Quick and Easy – Chicken and Green Tea Squash

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Ingredients

1.  8 ounces of cooked cubed chicken.  (Note:  I say it like this because we always have chicken on hand for snacking, ease or whenever else we need to eat a protein with our veggies.  If you do not, then cook enough chicken to make this dish.  But you should always have snacking protein available throughout the day.  I should make a post on this.)

2.  2 medium yellow squash, cut into 1″ pieces

3.  1.5 cups of vegetable broth

4.  3 tablespoons soy sauce

5.  1 cup green tea

6.  1 teaspoon ground ginger

7.  1 tablespoon of date paste.

Recipe

1.  In a medium saucepan, combine veggie broth, soy sauce, green tea, date paste and ginger and bring to a rolling boil for about 5 minutes.  This should reduce it between 1/8 to 1/4.

2.  Add the squash and cover for 4 minutes, you do not need to turn the heat back on.

3.  Uncover and place the chicken in the pot and recover.  Keep this about 3 minutes or so.

4.  Uncover this and separate into 4 servings.  Eat 2 of the servings with someone you like and put the others in the fridge for lunches.  This will be as soupy as you want.  The picture shows it less soupy.  I love broth and the soup involved, especially in the winter.

 

Total time to cook:  About 14 minutes, depending on how prepped you are.  If you have to cook the chicken, it takes longer of course.

Clean Beef with Broccoli

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This is a great one for a Chinese food craving.

Ingredients:

1.  10 ounces of tenderloin, sliced as thin as you can and drenched in soy sauce

2.  Approximately 5 cups of broccoli florets (about 1 large broccoli bunch)

3.  1/4 cup soy sauce (see #1)

4.  2 cups vegetable broth + 2 tablespoons vegetable broth, kept separate

5.  1 medium orange or yellow pepper, julienned

6.  1 medium onion, sliced thin

7.  1 tablespoon minced garlic

8.  1 teaspoon dried basil

9.  1 teaspoon sesame oil (optional) substitute for the 2 tablespoons of veggie broth in #4

10.  1 teaspoon sesame seeds (optional)

11.  2 tablespoons date paste.

Recipe

1.  Heat up a pan to hot, really hot, really really hot.  A wok would be best, but any pan works really.

2.  Put, in this order, into the pan, 2 tablespoons veggie broth, onion, pepper, date paste and garlic.

3.  Stir briskly and do not let sit still, for about 3 minutes.  Some of the pieces will brown on the corners.

4.  Reduce heat to medium and add the soy-sauced meat.

5.  Stir to coat everything and put lid on for 2 minutes.

6.  Take this time to reflect on the great cultural contributions of China.  Good.

7.  Pull off the lid, add the vegetable broth and basil, kick heat to high and lid till boiling.

8.  Pull lid off and cook on high for 10 minutes to let some of the broth evaporate.  Stir it a couple of times.

9.  Add all the broccoli to the pan.  Stir it as much as you can, it’s not that important.  Lid the pan, and reduce heat to medium.

10.  You should turn this off after about 10 minutes, the broccoli will be done.  This will make 4 servings.  Eat 2 now with someone you have warm feelings for, and then pack the other 2 up for lunches.

Important Point:  This will not make traditional beef with broccoli that has the thick brown sauce, that sauce has tons of starchy substances and lots of sugar in it.  This is brothy and hearty and really quite awesome.  Please email with questions, suggestions or other ideas.