Balsamic Cashew Chicken

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts
1/4 cup of cashew halves
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
1 packet of Spicy brown mustard


1. Use cooking spray to lightly grease a big skillet. Over medium heat, par cook the chicken breasts for a few minutes on each side. (Watch for thickness, probably 5 minutes on each side).
2. Remove the chicken and put it aside in a covered plate
3. In the heated skillet, add the balsamic vinegar and cashew halves. wait for the vinegar to lightly simmer so that it dilutes itself some.
4. Add a packet of spicy brown mustard and mix.
5. return the chicken and finish cooking the chicken in the sauce.

delicious! I found this recipe in a low carb cook book, but have made a few minor modifications to simplify this. It might still be low carb, not sure. Either way, pretty tasty for minimal effort.

Pineapple Quinoa Cashew Stir Fry

Hello readers!

I got busy and well now, I'm not so vegan. BUT on the upside, I still cook lots of vegan things. So, I think I'm going to keep blogging my recipes.

Anyway, on to my next review. One of my favorite recipes is this quinoa stirfry out of Veganomicon. Here is my modified ingredient list for my version of this
1 cup of quinoa (cooked according to the box with in pineapple juice, water, fresh mint, + a soy sauce packet from an asian restaurant)
1 cup of whole raw cashews
3 tbsp of peanut oil
1 cup of scallions, sliced thin
4 garlic cloves minced
2 serrano pepper, sliced in small rounds
generous piece of ginger, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper
1 orange bell pepper
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, sliced thin
2 tbsp fresh mint chopped
10 oz pineapple chunks
4 tbspn soy sauce
3 tbspn vegetable broth
lime wedges

1. In a wok on medium, add peanut oil, scallions + garlic. wait for it to sizzle
2. Add serrano pepper and ginger for 2 minutes
3. Add bell peppers, 3 minutes
4. add basil & mint, 1 minute
5. add quinoa + pineapples
6. mix in a cup - soy sauce + veg broth. then add to stir fry. 10 minutes

make sure you serve the lime over the quinoa - the acid is really important

couple of possible variations -
1. replace a tbsp of soy sauce with mirin - that's in the original recipe but I just didn't have any
2. add chicken - marinate it in pineapple juice, lime juice, soy sauce, and something with a kick - maybe a little cayenne.

modify other ingredients as you wish. I look to add lots of colors to make it more playful. The original recipe called for peas or edamame, but I think anything green would be delicious. Sugar snap peas in particular - yum!

leave comments of what vegetables you add in!