10/12/12 - Sweet & Sour Chicken with Fried Rice

This morning was my weekly weigh in, and, as I kind of expected, I was up. I gained a pound this week. I decided to take the week off from exercising, so I’ve been pretty lax, just giving myself a little break. I plan on starting back up on Sunday, so hopefully I’ll be back on track next week. Everybody needs a little break here and there!

While not my usual Friday off, my mom is away at a work conference, so I just HAD to take the day off work to stay home with the girls. Oh, darn! I was actually a little nervous about it. The girls have been at each other’s throats lately, worse than usual. I just had no idea how they were going to do.

Olivia woke up whining really early this morning, so I brought her into bed with me. While Christian was getting ready for work, Amelia woke up. He actually convinced her to lay back down and go to sleep. So, we slept in! Like, REALLY slept in. Olivia woke me up around 9:00, and we watched some TV in bed. Amelia finally came out of her room around 10:00. Wow!

We had some breakfast, and were off to do some shopping. We stopped into the dollar store so we could each get a little treat. The girls did great, and I think it started their day off on a happy note. Next up, we stopped into the party store to get their costumes. They were a little creeped out by the spooky décor all over the store, but they were really excited to try on their costumes and bring them home. Another successful stop, and we were on our way home. We picked up some lunch, ate and it was already nap time!

I started dinner as soon as the girls were up from their naps, and they fighting finally started up. It wasn’t as bad as it can get, but they would not leave each other alone, AT ALL. They certainly know how to push each other’s buttons….already. We ate dinner as soon as Christian got home, had some ice cream for dessert and had a little family time before bed.

Once the girls were down, Christian and I settled in for a movie night. Tonight, we watched “American Reunion”. It was definitely what you would expect from the “American Pie” franchise, but we had a lot of laughs. That was the only movie we could make it through, so we were off to bed after that. All in all, a good day!

I snapped this picture of Rico and Chuy today. The animals fight over the "sun spots" in the kitchen all day long, especially when the sun starts going down, and space in it is limited...

Tonight’s dinner was Baked Sweet & Sour Chicken with Fried Rice.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts (I used 4, and made sure not to cut the pieces too small)
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 Cup Cornstarch
• 2 Eggs
• ¼ Cup Canola Oil
• ¾ Cup Sugar
• 4 tbsp Ketchup
• ½ Cup Distilled White Vinegar
• 1 tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1 tbsp Garlic Salt

• 3 Cups Cooked White Rice
• 2 tbsp Sesame Oil
• 1 Cup Frozen Peas & Carrots
• 2 tbsp Minced Garlic
• 2 Eggs
• ¼ Cup Soy Sauce

Directions:

Chicken

1.      Sprinkle the cut up pieces of chicken with salt and pepper to taste. Heat the canola oil in a shallow pan.

2.      Put cornstarch in one bowl, (2) beaten eggs in another bowl. Coat the chicken pieces in cornstarch, then in egg, and add it to the shallow pan of oil to cook. Do not cook completely, just until browned all around. (I did have some excess egg cook off of the chicken that I removed.).

3.      Meanwhile, mix the sugar, ketchup, white vinegar, (1 tbsp) soy sauce and garlic salt in a bowl, and whisk until blended. 

4.      Add cooked chicken to a greased 8x8 casserole dish, pour the sauce over the chicken, and bake at 325° for 60 minutes, stirring the mixture every 15 minutes.

Rice

Note: this can be made a day or so ahead of time, I used freshly made though.

1.      I cooked some white rice, according to the package (including some butter and salt for taste). Except, I use Chicken Broth instead of water.

2.      Heat the sesame oil in a pan. Add the peas, carrots and garlic and cook until tender.

3.      Push the veggies to the side, and scramble 2 eggs on the other side of the pan.

4.      Mix together, add the rice and (¼ cup) soy sauce, mix everything together and heat through.

Honestly, I would highly recommend this recipe. It definitely rivals any takeout we’ve had, and even though some steps are tedious, it’s super easy. This is by far our favorite meal so far this month.