Slow Cooker Moroccan Beef Stew

I've never had Moroccan food other than when I attempted to make it a few years ago when I made Crockpot Moroccan Chicken, which turned out pretty well. I came across this recipe from Spark Recipes. And since my Moroccan Chicken turned out so well, I figured this would turn out just as well. This was a super easy dish to make and came out so delicious and full of flavor from the curry and garam masala. I'm glad I was able to find another use for garam masala other than an Indian dish. And I love how this dish was a mixture of sweet and savory. I think I like this dish is better than its chicken counterpart. Serve this on top of couscous to complete your exotic meal.

2 lbs. beef, cubed
4 carrots, chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. yellow curry powder
1 tsp. garam masala
1/4 cup tomato sauce
3 cups broth (vegetable, chicken or beef)
1 (14.5 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (optional)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro for garnish
1/4 cup toasted almond slivers for garnish (optional)

1) Pat the meat dry with a paper towel. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add meat and sear on all sides. Remove meat and set aside.

2) In the same pan, add carrots, onions, and garlic. Saute for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add curry, garam masala, and tomato sauce. Stir to combine.

3) Add beef and vegetable mix in the crock pot. Cook on low for 6 hours. Add chickpeas and raisin (if using) and dried apricots. Cook for another 30 minutes to an hour. Serve on top of couscous.

Tangerine Beef Stir Fry

I'll just get right to the point. This dish was so awesome and so flavorful. I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised how well this dish came out because it came out of Spark Recipes, which means diet food, which means bland, right? No way! This was soooo good! Who knew that Asian food would taste this good using only a few ingredients? It literally only took a few ingredients and you can use practically any vegetable to stir-fry with. And the end product is this orangey-delicious dish that tastes just as good as any other take-out Chinese food.

2-3 tangerines
1/4 cup dry sherry or white wine
2 Tbsp. hoisin sauce
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 lb beef, cut into thin strips
5 Tbsp. oil
1 medium bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp. grated ginger

1) Zest 1 tangerine and set aside. Juice tangerine to equal 1/2 cup of juice. Stir in sherry/wine and hoisin sauce and set aside. Place beef strips in a medium bowl. Add soy sauce and sprinkle cornstarch. Massage the meat so the that it is well coated with the soy sauce and cornstarch. Set aside.

2) Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper, ginger, and orange zest. Cook, stirring frequently until vegetables are tender-crisp. Transfer to a large bowl.

3) Heat an additional 2 tablespoon to the skillet. Add half of the beef and stir fry until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Transfer to the bowl with the vegetables. Repeat with the remaining beef.

4) Add juice mixture to the skillet and cook until boiling, about 1 minute. Return vegetables and beef to the skillet and continue cooking until heated through. Serve with steamed rice.

Mongolian Chicken

I've been doing pretty good as far as making healthy recipes lately from Spark recipes. So far, I think this is my favorite recipe that came out of that website. Its a very easy recipe that only required about 10 ingredients and approximately less than 20 minutes to cook. Who could use a quick recipe like this? Me, of course. Along with many other busy and working moms out there. I was a little skeptical about the flavor of this dish because it only required very few ingredients. I figured it might end up bland again, but it is so far from that. This dish had a sweet and savory flavor that reminds me of many take-out meals. One good tip in making this dish is to make sure the chicken is still slightly frozen for easy slicing of the chicken. You'll end up with nice, thinly sliced chicken. Hubby really enjoyed this one, so I'm definitely making this quick and easy meal again.

2 boneless, skinless chicken, still slightly frozen
2-3 tsp. freshly grated ginger
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar, slightly packed
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. water
chopped green onions for garnish

1) Cut chicken into thin slices. Heat a skillet to medium low and add chicken. Cook chicken until no longer pink.

2) While chicken is cooking, heat oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add grated ginger and crushed garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30-60 seconds. Stir in soy sauce, water and brown sugar. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat.

3) In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and water  and whisk together to make a slurry. Whisk slurry into sauce. Add sauce mixture into the skillet with the chicken. Allow to simmer for 2-3 minutes until sauce thickens. Top with green onions (or broccoli would also go well) and serve with steamed white rice.

Soba Noodles with Chicken Veggies and Caramelized Garlic Sauce

In keeping with my diet and with my theme of Spark Recipes, I decided to give this recipe a try. I found it while searching on the site for some recipe ideas. This dish reminds me of my Chinese Broccoli Beef Noodle recipe, except with a lot of other extra veggies and the use of soba noodles. Soba noodles is another type of Japanese noodles made of wheat or buckwheat.

The original recipe only yielded one serving, so I modified it to fit 2 meals each for both hubby and me (one for dinner, one for lunch). Feel free to play around with different types of vegetables for this dish. The original recipe used red cabbage, carrots and red bell peppers. I happened to use bok choy, zucchini, carrots and bell peppers. Although a flavorful dish, I think I'll stick with my go-to Chinese Broccoli Beef Noodle recipe. It was a much quicker recipe for me with less complicated ingredients. Because, where else can I use Tamari in a recipe? That will probably be my next goal. To find a use for Tamari.

8-10 cloves garlic, crushed
4 tsp. vegetable oil
4 tsp. sesame oil
4 Tbsp. Chinese cooking wine, or sake or dry sherry
4 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. light soy sauce
2 Tbsp. Tamari (dark soy sauce)
salt and pepper to taste
8 oz soba noodles
2 bulbs of baby bok choy
1/2 zucchini, sliced
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 cup chopped red onion
1 stalk green onion, chopped
2 cooked chicken breast, sliced
sesame seeds for garnish

1) Cook soba noodles according to package directions. Strain and rinse in cold water. Set aside.

2) Heat sesame and vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add garlic and cook until dark yellow, not brown (lower heat if necessary to prevent browning). Add sugar and stir. Add cooking wine, soy sauces, salt, and pepper to taste. Allow to cook until sauce slightly thickens and bubbles.

3) Add chicken and all vegetables. Coat all ingredients with the sauce. Cook until chicken is warm and vegetables are cooked to your liking. Toss noodles in the sauce until thoroughly coated and top with sesame seeds.

Mexican Chicken and Rice Casserole

             

After all the festivities and leftovers from the past weekend, I'm pooped. And I don't really feel like slaving over the stove. But I think we've had enough of the leftovers. Its time for some freshly cooked meals again. So what can I cook?

Recently, I reverted back to my calorie-counting diet and was searching through some recipes on my online calorie tracker, Spark People, for some diet friendly foods. In honor of Cinco de Mayo this weekend, I settled on this recipe for Mexican Chicken and Rice Casserole. It had great reviews and it looked really simple. And so I gave it a shot. At first, I was real leery over the use of canned soups, because the dishes I make with them never turn out well and always bland. But I'm dieting, so I guess its supposed to bland. This dish was so far from being bland. It was quite yummy, actually. I even used my Homemade Taco Seasoning which helped lessen the amount of sodium in the dish. Served with warm tortillas and only about 280 calories per serving, this was actually an awesome dish that hubby really liked too. He actually suggested we serve this for the Mother's Day Luncheon we're hosting next weekend. We'll see :)

1 can fat free Cream of Mushroom soup
1 can fat free Cream of Chicken soup
1 can water
1 package taco seasoning (or 2 Tbsp. homemade Taco Seasoning)
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breast
1/2 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes with chilies
1 1/2 cups corn kernels
chopped cilantro for garnish
2 green onions, chopped
shredded cheese for garnish

1) Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Grease a 9x13 inch pan and set aside.

2) In a medium bowl, whisk together soups, water and taco seasoning.  Evenly spread rice over sauce. Arrange chicken on top of rice. Top chicken with black beans, tomatoes, corn, cilantro, and green onions. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour and 25 minutes.

3) After the baking time, remove foil. Shred chicken, if desired, and top with desired amount of cheese. Continue to bake for another 5-10 minutes until cheese is bubbly and melted. Served warm with tortillas.