Author: Andi

I came across a recipe recently for General Tso Chicken and it looked simple enough. No fancy ingredients and something I could make any night of the week without too much trouble…my kind of meal!

Beware….photos of raw meat ahead. scroll quickly if you don’t like looking at it.

First I cut up some chicken into bite-sized pieces.

Then you dredge the chicken in flour and put it in a pan with oil and fry it up until it’s cooked through and crispy.

In a saucepan, mix together sauce ingredients.

After the sauce is done, add some green onions to the chicken.

Then add the sauce to the chicken. I decided not to fully thicken my sauce in the saucepan. So when I added it to the chicken, it thickened up in there after just a minute or two of being in the pan with the chicken.

Then I made some Rice-a-Roni Fried Rice. I added an egg to it to make it more like fried rice.  

The verdict? Delicious! We all loved it. I will definitely make this again. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Nothing replaces the yummy deep-fried stuff you get when you order take-out, but if you want something a little healthier, give this a try!

One of Chuck’s favorite snacks is “Chex Mix”. But it’s the best when you make it yourself and don’t buy it premade.

So I picked up the ingredients and whipped some up for our Christmas celebration we had recently.

HERE is the recipe.

Mix the cereal, pretzels and peanuts (and bagel chips if you have them) together.

Mix the other ingredients together. Mix together. Then you cook everything in the microwave for a few minutes. Then you spread everything out on paper towels to cool. I actually had two trays full.

Then you EAT! And hopefully you make this when people are over because holy cow…it’s yummy and hard not to eat it all in one sitting!

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Since I had a ton of cereal leftover from the Chex Mix, I thought I would try one of the other recipes on the box. I was surprised I had everything I needed in the house. That never happens.

I made Chex Lemon Buddies. Oh man were they good. I saved most of them, but I had to snack on them when they were done. You make these very similar to Muddy Buddies or “Puppy Chow”.

They were so lemon-y and delicious. I love lemon flavored things. This is definitely going to be out at the next party I have!

If you are in the need for some little snacks to bring to an event or just want to take something with to work for a snack, either of these would be great options!

Last Saturday, I decided to make some fruit leather. Fruit leather, also known as fruit roll-ups, are delicious! I had a bag of frozen strawberries and bananas and thought I would give it a try.

I used this link as a guide to make them.

First, I blended the frozen fruit with some strawberry banana v8 fusion I had in the fridge. I also threw in some applesauce and some lemon juice. I decided not to use an sugar to sweeten it. I didn’t want to feel guilty when I ate these!

Then I pureed the heck out of it, adding a little more juice as I went to make it smooth enough.

Then I lined a sheet pan (actually I ended up using 4 pans for the amount of puree I had) with plastic wrap. This was, by far, the hardest part of this project. Getting it not to stick to itself and get it smooth wasn’t the easiest.

Then I poured some puree on the plastic wrapped pan and smoothed it out.

Then I stuck it in the oven as low as my oven would go (I ended up using both of my ovens) and let it cook for hours! The house smelled so good while it was cooking!

But, sadly, I think I made it too thin. After only a couple hours, one of the trays had dried already. It was crispy and TART. I guess I should have added some sugar after all! You can see how it broke into sharp pieces at the corner.

After I saw the first one was done too quickly, I took the other ones out and brushed some water on the stuff that had already dried to rehydrate it while the centered dried out.

Those three were crispy on the outsides, but they were soft in the middle and I could roll them up. They were still too tart to eat, but they did roll.

Overall, it was a learning experience. Next time I will add some sugar, make the mixture thicker and make less of the mixture so I don’t waste so much if it doesn’t turn out.

So there was my failed attempt at fruit leather. Better luck to you if you try it.  

The other night I tried out a new meal. Here is the recipe. I used half as many noodles and not quite as much chicken, but used the whole amount of sauce. Chuck likes it saucy!

I cooked the chicken (and shredded it) and lasagna noodles. Then I mixed the pasta sauce and seasonings together.

Then layered some in the bottom of a baking dish.

Then I mixed the cheeses, chicken and some sauce together. This is the stuffing to the lasagna noodles.

Then I set out my lasagna noodles.

Then added the chicken/cheese/sauce filling. I added it to most of the noodle, leaving some space at the top for when I rolled them up.

Then I rolled them up and placed them seam side down in the pan.

Then I added on the rest of the sauce and more cheese.

After baking, I served it up and we chowed down!

It was really good and pretty spicy. I think the next time I will make it, I won’t make it so spicy. Mostly because Maddie LVOED it….until she stopped shoveling! Then her mouth hurt because it was spicy and started crying and touching her tongue. It was both sad and funny. (I’m such a terrible mom!) I wasn’t sure how she would handle them, but they were a little too spicy for her. Live and learn. It was the first time I made this meal.

And I think I will always make this many noodles. It would be pretty dry with more noodles and the same amount of sauce…even for my liking.

Also, I think I would do this with leftover chicken the next time. Or after I get a rotisserie chicken or something. It was kind of a pain to cook the chicken as part of the preparation process. I am glad I started this meal during nap time and put it in the fridge until it was time to cook it. I don’t think I would have been pleased with how long it took had I not done it ahead of time.

Overall, great meal. I’ll change it a little next time (less spice for Maddie and leftover chicken). Definitely going to stay on my list of meals, though! You should give it a try!