Chicken Napa Cabbage Wraps

I love spring and summer cooking because of all the fresh produce available.  This recipe is delicious and FULL of healthy veggies!

Chicken Napa Cabbage Wraps with Cucumber Relish and White Rice = YUM!

I find the napa cabbage holds up better than other lettuce and is easier to eat.  Make sure you make lots of stir-fry because everyone will ask for seconds.

First grab some asian ingredients from the pantry for a stir-fry sauce.  I used ready-made stir fried sauce and jazzed it up with some other seasonings.

Brown your chicken pieces and deglaze with sauce.

Saute some fresh spring veggies;  Here I used carrots, asparagus, onions, and zucchini.

Chop some cucumber, bell pepper, radish, and herbs.  Season with mirin, lime juice, and olive oil for a light relish to add even more crunch to your lettuce wraps.

I love extra condiments, so I also made a quick spicy mayo.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Cucumber Relish and Spicy Mayo
Serves 4


Chicken Stir-Fry
2 large chicken breasts, cut into 1/2" cubes
3 TB Stir-Fry Sauce (or hoisin sauce)
1 TB soy sauce
1 TB mirin
1-2 tsp chili garlic sauce
3 cups of chopped veggies, like grated carrots, diced onion, zucchini and onion
1 small head napa cabbage

Cucumber Relish
1 cup diced fresh veggies, like grated radishes, diced cucumber and bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped herbs, like parsley and mint
1 TB lime juice
1 TB mirin
1 TB olive oil

Spicy Mayo
1/4 cup mayo

1 TB lime juice

1 TB mirin

1 TB chili garlic Sauce

Brown the chicken in some oil.  Mix all the ingredients for the stir-fry sauce and add to deglaze the pan.

Set the saucy chicken aside, stir-fry the vegetables in the same pan.  Re-add the chicken and sauce.

Cut and wash napa cabbage leaves, 2-3 per person is good.

Mix all the ingredients for cucumber relish and spicy mayo.

Serve with white rice.

Hawaiian Inspired Dinner

My boyfriend loves Hawaiian BQQ fast food restaurants - you pick a meat with an asian flavored sauce and it's serves with macaroni salad and white rice.  A little too much starch, so I just went with macaroni salad filled with lots of veggies with teriyaki steak.

I LOVE pickles.  Pickled anything.  At any time, you will find at least 6 jars of pickled things in my fridge.  Hopefully, they will all be home-made and from the garden in a few months!  Pickle juice and mayonnaise make an amazing pasta salad dressing.

Whenever it comes time to chop herbs, I'm always short on cutting board space.  This is a good tip - place your herbs in a small bowl or a cup and use scissors to clip the herbs!

Teriyaki Steak (Serves 4)

2 pound london broil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1TB ginger, minced
1 TB garlic, minced
1 TB sesame seeds
1/2 of a granny smith apple, grated

Marinate the london broil for at least 45 minutes.  Remove from marinade and pat with paper towels.  Place on a rack and broil for 10 minutes until it begins to caramelize.  Flip it over and cook for another 10 minutes.  Allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing thinly.  While the meat rests, pour the marinade into a pan, bring to a boil and reduce to a syrupy sauce.

Veggie Filled Macaroni Salad with Pickle Dressing (Serves 4)

2 cups macaroni, boiled till cooked through and drained, but still warm
2 cups diced vegetables, I used carrots, radishes, and broccoli
1/4 cup chopped pickles, I used pickles, banana peppers, jalapenos, and olive mix
2-3 TB pickle juice
1/4 cup mayo, I always use light mayo
2 TB chopped parsley

Mix pickles, pickle juice, mayo and parsley.  Add macaroni and vegetables.  Warm macaroni soaks in the dressing better than cold.  Allow to sit in the fridge for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Pork al Pastor in Baked Crispy Tacos

I love Mexican food!  Pork al Pastor is traditionally shoulder layered with onions and pineapple, cooked on a rotating rotissere similar to Middle Easter Shawarma.  

I used pork chops since I had them in the freezer.  Take your pork chops and dice them up.  Marinate them with pineapple juice, cilantro, cumin, and chili powder.  Make a quick salsa by pureeing some tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro, and some spicy peppers in the blender.  While the pork is marinating, start your taco shells by placing two corn tortillas on a piece of foil and spray both sides with non-stick spray.  Like so.... 

Cover them with another piece of foil.

Take the top of the foil and fold it to the bottom.  Scrunch up the ends to fold it together.  Your tortillas are sandwiched inside in the shape of a crispy taco.

Bake at 400F for 12 minutes, then flip them over and bake for 12 more minutes.

While those are baking, brown the marinated pork up in a little oil.

Remove the pork and set aside.  Deglaze the pan with a little water and add the salsa puree.  

Pour that onto the reserved meat.  

 In the same pan, saute some onions and peppers.

When the onions and peppers are nice and brown, add the reserved meat and salsa.

Earlier, I made a simple cucumber guacamole by mashing up some avocado with lime juice, salt, and pepper.  Then mixed in some small diced cucumber.

To plate it up, put your pork into the crispy shells and topping with some shredded cheese.  Serve with some shredded cabbage and the cucumber guacamole.  Enjoy!

Making a raised garden bed and a cool tomato trellising tip!

Yesterday I went to a home improvement store looking for some more containers to add to my garden.  I got quite a work out cause  I must have walked from one end of the store to the other about 6 times.  All the pots seemed like too much money to spend on plastic.  Then I saw the raised garden beds!  I decided that was the way to go, but not cheap at $70-90.  I had a stroke of genius - hammer four pieces of wood together and voila garden bed!  It just so happened that I had some old wood boards in the yard, so I bought some nails, wood glue, and four small square post that I found in the wood molding section.  I used these pieces to create some more stability.  See what I'm talking about...

The old wood planks are glued and hammered to the posts.  I filled the whole thing up with some organic potting soil and planted 3 different squash plants, 2 bell peppers, and a lettuce patch!

My tomatoes were ready for training so I bought a wire frame trellis.  I also bought some little hair clips to use as moveable tomato clips!

Now my tomatoes are training up the trellis but are free to grow as they please!

Green Curry Kitchen

Since this blog is called Sarah Jeanne's Kitchen, it seems only appropriate to post a recipe today.  For dinner I made one of my favorite meals - Green Curry Chicken.  I make it for two reasons:  one because it's delicious and two it's a great recipe to clean out your vegetable drawer.  I usually make it when I'm down to the last few veggies that need to be used up.

I need to get better at taking more pictures during the process... but here's the end result!

Recipe for Green Curry Chicken
Serves 4

2 large chicken breast, cut into bite sized chunks

3-4 types of vegetables, about 3 cups raw, medium dice
Use up whatever you have - tonight was onion, red bell pepper, celery, and swiss chard

1 can coconut milk
1/2 cup chicken stock, I make a big batch once in a while and freeze it in ice cube trays
3 TB green curry paste **see note below
2 TB fish sauce
1 1/2 TB lime juice
2 TB fresh herbs - I used some from my garden! Mint, Oregano, Chives, and Lemon Balm

Season chicken chunks with salt and pepper.
Brown the chicken in a hot pan with oil.  No need to cook all the way as you want to finish it in the sauce.  Remove the chicken and set aside.
Saute the vegetables in some oil with salt and pepper.  If you're using a leafy veggie, like my swiss chard, leave it to the end.
Once all the veggies are soft, add 1 can coconut milk and chicken stock
Add green curry paste, fish sauce, and lime juice.  You can add more or less of each ingredient according to your taste.  I like lots of seasoning.
Add the seared chicken and simmer for 10 minutes until chicken is cooked through.
Finish with chopped herbs and serve with white rice.

Somehow I always end up cooking enough for 4 people, although there's just two of us eating.  I'm a big fan of leftovers in the freezer.  Because of this I am a hoarder of containers.  Tonight it's going in an old sauerkraut jar!  I always write the name of the dish and date it was made in good old Sharpie.  Makes organizing the freezer much easier and the marker comes off most containers during a good wash.

**Green Curry Paste
Here's a recipes for green curry paste, although I will admit, I often by it in a jar.  Most stores have it in the Asian section.

10 Serrano Chilis
1 Onion (or 3 shallots)
2" piece of Ginger  (Galangal if you can get it)
6 Garlic Cloves
1 Bunch Cilantro
2 TB Lime Juice
2 Stalks Lemon Grass
1TB Corrindar Seeds
2 TB Cumin Seeds
2 tsp Black Peppercorns
2 TB fish sauce

Grind it all together with a mortar and pestle, blender, or food processor.  Keep it in the fridge for 2 weeks or the freezer for 3 months.

Memorial Weekend Gardening

So I've decided to start a blog.  I guess my fb page has become a blog of sorts.  I like to cook, bake, garden, craft, and travel... among other things... and that's what I usually post about on fb.

As this weekend was memorial day, I feel it would be most appropriate to blog about something that a lot of people do over this first weekend of summer... gardening!  My little garden started about a month ago when my wonderful boyfriend started it with lots of sunflowers, sugar snap peas, green beans, and tomatoes.  I've been adding more flowers and decorating with my garden gnomes.  Here's my newest little friend that my mama sent me last week... how sweet is he?!?

This weekend, I added some cucumbers, melons, corn, carrots, and radishes.  Our little yard is covered in gravel... no grass and not much dirt for planting, so we've decided to do a container garden.  We found these big felt grow pots and they're working out great!  Since we put potting soil in there, I know everything is in quality soil with lots of nutrients.  Here's the first section of our garden, growing strong!  Check out the tipi of poles our sugar snap peas and green beans are climbing up!

And my first sunflowers started blooming too!

Here's the newest addition to the garden.  I built a trellis for the cucumbers out of a piece of white trellising that I found and two garden poles.  Cable zip ties were very handy in helping keep all our trellising together.

Hope you enjoy looking at my garden!