Weight Watchers Chicken With Broccoli and Oranges

I have definitely been on an Asian food kick since having the delicious peanut chicken dish in San Fran. I was craving something a little sweet and savory and found this recipe in an old Weight Watchers cookbook. This took no time to make and definitely cured my craving.




I cut this recipe pretty much in half. You need stock, corn starch, OJ, broccoli, oranges, tamari or soy sauce, ginger and chicken. I used canned mandarin oranges instead of fresh.


Mix your cornstarch and water. This is called a slurry!


Measure the stock, soy sauce, and OJ. I did not have fresh ginger so I just put the dried ginger in with the sauce.


Chop your broccoli, I did this the night before.


Chop your chicken.


Lets cook! Get the oil heated in a pan. Again, I skipped using fresh ginger so I went straight to cooking the chicken. Cut this small it only takes a few minutes to cook.


Once cooked, get the chicken out of there.


Drop in the broccoli with some water and pop the lid on for about 3 minutes.


Return the chicken to the pan with the sauce mixture and give it a stir. Bring it up to boiling.


Stir in the slurry and let it thicken. Can you believe that it is this easy? Well, it is.


Stir in the oranges and you are ready to eat.


Delicious, fast and easy. That is a trifecta in my opinion.

What is your favorite Asian dish and have you ever made it at home?

Food Network Magazine Cold Peanut Sesame Noodles

Summer in Scottsdale is not for the faint of heart. From June to October you can expect the high temperature to be over 100 pretty much everyday. That means I eat a lot of salads and things that do not heat up my kitchen. These cold noodles are spicy and come together with very little prep. Tom has actually been requesting noodle dishes and this one got a thumbs up!


This came from the Food Network Magazine and I didn't have to cut it in half, pretty exciting stuff. Get some water boiling and gather up some ingredients.


You need some carrots, noodles, brown sugar, peanuts, green tea, hot chili sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, sesame seeds, soy sauce, and some oil. You can top it with cilantro if you are super silly and eat that stuff.


Toss the noodles in the boiling water. I used somen noodles and they cook in no time at all.


While the noodles cook assemble the rest of the ingredients in a blender or use a hand blender like I did.


Blend it up until it is a smooth sauce.


Drain the noodles and get them in a bowl.


Add in the carrots and sauce and give it a good stir.


This is the hardest part of the whole recipe, waiting! Put the noodles in the fridge and let them cool for about an hour.


After an hour or whenever your noodles cool plate them up with some peanuts and nasty cilantro if you want it. I used some green onions instead.

This was spicy and filling and Tom added this to his list of foods he would definitely eat again. I am turning that guy around one dish at a time.

Singapore-Style Rice Noodles

One of the blogs I enjoy reading regularly is written by Joanne who also contributes to Marcus Samuelsson's blog. She posted a recipe for Singapore Style Noodles and I had to give it a try because Tom has actually been asking me to make him some 'spicy noodles with vegetables'. So to find the recipe, please Click Here. Also click on Joanne's name to visit her site, she is hilarious and makes delicious food.


For this you will need some kind of noodle that you like, I prefer Somen. Onion, cooking oil that can cook at a high temperature (I use rice bran oil), curry powder (or whatever spice blend you like), green pepper, red pepper, cabbage, garlic, green onion, broth, mirin, soy sauce and brown sugar. A lot of ingredients, but this is super easy. Get some water on to boil and lets start prepping!


Chop your peppers. I scored pre chopped green peppers on Manager's special at my grocery store, so I didn't have to worry about those.


Slice the onion.


Chop the cabbage. I used bok choy and I didn't use much because Tom was a little scared of it.


Chop the green onion.


Measure your curry powder. Remember that most important part to a successful stir fry is have everything ready before you start to cook.


Prepare the broth mixture and mince your garlic.


Get everything prepped at the stove so you are not running around.


Drop the noodles and let them cook. Somen noodles only need about 3 minutes.


Bail them out and lets get stir frying!


Get the oil nice and hot and drop in the peppers and onions. The key here is to stir or it will burn. Cook these for 3-4 minutes or until they are soft.


Stir in the curry, garlic, and cabbage. Cook this for about a minute.


Stir in the broth and the noodles and let those cook for about 2 minutes, then stir in the green onion and you are ready to eat.


The spice blend I used was HOT as heck for me, Tom said he could taste the spice but it was not hot. But he said he would definitely eat this again, woo! Thanks for the inspiration Joanne!

Pineapple Basil Chicken

This recipe comes from the cookbook called Thai Cooking and More that I picked up at a book outlet years ago. Every recipe I have tried from this book has been a winner, including this simple but delicious Pineapple Basil Chicken. I cut this recipe in half.




For this recipe you will need, chicken, pineapple, corn starch, a hot pepper, oil, garlic, basil, cashews, soy sauce and fish sauce.


The most important part of making a successful stir fry is to have everything measured and ready to cook before you even turn on a burner. Measure out your pineapple, juice and nuts.


Mix the corn starch with the pineapple juice.


Chop your pepper and your green onion.


Chop your basil, garlic and chicken.


Once everything is staged near the stove, you can start cooking.


First things in the pan are the chicken, garlic and hot pepper. Stir fry these for 3-4 minutes.


Once the chicken is cooked, add in the green onion for another minute.


Stir in the pineapple and cornstarch mixture and stir until it thickens.


Add in the pineapple, cashews, basil, fish sauce and soy sauce. Let this cook for another minute or two and you are ready to eat!


Delicious and so simple. You could easily do this with mandarin oranges as well. I am definitely going to experiment more with this dish and make more recipes from that cookbook.

Andrew Zimmern's Ramen Noodles from People Magazine

I love magazines and have since I was a kid. Growing up the only magazine we got regularly was the TV Guide. When I was in junior high my sister got a job as a cashier in the local pharmacy and I would spend evenings there at a small card table reading all of the magazines in the store. I vowed that when I grew up and could afford it I would subscribe to every magazine I wanted. Well, one of the guilty pleasures from those days persists and I read People magazine every week. I was excited when they started including recipes and so far all that I have made turned out great. This recipe for Ramen Noodles is super easy and delicious, and guess what, Tom even ate it because I substituted beef broth for the chicken broth.




For this tasty soup you will need carrots, green onion, broth, soy sauce, ramen noodles (toss that nasty flavor packet), sesame oil, sriracha, ketchup, sugar, lime and an egg.


Juice your lime and whip up your egg.


Chop your green onion.


Get your water on to boil.


Measure out your broth.


Mix together soy sauce, ketchup, sriracha, sugar and sesame oil.


When your water is boiling drop in your ramen. I break mine up just so it is a bit easier to eat.


Ramen noodles only need to cook for a couple of minutes. Get them out and drain them and set them aside.


Put the broth into the pan.


When the broth is boiling, reduce the heat to medium and stir in the soy sauce mixture.


Add the carrots and cook for one minute.


Slowly stir in the egg.


Add the noodles back in and let those cook for about a minute.


Get the pan off the burner and add in the lime and green onion and you are ready to eat.


This was so good, and spicy! Tom liked it too but said it wasn't hot at all. Apparently I am still a wuss when it comes to hot food. Tom also added a handful of peanuts because he wanted a little crunch in his soup. He said it was a great addition.

I hope you all are having a great weekend!