Sweet and Sour Chicken

This was my contribution to DTD this month. Its a lighter version of the fried sweet and sour chicken you get from the asian take out establishments.

Ingredients:
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast meat - cubed
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup sliced green bell pepper
1/2 cup sliced red bell pepper
1/2 cup sliced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1 (8 ounce) can pineapple chunks, juice reserved
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Preparation:
1. Brown chicken in oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add green bell pepper, red bell pepper, onion and garlic and stir fry for 1 to 2 minutes.

2. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and soy sauce and mix together; pour mixture into the skillet, along with the pineapple and liquid, vinegar, sugar and ginger. Stir together and bring to a full boil.

Serve over rice.

Beef Tenderloin Bites on a Bed of Arugula

Guess who's back, back again? Saucy's back, tell a friend...

First of all, my apologies for my lack of posting lately. School started, camera broke, stuff happens. In my efforts to be a regular poster and not get the diva boot, I joined a cookbook club. It is a collection of wonderful bloggers that all make the same recipe once a month and blog about it. This month we are cooking from a Rachel Ray book and the recipe is Italian stuffed shells (pssst, Saucy, look at the title of the post, there are no mention of a stuffed shell). I know. I've been a little stuffed shelled out lately. I made my own Italian stuffed shells not too long ago, and the Big Cheese made some scrumptious Mexican stuffed shells last month.


Luckily, the creator of the cookbook club offers an alternative recipe. Hence, Beef Tenderloin Bites on a Bed of Arugula! It was fantastic! I made it after a busy workday, and it was a light but delish meal that hit the spot. One note: Make sure your beef is cut in cubes similar in size. I rushed a little and some of my smaller pieces were way over done.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups Italian bread crumbs, eyeball it
Handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, a couple of handfuls
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, eyeball it, plus some for drizzling
3 to 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 tenderloin steaks, 1 inch thick, cut into bite sized pieces
Salt and pepper
5 to 6 cups arugula, chopped
1 lemon, juiced

Directions:
Preheat broiler to high.

Mix bread crumbs with parsley, cheese. Warm the oil and garlic over low heat to infuse flavor, 5 minutes. Pour oil into bread crumbs and combine to distribute equally and moisten the bread crumbs.

Season the meat with salt and pepper. Coat the meat in bread crumb mixture to coat evenly. Spread meat onto baking sheet and broil until crisp and meat is tender, 6 to 7 minutes. Serve meat on bed of shredded arugula. Give a squeeze of lemon juice over the beef and arugula.


Another note about the picture: Remember the broken camera? Still broken. So thank you to the Rachel Ray website for the picture!