Orange Dipping Sauce (for Coconut Shrimp & Spring Rolls)

 

1/2 c orange marmalade

1/4 c honey

1/4 c dijon mustard

4 drops hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco)

Mix orange marmalade, honey, Dijon mustard, and hot sauce in a bowl. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate until serving time.

All Recipes

Meatballs

I recently made this recipe when our local tiny commissary in South Korea was out of meatballs and I needed them for a baby shower for my friend Diana!  Many people said they liked them and I realized maybe I should make homemade meatballs more often vs buying store bought ones haha!  This recipe is easy and versatile.  Use these for party meatballs, spaghetti and meatballs, meatballs subs, etc. My new go-to meatball recipe!

1 beaten egg 

1/2 c bread crumbs (Garlic & Herb for party meatballs, Italian for spaghetti)

1/4 c finely chopped onion

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp black pepper

8 oz lean ground beef

If putting meatballs in a sauce of some kind, you don't need to add any additional salt.  If you were having them as a stand alone item without any sauce, add a little bit of salt, maybe 1/2 tsp or so.  

Place all items in a big bowl and mix with hands until well combined.  Then form standard sized meatballs (about golf ball sized or a little smaller)  and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  

Recipe Source: Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, page 492 (adapted by me)

Picture Source: I Heart Nap Time

Party Meatballs

A staple at every church potluck or Super bowl Sunday partayyyyy!

Mix and put the following ingredients into crockpot on low:

*Note: half recipe below for family of 5 to 7-ish.  :)

1 can crushed pineapple (with juice)
18 oz bottle BBQ Sauce
18 oz grape jelly
2 small bags meatballs

Serve with rice.


Picture Source: Natasha's Kitchen
** Def want to try the meatball recipe and sauce recipe on the picture source!  It looked awesome!

Sweet N Sour Meatballs

I have not made the meatballs in this recipe, just the sauce.  I was in a hurry one day so I put all of the sauce ingredients in the crock pot, dumped in frozen, pre-cooked meatballs (I know, I know, what a shame but I needed a quick meal) with the pineapples.  The sauce did not thicken like I believe it would have on the stove top, but it was still good.  Served it over rice and with a veggie.  Enjoy!  

Sauce Ingredients


1/2 cup loosely packed brown sugar
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
2 1/4 cups pineapple juice
1 tablespoon cornstarch
One 25-count bag All-Purpose Meatballs (still frozen is fine), recipe follows
1 tablespoon sriracha hot sauce
1 cup drained small pineapple chunks
Steamed long-grain rice, for serving
2 tablespoons sliced green onions, for garnish


Directions
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the brown sugar, vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce and 2 cups of the pineapple juice. Bring to a boil.

Make a slurry by mixing the cornstarch into the remaining 1/4 cup pineapple juice, whisking to get out all the lumps. Whisk the slurry into the skillet and add the All-Purpose Meatballs. Bring to a simmer and add the sriracha. Cover and cook until the sauce is thickened and the meatballs are heated through, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the pineapple chunks.

Serve over steamed rice, garnished with green onions.

All-Purpose Meatballs:

5 pounds ground beef
1 1/2 cups plain breadcrumbs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons grainy mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil

All-Purpose Meatballs:

To make the meatballs, combine the ground beef, breadcrumbs, milk, cream, parsley, mustard, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Mix together well with your hands. Scoop out 1-tablespoon portions and roll them into balls with your hands. Place the meatballs onto parchment-lined baking sheets and put the baking sheets in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes for the meatballs to firm up.

To brown the meatballs, heat the olive oil in a heavy pot or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs in batches, making sure not to overcrowd the pot. Cook, turning the meatballs to make sure they brown all over, 5 to 7 minutes per batch. Drain on paper towels.

Freezer instructions: Put the cooked meatballs in a single layer on baking sheets and put into the freezer. When frozen, divide them into freezer bags, 25 per bag, and return them to the freezer. Yield: 125 meatballs.

Recipe courtesy of Ree Drummond

Picture and recipe Source: The Food Network

Homemade Stir Fry Sauce

One thing I am learning in the cooking world is that making your own sauces is not as hard as I originally thought it was AND its also tastes WAYYY better than anything you can find in a bottle (from my experience).  You also cut out all of the extra unnecessary preservatives.  Yes, it does take more time to stir together 3 ingredients than it does to open a bottle, but the money AND taste savings are well worth it.  I hope to be able to find more stir fry sauce recipes and will post them here.  For now, this is one that my kids love (because its sweet) and oh so easy.



Stir Fry Sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar


Mix all ingredients and cook with stir fry veggies.  This sauce is thin and sweet.  You can double, triple, etc the amounts as needed.


Recipe Source:  Recipezaar.com
Picture Source: Stir Fry Sauces

Fried Rice

A lady in a mumu gave me this recipe....so its totally legit.....even if she is a haole ;)  The measurements are not exact, as I was told how to make the recipe and it wasn't a written down thang.  I haven't converted my kids to fried rice yet, so I left some white rice out and added the veggies to the side. I will add that this recipe is really easy! 



White sticky Japanese rice, made according to package directions
(2 C water for 1 1/2 C dry rice, made 4 C cooked rice)

After cooking rice, transfer hot rice to a 9X13 pan or large bowl. 
Drizzle a few TBSP Oyster Sauce over rice.
Drizzle a few tsp Soy Sauce over rice.
Stir together and taste.  Add more Oyster and Soy Sauce until you get the right saltiness level and flavor level you like. 

Add the following ingredients to the rice:
-any cooked and chopped meat you like (bacon, ham, Spam-optional, can leave meat out)
-2 scrambled eggs, chopped
-green onions
-frozen peas, carrots and corn (thawed in microwave)

Serve warm. 

Recipe Source: Kathy H.
Picture Source: Rice Simply Rice

Angel Hair Stir Fry Pasta with a Thai Peanut Sauce

When I first got married, I had never tried Thai food. It seems like a lot of Thai food is too hot for me, so I usually steered clear.....until I realized how easy it can be to make a delish immitation Thai sauce. This recipe is good because it 1-super simple. I'm kind of a lazy cook and simple recipes are good :) AND 2-it still tastes pretty Thai-ish.


Thai Peanut Sauce
Source:  The Ultimate Peanut Butter Book

Makes 4 servings:

1 small onion, minced (about 1/3 C)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 ½ TBS minced peeled fresh ginger
2 tsp chili paste or chili sauce (can increase, but beware!)
2 tsp packed dark brown sugar
¾ C evaporated milk or lite coconut milk (coconut milk is better)
½ C chunky standard peanut butter (can use chunky too)
juice of 1 lime (about 2 TBS)
*Chicken, cooked and chopped (optional)
8 oz dried angel hair pasta or other thin pasta or brown rice, cooked to package directions
1 package frozen stir fry vegetable mix, cooked to package directions


DIRECTIONS:

1. Spray a large nonstick skillet with nonstick spray and set the pan over medium heat.

2. Add onion, garlic and ginger. Sautee until fragrant and soft about 1 minute.

3. Stir in chili paste or chili sauce and brown sugar; cook, stirring constantly until very aromatic, about 15 seconds.

*Note* I only put a few drops of the chili sauce in if my son is going to be eating. It can be too hot for a toddler. If you aren't feeding little ones, then be brave and add the chili sauce. It does make it a little spicy, but it gives it a wonderful flavor.

4. Stir in the evaporated or coconut milk, peanut butter and lime juice. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly until the peanut butter dissolves into the sauce. Simmer for 10 seconds. (If wanting to add chicken, now is the time to add the cooked, chopped chicken to the sauce.)

5. Pour the warm sauce over the noodles or rice and stir fry vegetables in a large bowl. Toss well and serve at once.

Photo Source: Closet Cooking

Indonesian Chicken

I just had a new baby girl a few days ago. I tell you what, everyone needs to have a baby girl. :) She is so precious and sweet. Anyhoo.....A day or two before I had her, I was looking for quick and easy recipes because lets face it-I'm pretty sure I'm not going to have a lot of spare time anymore. I found this recipe on my family's cooking blog at http://www.reddhotrecipes.blogspot.com/

I don't post on there much, as I felt like I had so many recipes I wanted to create my own blog. This recipe is total yummers AND easy AND fast to prepare. Score! The only change I made to this version is I doubled the sauce. We like lots of sauce where I'm from so even tripling it might be something your family wants to do if you are feeding big eaters. I'm also listing this as a "30 mintue meal" because the prep work is so fast. It would take longer than 30 minutes if baking it in the oven.

1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup peanut butter (I used chunky and it worked great too)
4 tsp curry, or to taste
4 chicken breasts

Mix and marinade the chicken for at least an hour. Grill, or put it all in a pan and cook it on the stove top. (I'm thinking you could even put the it all in a 9X13 pan and bake it at 350 degrees till the chicken is cooked. This would make the prep work fast and all it would need to do is bake....although stovetop cooked chicken is super delish.)

1/2 cup toasted coconut (I doubled this as well.)
1/4 cup currants (We used craisins since this is what we had in our pantry.)

Top chicken with coconut and currants. Serve over regular rice or coconut rice. Soooo easy and Sooooo good!

Thai Shrimp Bisque

I have substituted cubed, cooked chicken for the shrimp sometimes OR use both shrimp and chicken to make the dish go further.  Also, in my opinion, using regular coconut milk tastes better than using light, but either one works fine. Make sure to use fresh ginger. Dried ginger works in a pinch, but you won't get that Thai flavor that makes this dish so good. Serve the bisque over hot rice and it is so yummy! Enjoy!


Thai Shrimp Bisque
Sara Redd

From start to finish: 45 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

2 C brown rice, prepare as usual and keep warm
1 lb uncooked, tail-on medium shrimp

1 TBS vegetable oil
¼ C sliced green onions OR regular onion, chopped
1 inch piece peeled and grated fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, pressed

2 TBS cornstarch
1 TBS sugar
2 TBS Hoisin sauce (found in Asian section of grocery)
1 tsp salt
1 TBS tomato paste
1 tsp curry powder (to preferred taste)
dash of cayenne pepper (optional, can be slightly spicy already from the ginger)

2 C chicken broth
1 can lite coconut milk (or regular)
fresh lime juice, to taste

8 oz sliced mushrooms (or less if desired)
1 can plain diced tomatoes, drained (or 1 C diced fresh tomatoes)
2 TBS snipped cilantro



DIRECTIONS:

1. Clean and remove tails from shrimp, set aside.
2. Heat oil in a medium pot. Add onions, ginger and garlic; cook and stir 2-3 minutes.
3. Stir in cornstarch, sugar, Hoisin sauce, salt, tomato paste, curry and cayenne.
4. Gradually add broth, coconut milk and lime juice. Bring to a boil.
5. Add mushrooms. Simmer 3-4 minutes.
6. Add shrimp and tomatoes; simmer 3-4 more minutes until shrimp turns pink and is cooked through.
7. Ladle into soup bowls; top with hot cooked rice and snipped cilantro.


Photo Source: here

Teriyaki Chicken Stir Fry with Coconut Rice

My friend Jamie made this meal for me right after I had my son. It was SO good and I just had to have the recipe. In the above picture, I didn't make the coconut rice; I used brown rice and topped the stir-fry with a sprinkle of coconut. The coconut rice is super yummy though too and a fun change to the regular old stir-fry and rice dish.

TERIYAKI CHICKEN STIR-FRY with COCONUT RICEJamie Turner


Makes 4 servings - Cooks in 10 minutes

1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast
1 T vegetable oil
1/2 cup Kikkoman teriyaki baste and glaze (found in Asian section of regular grocery)
3 T lemon juice
1 bag (16 oz) frozen broccoli, carrots and water chestnuts (or any bag
of frozen stir-fry mixture)
*I also added frozen snap-peas and fresh sliced green onions, fresh grated ginger and crushed garlic


Cut chicken into 1-inch pieces. Heat the skillet over high heat 1 to 2
minutes. Add the oil to the hot skillet. Add the chicken and stir-fry
until chicken is no longer pink in center. Stir in the teriyaki glaze,
lemon juice and frozen vegetables. Thawing the vegetables is not
necessary before-hand, but make sure to stir them into the chicken
mixture to allow them to cook uniformly. Heat the mixture to boiling
over high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat just enough so
mixture bubbles gently. Cover and cook about 6 minutes or until
vegetables are crisp-tender when pierced with a fork.
While chicken mixture is cooking, prepare rice (see recipe for coconut rice).



COCONUT RICE

1 (14oz can) coconut milk
1 1/4 c water
1- 1 1/2 tsp sugar
pinch of salt
1 1/2 c uncooked rice (long grain or jasmine will work)
Sweetened coconut

Directions:

In a saucepan, combine coconut milk, water, sugar and salt. Stir until
sugar is dissolved. Stir in Rice. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
Cover, reduce heat and simmer 18-20 minutes. Serve with sprinkled
coconut on top.

-Note: I am looking for a good stir fry sauce from scratch recipe.

Photo Source: Solid Recipe