Table for 1, please…

This week, Matt is in Florida (the only state in the country that doesn’t have snow according to the news – rude). I honestly find cooking for just myself very uninspiring, so I knew this week would either be a lot of mooching off others (thanks for dinner on Tuesday, in laws!) or leftovers or junk. I even tried to make a few dates with my girlie friends, but I have this God awful cold, so I’ve had to cancel all the plans I’ve made. Wahh! So here I am, on this rainy Thursday, thinking “please God, no more boxed mac & cheese” (oh yes I went there on Monday). I started thinking of all the ingredients I already have at home (so no cost breakdown this time – I didn’t have to set foot in a grocery store!), and decided I wanted some stir-fry! Matt isn’t a big fan of peanut butter, so I thought it would be perfect to make myself a stir-fry with peanut sauce and get that craving out of my system! So here it is: Chicken & Broccoli Stir-Fry with Peanut Sauce!

Here’s the recipe (cut back to feed just me, but it ended up with enough for 2) :

Stir Fry:
2 cups broccoli
1 chicken breast
1 cup brown rice
1 cup peanut sauce (see recipe below) – I spooned in the amount I wanted and had some left over
Salt and pepper, to taste

Peanut Sauce:
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tblspn soy sauce
1 tblspn lime juice
1 tblspn honey
1 tblspn chili powder
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (more or less depending on spice preference)
1 tblspn fresh grated ginger*
1/2 cup skim milk

*I’m not much of a ginger fan, so I skipped this (plus I didn’t have it on hand & I was too lazy to go to the grocery store to be blatantly honest).

Directions:

1. Start the brown rice first since it usually takes 30-45 minutes to cook (depending on package directions).

2. Steam the broccoli in a Ziploc bag with a teaspoon of water in the microwave until tender but still crisp, about 3 minutes. Leave a 1/2 inch opening in the bag.

3. Cut the raw chicken into bite-sized pieces. Preheat a pan to medium-high. Spray with cooking spray or add a teaspoon of peanut oil for an enhanced peanut flavor. Add chicken, salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes or until fully cooked.

4. Add broccoli and peanut sauce to pan (and ginger if you used it). Spoon the stir-fry mixture over the rice and serve.

Ohhhh my goodness! I didn’t know what to expect honestly. I’ve ordered food with peanut sauce before and thought ‘well, that was pretty good’. THIS was AWESOME! I’m seriously obsessed with this dish now. The peanut butter flavor wasn’t too overwhelming, the balance of all the flavors was perfect! I highly recommend this one! And I have peanut sauce left over! YAY! As far as cost goes, I would imagine this would be a cheap dish to recreate – most of the ingredients don’t cost much, and who doesn’t have peanut butter, chicken & soy sauce in their fridge already?

So, thank you, husband, for being out of town so I could enjoy this yummy dish (but you can come home now – this single puppy mom thing is wearing me out!).

Happy Dishing!

~Des