The Resolution

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the LORD . . ." Colossians 3:23

Here it is mid-February, and I have finally decided that I need to have a resolution. Maybe since I'm not declaring it at the "normal" time we generally think of resolutions (and I've stated it in writing) I will actually carry it out this year!

I've decided we are in a rut as far as what we eat. Anyone who knows me well is aware that I'm not known for my cooking. Lucky for me, Mark's mom did not like to cook either so he ate a lot of TV dinners growing up. As a result he isn't very picky about what I feed him and he thinks any home cooked meal is fantastic. But the downside of that is he tends not to be very helpful when I ask for dinner ideas. He usually will say something like, "Anything you make is great." So I have fallen into the routine of making the same stuff over and over, or we eat out, or we just pour a bowl of Cheerios!

The fact is that cooking is not my favorite activity. I would rather vacuum than cook and I usually only vacuum if I can't sweet-talk Mark into doing it for me! But anyway, back to the resolution. I have decided that I am going to make a minimum of 2 new recipes a month for the rest of this year - that's 22 new recipes! I'm not crazy, like the "Julie & Julia" thing; I just want something new for dinner once in awhile.

Criteria for the recipe:

· I have to be able to pronounce it (and the ingredients).
· The ingredients need to be items that real people might actually find in their pantry.
· If the ingredient list includes items such as “2 sticks butter” or "1 cup heavy cream” (except possibly for baked goods that won’t be staying in our house) it’s not going to happen.
· If the instructions start out with “8-10 hours prior to serving . . .” and it’s not going in a crock pot – forget it!
· The less dicing, slicing, and chopping called for, the better.


So . . . . . here we go - Recipe #1:
SWEET & SOUR CHICKEN

The Ingredients:
2 cup instant white rice, uncooked
1 can (20 oz) pineapple chunks
2 Tbsps. EVOO
1 medium red bell pepper, cut into chunks
1 medium onion, cut into chunks
½ cup mushrooms, sliced (I used canned)
1 can sliced water chestnuts
Chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces (I used a 6 oz. pre-cooked pkg.)
1 cup sweet & sour sauce
2 Tbsps. less sodium soy sauce

(Don’t forget to recycle the cans!)

The Directions:
Prepare rice according to package directions.
Drain pineapple; reserve 2Tbsps. juice.
Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion until golden, add peppers and mushrooms. Cook until tender crisp. Add chicken, sweet & sour sauce, soy sauce, pineapple chunks and reserved juice. Heat through and let simmer approx 5 minutes to blend flavors. Serve over cooked rice.

The Results:
This was really good and I would definitely make this again. Including chopping veggies, it took only about 20 minutes to prepare – my kind of recipe!!!