Fried Rice

Ingredients

6 cups of Cooked Rice
2 cups of Diced Carrots
1 small yellow onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 can of water chestnuts
2 cups of sprouts
1 cup of frozen peas
3.5 T Olive oil
1 t butter
1 package of Chicken breast strips (About six strips)
2 eggs
Soy sauce to color and taste
Freshly ground Black Pepper
Sesame Oil (optional)



Instructions -  While your rice is cooking, dice up your carrot, onion, and garlic. Rinse your water chestnuts and let them drain.
-  Trim your breast strips into bite size pieces. Sautee the chicken in a mix of 1 t of butter, ½ t olive oil (to bring to raise the burning point of the butter). Do not over cook the chicken! Set the chicken aside.
-  In the same pan that you cooked the chicken, without cleaning the drippings out, heat your oil on med/high and sauté your garlic. Once the garlic infuses the oil, add your onion and let it sweat. Once the onion is nearly translucent, add your carrots. Add a dash of soy sauce and pepper. Turn burner to low/med.
- In a separate pan, cook an egg. Whisk the egg lightly in a separate bowl, and cook it as you would an omelet. (Make a half moon shape) Slide the cooked egg out on to a cutting board, and slice into strips.
- Increase the temperature in your pan to high and add your rice. Slowly incorporate the soy sauce for flavor and coloring. Add the water chestnuts, sprouts and frozen peas.
- Once that is heated through, add the chicken and the sliced egg. Add black pepper to taste and enjoy!


Hints:
-  Use long grain white rice, not glutinous sushi rice. The long grain white rice is what is traditionally used in Chinese Restaurants. (Using sushi rice is good also though! It reminds me of fried rice in Hawaii)
-  For 6 cups of prepared rice, I use 3 cups of dry rice, cooked in about 5-5.5 cups of water. If you are using a rice cooker, just go by those directions.
-  Adding a teaspoon of chili powder add some nice heat to it.
-  Add a dash of sesame oil at the end, if you have it stocked on hand in the pantry.
-  You may need to add more oil to rice, depending on how “fried” you like your rice.
-  Use baby carrots. I quarter them, and dice each quarter. It ends up being the perfect size.
-  Don’t use a red onion – its flavor is too strong
-  Do not overly whisk the egg. You do not want the egg to be fluffy. Also, don’t add any water or milk to the egg mixture.

Submitted by AmyB

Fresh Hot Salsa

Ingredients

1 onion, chopped 4 jalapeno chiles, seeded and chopped
6 hot roasted hatch chiles, seeded and chopped,
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro (more or less to taste)

1 garlic clove, minced
2 (14 oz) cans tomatoes
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 to 2 teaspoons salt
Juice of 1 lime (more or less to taste)


Directions

- Add all ingredients in a blender or food processor and mix until desired consistency.

Hints
- You should be able to find hatch chilies in the produce section by the jalapenos, they are red.
- If you can't find hatch chilis you can substitute 1 - 8 to 10 oz can hot green chilies

Submitted by Michelle

Turkey Veggie Burgers

Ingredients
1 lb ground turkey
2 cups cooked mixed veggies
2 eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs or quick oats
1 cup shredded cheese

Directions
- Puree veggies and eggs in blender or magic bullet.
- Combine turkey, pureed veggies, bread crumbs and cheese in a large bowl and mix until all ingredients are incorporated.
- Form into patties and cook on the stove top or on the grill.

Hints:
- A great, tasty way to get some extra veggies into the kids. Or into you.

Corinne's Amazing Pasta Dinner

My SIL made this amazing pasta dinner one night when she didn't feel like cooking. I LOVED it and have been making versions of it ever since. This is the best way I've found to duplicate the dish. Check the comments in a day or two to see if Corinne adds any instructions.

Ingredients
1 lb short pasta (such as gemelli or penne)
2 large ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 package baby spinach, about 6oz
12 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into bite-size pieces
2 cloves garlic, chopped 
1/4 cup prepared pesto (like this one by Classico)
2 tbs olive oil

Kosher salt and pepper

Directions

-  Cook the pasta according to the package directions.
-  While the pasta is cooking put the spinach in the bottom of a large bowl.
-  When the pasta is finished, drain and return to pan.
-  Add the olive oil, pesto and garlic and quickly stir until the pasta is coated.
-  While the pasta is still very hot, pour it over the spinach
-  Let stand for about two minutes so the pasta has time to wilt the spinach.
- Stir in the mozzarella and tomato.

Hints:
-  It's a good idea to let your tomato, mozzarella and spinach come to room temp before making this dish or the end result will be lukewarm.