It's Tuesday, let's talk about food.

Since we are in the throws of reduced income due to The Man's current unemployment, there is no eating out. Now if I could eat out tonight, I'd love to grab some lemongrass chicken. I'd go over to Chi-Tung in Evergreen Park, IL and get that along with a tossed salad with their amazing ginger dressing and big Mai-Tai.  I hope your mouth is watering!  I know mine is now! 

Clearly I don't get out much because when I went to their website to grab the link above, I see that they have built a Hibachi Steakhouse since I've been there last.

All is not lost however, I can start a "Going Out To Eat" fund with money I earn from reorders and make plans to go to Chi-Tung in February.  In the meantime, I found a relatively easy recipe at Food & Wine Magazine for Lemongrass Chicken that I will share below Wish me luck, I think I will attempt to pull it off on Saturday this week, or maybe even on Superbowl Sunday.  We don't have plans for the Superbowl.  We'll just stay home.

Turns out Americans take in an average of 2700 calories (which includes an average of 6 beers consumed) at a Superbowl  Party. I'll just take a pass on that and save those calories for another day or two. 

And in the world of Stuff-Kids- Like-To-Eat, I got a great email from Psst..from General Mills. It is something I signed up for and they send out newsletters and coupons for General Mills products. In today's email it said:

"Moms know that "Trix are for kids," but now she can give them a snack that she'll feel good about too. Yoplait Trix yogurt has been reformulated and now has no artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, or high fructose corn syrup. "

Great news for me. The kids love the Trix yogurt and I don't like buying food chock full of artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, and HFCS. Plus I think there was a link to print a coupon!  Wahoo! Yogurt is on the top five favorite snacks at this house.

LEMONGRASS CHICKEN FROM FOOD AND WINE MAGAZINE

Ingredients

1. 2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
2. 3 garlic cloves, crushed
3. 1 tablespoon mild curry powder
4. 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
5. 2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
6. 1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
7. 3 tablespoons water
8. 3 tablespoons canola oil
9. 2 fresh lemongrass stalks, tender inner white bulbs only, minced
10. 1 large shallot, thinly sliced
11. 3 serrano chiles, seeded and minced
12. 5 cilantro sprigs
13. Steamed rice, for serving

1. In a bowl, combine the fish sauce, garlic, curry powder, salt and 1 1/2 teaspoons of the sugar. Add the chicken to coat.
2. In a small skillet, mix the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar with 1 tablespoon of the water and cook over high heat, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved. Cook without stirring until a deep amber caramel forms, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of water. Transfer to a very small heatproof bowl.
3. Heat a wok over high heat. Add the oil and heat until shimmering. Add the lemon­grass, shallot and chiles and stir-fry until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the chicken and caramel and stir-fry over moderate heat until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is slightly thickened, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and top with the cilantro. Serve with rice.

Superbowl Sunday

Snowing today.  So not cool!  Tom is one the phone worrying about his Mom and Dad.  His mom just returned from a 4 day stint at the hospital where she had her gallbladder removed and is now on the phone because she feels Tom dad doesn't feel well.  Yes things are back to usual.

Over here at our Casa I am looking forward to my Italian Feast & Wine Tasting Tastefully Simple Open House in a couple weeks.  This means I have to test recipes.  We don't have any wine for tasting, at present, but I did whip up a nice salad dressing with our Sensational Caesar Veggie Dip. So that will be on the menu.

As far as food here is what I made this afternoon:

I took some ground sirloin and cooked that & drained the oil & made:
1 cup prepared Trader Joe's Organic Quinoa, prepared w/chicken stock

Then in a pan I sauteed 1 thinly sliced shallot, 4 garlic cloves minced, & 1 red bell pepper sliced.  After a couple mintues of cooking I added  2 diced plum tomatoes, 10 leaves of fresh basil chopped--along with the quinoa and ground beef. It needed some flavor so I added 1 tbsp of the TS Garlic Pepper Seasoning and sprinkled some TS Seasoned Salt.

It's a grey dreary cold day outside.  Lucky for me Im not 100% filled with Seasonal Affect Disorder because I had a 2 days shot of dreams of spring and summer tastes at Tastefully Simple on Tour.  All the delicious new products are still underwraps.  I do think it's safe to say that Im looking forward to Fiestas!!!!!!

And  Im so glad that the BLANK and the fBLANK and the awesome BLANK is coming back. It's going to be great.  I can't wait!

How many days til spring?  42 more days ahhhhhhh 6 weeks?  Hmm where is that darn groundhog???