove from pan.
   

3 "muffins" equals a serving.  Serve it with 1 cup of mixed berries.  I had blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries.  Once the remaining muffins have cooled completely, I stored a serving in sandwich size ziploc bags.  Two can go in the frig and the last one can go in the freezer for a later time.  To reheat, microwave on High 1-2 minutes or until heated through. 

Lunch for today is supposed to be Pistachio Chicken Salad.  However, that calls for the Magic Chicken, which wasn't made in advance.  I have prepped that this morning while my breakfast was baking.  It will be used for dinner.

    Ingredients

3 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 cup low sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup water

4 Tbsp Makin'Magic Chicken Seasoning

    Directions

1. In a 4-quart or larger slow cooker combine all ingredients, sprinkling each layer of chicken with seasoning.
2. Cook on low 5-7 hours
3. 
   Chop or shred chicken; toss with liquid in slow cooker.  Divide into 1-quart freezer bags according to below seal well, label and refrigerate or freeze.
• 1/2 cup for Day 1 lunch Pistachio Chicken Salad
• 
  2 1/2 cups for Day 1 dinner Balsamic Chicken & Veggie Skillet
• 2 1/2 cups for Day 2 dinner Chopped Chicken BLT Salad
• Portion any remaining chicken as desired for later use. (the recipe makes 12 - 1/2 cup servings).
• If there is broth left over, freeze it for later use in making soups.

 

So, I'll have a regular green salad (2 cups of mixed salad greens) with 2 cups raw veggies (carrots, brocoli, celery, mushrooms, and peppers) and 5 ozs of low sodium tuna in water.  Dressing will be our Citrus Herb Vinaigrette.

Dinner is the Balsamic Chicken & Veggie Skillet (because the Magic Chicken will be available).  This is so good!  I did do some substitutions, so I will list what I used.  The link is to the original recipe.

 Ingredients

     2 Tbsp Avocado Oil

    1 lb fresh green beans, trimmed, cut in half

    1 medium zucchini, cubed

    1 cup sliced mushrooms

    1 Tbsp Citrus Herb Seasoning

    2 1/2 cups prepared and shopped Makin Magic Chicken

    2 Tbsp Aged Balsamic Vinegar of Modena

    Directions

1. In large skillet, heat Avocado Oil over medium high heat.  Add next 4 ingredients.  Sauté 4-5 minutes
2. Add chicken.  Continue sautéing until heated through, about 1-2 minutes.
   
3. Remove from heat.  Toss with Aged Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.

Makes 5 servings.  Reserve 1 serving for Day 2 lunch.  I froze the remaining servings for later use as we are just a family of 2.

There are two snacks scheduled during the day.  Snack 1 is Prosciutto Wrapped Melon.  I'll probably have this tonight.  Snack 2 is 2 cups of assorted veggies (like broccoli, cauliflower, etc) with 1 serving of Creamy Balsamic Herb Dressing.

Time to figure out what menu I will be following for Day 2.  It will probably be Day 3 since I need to cook up the salmon that was purchased yesterday.