Quick Dinner Tonight!

 

Trying to come up with something for dinner that the whole family will love and that is nutrient dense too? Check out this recipe! I was perusing Pinterest the other day and found this recipe. I love P.F. Chang's, especially their lettuce wraps. So when I saw that I could make them at home, I got very excited! My roommate and I headed to the grocery store after class to pick up the ingredients and get started. We are both nutrition majors, so we are both very health conscious individuals and love when we find tasty recipes that are very nutritious too! The only changes we made to this recipe was we used ground turkey instead of ground chicken, and we did not have any soy sauce (what travesty!), so we put a little extra of the hoisin and rice wine vinegar. We were going to use romaine for the wrap part of the dish, but we could not find any that did not look old. Some possible additions to the recipe could be chopped carrots or maybe some snow peas to add color. Pair it with rice and you have a balanced dinner!

PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps

Yield 4 servings                    Prep Time- 10 Minutes               Cook Time- 10 Minutes

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pound ground chicken
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
• 1 tablespoon Sriracha, optional
• 1 (8-ounce) can whole water chestnuts, drained and diced
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 head butter lettuce

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium high heat. Add ground chicken and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the chicken as it cooks; drain excess fat.
2. Stir in garlic, onion, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ginger and Sriracha until onions have become translucent, about 1-2 minutes.
3. Stir in chestnuts and green onions until tender, about 1-2 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
4. To serve, spoon several tablespoons of the chicken mixture into the center of a lettuce leaf, taco-style.

This recipe was obtained from damndelicious.net

What's for dinner?

I decided to mix it up for this post and talk about and share a recipe I made for my boyfriend and I the other week. I love to cook, and that is very important when you're in school for nutrition. Especially when you have to take 3 cooking classes and labs in order to graduate! However, I discovered my love for cooking and baking long before college started. I regularly help my parents with dinner prep at home, and at least cook dinner once a week while at school for my boyfriend and I. Dining hall food gets pretty old pretty fast. When boyfriend suggested the other week that we should make dinner at his apartment before I went home for the weekend, I immediately when on Pinterest to see what tasty, easy and nutritious meal ideas I could find. He suggested something with chicken and rice because he had been making a lot of pasta lately, and had a lot of chicken in the freezer his mom bought his before he came back for the second semester. I found many, many recipes that sounded really appealing, but most looked like they would take over an hour to make. I was losing hope of finding a chicken and rice dish until I found One-pot Cheesy Chicken, Broccoli and Rice. It sounded easy and really tasty, especially with the broccoli and cheese in the recipe. We both agreed on it and headed to the store after we were both done with class. This recipe was really easy, super quick, cheesy, and we both loved it! Lots of leftovers, and it has something from every food group!

Easy One-Pot Cheesy Chicken, Broccoli and Rice

Ingredients           

• 1 lb Chicken breasts, boneless skinless                                                           
• 2 1/2 cups Broccoli florets                                                    
• 2 cloves Garlic                                                    
• 1/2 Yellow onion, medium                                                       
• 2 1/2 cups Chicken broth, low-sodium                                      
• 1 cup White rice, long grain                                 
• 1 tsp Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper                                                  
• 3 tbsp Olive oil, extra virgin                                                    
• 2 cups Reduced-Fat Shredded Cheddar cheese, sharp

Instructions

1. In a large skillet or pan, sauté onions in two tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper.
2. Once onions soften, increase the heat to medium high and add chicken to the pan.
3. Brown the chicken pieces and add the garlic. Cook for about 1 more minute.
4. Push chicken to one side of the pan and add additional tablespoon of olive oil to other side.
5. Add the uncooked rice in the olive oil and saute it for a couple of minutes.
6. Add the chicken broth to the pan and bring the mixture to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and cover the pan with a lid.
7. Cook chicken and rice mixture covered for about 12 minutes.
8. Sprinkle the broccoli evenly over the chicken and rice mixture and stir to combine.
9. Continue to cook covered another 8 minutes on low, or until broccoli and rice are both tender.
10. Remove from heat and stir in half a cup of cheese.
11. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and cover with a lid, letting it sit for 1-2 minutes or until cheese has melted. Serve.