Tasty Tuesday Chicken

Good morning, Kitschies!  We're plugging along through yet another work week.  Kiddo #2 has his 18-month check up this morning, so it's just me and him hanging out for a little while at home this morning before we have to leave.  Mason's feeding himself oatmeal (wanna bet we'll have to change his shirt?) at the moment so I am seizing the moment to do a blog post. 

In keeping with the new "format", today is the first installment of Tasty Tuesday!  I have a bad habit of picking up new cookbooks but never doing anything with them other than drool over the pictures.  This cookbook, however, is different.  My parents gave me Better Homes & Gardens Biggest Book of 30-Minute Meals for Christmas a couple years ago and I've made quite a few things out of it.  They haven't all been winners, but most of them have been pretty good.  I was thumbing through this recipe last week and thought it sounded good, so I tried it. 

Sweet & Sour Chicken
1 8-oz can pineapple chunks (juice pack)
1/2 cup bottled sweet-and-sour sauce
12 oz skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1" pieces
1 Tbsp soy sauce
4 tsp cooking oil
1 medium red sweet pepper, cut into bite-size strips
1 medium carrot, thinly sliced
1 cup fresh pea pods, tips and stems removed
hot cooked rice

Drain pineapple, reserving 2 Tbsp of the juice; set pineapple chunks aside.  In a small bowl stir together reserved pineapple juice and the sweet-and-sour sauce; set aside.  In a medium bowl toss chicken with soy sauce; set aside.

In a large nonstick skillet heat 3 tsp of the oil over medium-high heat.  Add sweet pepper and carrot; cook and stir 3 minutes.  Add pea pods.  Cook and stir about 1 minute more or until vegetables are crisp-tender.  Remove from skillet; set aside.

Add remaining 1 tsp oil to skillet.  Using a slotted spoon, add chicken to skillet.  Cook and stir 3 to 4 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.  Add sweet-and-sour sauce mixture, vegetable mixture and pineapple chunks; heat through.  Serve chicken mixture with hot cooked rice.

NOTES:  This may be a "30-minute Meal", but it took longer than 30 minutes.  Combine the prep time of chopping and cutting with the cooking times (which are *always* longer than they suggest), it was closer to 45 minutes.  The recipe calls for fresh pea pods, but I used the sugar pea pods from Green Giant (I think) and it turned out great!

Look at the pretty colors!  I love when a dish is colorful.  Really, the key to a balanced diet is a mixture of bright colors.  The less color you have (read: potatoes, rice, pasta, etc.), the less nutrition you have.  So, brighten up those plates!

Now, I'm not saying that a little white isn't bad, because in moderation, it's not.  To make this dish a little less carb-heavy for me, I just used less rice than I normally would have.  The whole family liked this dish and I'll probably be making it again. 

Coming up in future posts, I'll have recipes for Ground Beef Casserole (slow cooker), Quick & Easy Stir Fry, Rosemary Chicken and Vegetables and a cookie and fudge recipe.  Enjoy your day!  Cross your fingers Mason's check goes without incident.