Teriyaki Chicken - Win!

Back to the food!

I have a love - hate relationship with jarred sauces and marinades. Love the convenience. Hate the sodium, additives, and sometimes even the taste. I usually end up adding in some herbs or spices of my own to tweak the flavours.
I've been looking for a good teriyaki sauce for a while, our jarred sauce is getting boring and frankly is way too sweet. And here is another Pinterest win!

Teriyaki Chicken

The modifications I made will be noted.

Ingredients
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp cold water
1/2 cup white sugar (substituted for 1/2 cup BROWN sugar)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup cider vinegar (substituted for 1/2 cup rice vinegar)
1 clove garlic, minced (increased to 2 cloves)
1/2 tsp ground ginger (fresh grated ginger was used)
1/4 tsp black pepper
12 skinless chicken thighs (substituted for 2 skinless/boneless chicken breasts)
Sesame oil for cooking
Vegetables of your choice - broccoli, cauliflower, carrots were my pick
Brown rice

** The following is the cooking instructions I used since I diverted from the original. Please visit The Baking Beauties for the original instructions. 
In a small saucepan over low heat, combine cornstarch, water, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger and pepper. Let simmer, stirring frequently, until sauce thickens
While the sauce thickens, wash and slice your vegetables, and dice up your chicken. Heat a pan with the sesame oil. Cook your chicken pieces - you may lightly season with salt and pepper if you like.
Saute your vegetables in a saute pan with water. Don't forget your rice (I used minute microwave rice)
When chicken is cooked you can either leave it in bit sized chucks or take two forks and shred it. Add the sauce to your chicken.
Serve with rice and vegetables. 


I diverted from the original instructions for the sake of time, since they said to bake the chicken and baste it with the sauce. Sounds amazing, but time consuming. So I went to the standard stir fry technique. 

It turned out fantastic. My hubby who is a teriyaki lover really approves of this recipe. The rice vinegar adds a nice bite to the sauce (it can be reduced if you like but don't cut it out). The sauce is nice and thick and covers things nicely.
And yes, it's Munchkin approved.

Another Pinterest food win!

Arm Knitting an Infinity Scarf in 30 minutes - Win!

First things first, I am NOT a knitter. I have aspirations to be one but the one previous attempt in my life to learn knitting was an utter failure. So when I saw arm knitting I figured I'd give it a shot.
The original video I found on Pinterest was alright but way too confusing for a knitting-nubie like me. The poster went too fast and didn't describe things very well. Luckily a commenter on the video posted another which was significantly better. She went much slower and explained things much clearer. The link is here and this is the one I'd recommend using.

I purchased one ball of 82m/90 yard yard in a fairly bulky thread.

Knitting in progress

It took a good few tries to figure out what to do and I ended up doing the whole thing twice since the first time my scarf was too short.I did 6 stitches total across my arm.
 The whole thing (once I got the hang of it) took me about 45 minutes from start to finish, including connecting the ends to make it an infinity scarf. You can also skip that part if you just want a regular scarf. 

The finished product

A shot of the stitches

I'm not posting instructions or a whole lot of in-progress pics since obviously my hands were a little busy :)

I really really love this project. It was quick (with the right video and once you get the hang of it) and cheap - about $8 with tax for the yarn I used. I think I'll be using this one for gifts in the future!

A definite winner!

Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos - Win

After the last slow cooker recipe I was hesitant to try again, but a co-worker of mine put me onto this recipe. She told me her little man ate this and claimed "THESE ARE THE BEST TACOS EVER" so I had to give it a try.

Huge advantage to this recipe? Super simple and you can eat the final results lots of ways. You can tweak the heat level to your liking as well. 

Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos

INGREDIENTS
3-4 chicken breasts
8oz taco seasoning (I used my own mix - recipe here)
2 cups salsa

Spray slow cooker with non-stick spray, or use a liner to help with clean up. Place chicken breasts into slow cooker, cover chicken with taco seasoning. Pour salsa over chicken and spread it out so it covers everything. 

Cook on LOW for 8 hours. **NO PEAKING**
Once cooked, take two forks and shred the chicken. It will help absorb all the salsa left over and turn into a thicker mixture. 

Serve with rice, on tacos (hard or soft), tortilla chips, whatever you like!

This recipe was fantastic. Really easy to do. I halved the recipe (2 chicken breasts) and we had lots of chicken and even left overs for a couple lunches the next day (still tasty). The Munchkin ate it too! We had it on soft and hard taco shells with the usual fixings. A definite win and a new twist to taco night!

Enjoy!