Tortellini Stir Fry

Would you like to know what makes this recipe Ta-Daa?  It is easy!  I seek out easy recipes.  If there are 8 million steps or a bunch of ingredients I wouldn't know where to find in the grocery store then I pass over it.  This one had my name written all over it.

Hubs and my oldest child rated it a 5 and kept going back for more
I rated it a 4
The other 2...well, it was food that was touching each other AND had sauce on it.  How dare I? 

 from Life in the BAT Cave.  Pop on over for a visit!

Ingredients:
1 (9oz) package of tortellini
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 (16 oz) package of frozen stir-fry vegetables
1/3 cup stir fry sauce (I used a sesame-garlic sauce)
2 Tbs. water
1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper (optional)
2 Tbs. chopped unsalted cashews or peanuts (I did not use)

Directions:
Prepare tortellini according to package directions.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add vegetables and cook 7-8 minutes until crisp tender.

Stir in cooked tortellini, stir-fry sauce, water and red pepper; cook 1-2 minutes or until mixture is heated through.

Sprinkle with nuts just before serving. 

Serves 4 (unless you have kids like 2 of mine!)

Soy Sauce Chicken & Stir Fry

Soy Sauce Chicken & Stir Fry

Ingredients:
Chicken cut into bite size pieces
1 C Soy Sauce
1 C Oil- your choice of type
1 C spite or 7-up

mix all items together and cook in a frying pan on medium heat until chicken chunks are done. The longer they cook the more salty the flavor becomes, so I check on them often and have learned that the light brown tint is time to pull them out of the pan.







Stir Fry: **can be any of your favorite veggies-- the following is what I used**
Orange Bell Pepper sliced
Yellow Bell Pepper Sliced
Red Bell Pepper Sliced
Snow peas
1 medium to small onion chopped
*Broccoli in bite sized pieces



toss with 2TBS olive oil and saute' in a frying pan until the bell peppers are soft and their colors have slightly faded.


We served white rice, stir fry and chicken -- I had all together and hubs ate each part separately.




We rated this a 5 spoon meal, we both really enjoyed our different variety's and would have loved to double the recipe and freeze some for a second freezer meal. :)

Salad Rolls with Peanut Sauce

A few years ago, I tried out a few peanut sauce recipes, and gave up after none of them turned out as I had hoped.  But recently, one of my friends asked me to make salad rolls for this blog, and I was newly inspired to find a great peanut sauce recipe.  She came over to help, and after some experimenting, we settled on this recipe.  And I'm happy to report that it's yummy!

This recipe makes use of many of the ingredients necessary for my stir fry.  So, if you've got the leftover ingredients lying around, put them to good use here!  The rolls may seem tricky, but once you get the first couple done, they'll get easier and quicker to make.  I plan to whip these up as a snack on the weekends when I need to tide myself over until dinner.

I rate this recipe 5 Spoons.  I will definitely be making it again and often!

Enjoy!

Salad Rolls

rice paper spring roll wrappers

bean sprouts

sliced carrots

rice noodles, cooked and drained

fresh basil (Thai basil is the coarser variety and tastes fantastic in Asian dishes)

fresh mint

cooked shrimp, sliced in half

crushed peanuts

Peanut Sauce

makes about 1 cup

1 tsp. vegetable or sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp. chili garlic paste (or more if you like some heat)

1 Tbsp. tomato paste

1/4 c. creamy peanut butter

3 Tbsp. hoisin

3/4 c. low-sodium chicken broth

dash sugar

Add oil to a small sauce pan over medium heat.  Cook the garlic and chili paste until garlic is golden.  Whisk in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring often.  Simmer sauce, stirring often, until thickened, about 1 minute.  Cool to room temperature.  Sauce may be made 3 days ahead.  Store covered in the refrigerator.

Roll ingredient lineup:

Peanut Sauce ingredient lineup:

Place a piece of rice paper into the warm water.  It will immediately start to soften.

The rice paper will completely soften in the warm water.

When the paper is soft, it gets really sticky.  This was the easiest way I

 found to let the water drip off without the edges sticking to themselves.

Carefully lay the rice paper down on a smooth surface.

And begin layering the ingredients.

Bean sprouts.

Carrot sticks.

Rice noodles.

Thai basil.

Mint leaves.

Shrimp halves.

Crushed peanuts.

Begin rolling like you would a burrito.

The rice paper is sticky and tricky, but try to roll it tightly.

Hawaiian Chicken Stir Fry

Two weeks ago I introduced you to one of my recipe staples, Hawaiian Chicken.  I decided I wanted to try something a little different with it and jazz it up a bit so I decided to attempt turning it into a stir fry.  It is simple, one dish cooking!

Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts cut up into bite size pieces
1 Tbsp oil
1 package stir fry veggies
1 bottle Honey BBQ sauce
1 can pineapple chunks in its own juice
2-3 packs of Ramen noodles (3 oz. each).  Discard season packet.

Directions:
Heat oil in pan.  Add chicken and cook approx. 5-6 minutes until chicken is no longer pink.

Add bag of stir fry veggies and cook until crisp tender.

Add 2-3 packs of ramen noodles, can of pineapple chunks with juice and BBQ sauce.  Stir well to mix together.  Cook a few more minutes until noodles become soft.

Serve and enjoy!

Rating:

The hubby gives is 4 spoons.