Vegetarian Five-Spice Chicken and Green Bean Stir-Fry

Tuesday night dinner with my mother in law and we made Five-Spice Chicken and Green Bean Stir-Fry. The original recipes calls for pork but we used Quorn Vegetarian Chicken instead. It was quite a tasty dish!

For sauce
3 garlic cloves
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh gingerroot
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup mango chutney such as Major Grey's
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder (I couldn't find this so we made our own using recipe below)
1/2 teaspoon sambal oelek (Indonesian chili paste)

Chinese 5 spice recipe (I still didn't have everything for this but this is what we used)

1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground white pepper

1 medium red onion
1/2 pound fresh green beans
a 3/4-pound piece green cabbage (about 1/2 medium head)
1/4 cup packed coriander leaves
4 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil
1/2 pound fresh bean sprouts (about 2 cups)
1 cup snow-pea shoots or daikon (Asian radish) sprouts
2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil
Accompaniment:Rice (I used quinoa)

Make sauce:Mince garlic and in a small bowl stir together with remaining sauce ingredients until combined.
Halve onion lengthwise and cut into thin slices. Diagonally cut beans into 1 1/2-inch pieces. Core cabbage and cut into 1-inch pieces. Chop coriander.
Heat a wok or large heavy skillet over high heat until a bead of water dropped on cooking surface evaporates immediately. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil, swirling wok or skillet to coat evenly, and heat until hot but not smoking. Add onion and stir-fry until slightly softened. Add beans and stir-fry until crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Add 1 tablespoon peanut oil to wok or skillet and stir-fry cabbage until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Add bean sprouts and stir-fry until sprouts are slightly wilted, about 30 seconds. Transfer cabbage mixture to bowl.
Add 1 tablespoon peanut oil to wok or skillet and heat until just smoking. Stir-fry chicken, transfer to bowl.
Add sauce to wok or skillet and bring to a boil, stirring. Return chicken-vegetable mixture to wok or skillet and stir-fry until heated through. Stir in coriander, snow-pea shoots or daikon sprouts, sesame oil, and salt and pepper to taste.
Serve stir-fry over rice, quinoa or whatever grain you would like.

Baked Yam and Potato Casserole

This recipe is also a great holiday dish, it originated from all recipes. The only thing I changed was adding a sweet potato.

1 large sweet potato, thinly sliced

1 yam
1 large potato, thinly sliced
1 onion, thinly sliced
4 tablespoons butter, divided
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup vegetable broth
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
1 tablespoon dried parsley (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
In the prepared dish, make a single layer of sweet potato slices. Place a few onion slices on top, dot with butter, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Repeat, alternating layers of white and sweet potatoes. In a small bowl, or measuring cup, combine flour and broth. Pour over potatoes.
Sprinkle cheese, bread crumbs and parsley over the potatoes. Dot with remaining butter. Cover. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until potatoes and onions are soft.

Roasted Beets

Roasted beets are DElicious! I admit I really only make them around the holidays.

beets (as many as you want)

foil

butter

salt (preferably kosher salt)

Preheat the oven the 350. Wash the beets and take off the ends, place on a piece of foil, spread a little butter and sprinkle a little salt. Then close up the foil and bake for 50 minutes, turning at some point.