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Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Almost Sweet and Sour Chicken

Are any of you old enough to remember Rocky and Bullwinkle? At the end of the episode they had an announcement telling all the kiddies to come back and see the next episode. The narrator would entice us to watch "Avalanche is Better than None or Snows your Old Man" It was always one title followed by an or with another title. (The avalanche thing is actually one of the narrations from a real Rocky and Bullwinkle episode)  If I were following the same pattern here I would name this post "Almost Sweet and Sour Chicken or Why You Shouldn't Menu Plan Right Before Cleaning the Refrigerator", but if I named it that it would just be too long of a title. So I did it here in the body of text instead.

Shortly after posting the Monday blog I decided I needed to clean the refrigerator and found several things that had no shelf life beyond dinner.  As much as I tried I could not get 1 1/2 boneless chicken breasts cooked in a vinegar based bbq sauce, 1/2 head of cauliflower, 1/2 of a red pepper, a few chunks of pineapple, the bottom of a jar of General Tso's sauce, about a cup and a quarter of cooked rice, and a slightly old piece of an onion to form into anything remotely resembling my menu plan. Instead I did as I said I would and use the menu as a possibility and nothing there was possible to transform.

Punt time! I chopped the chicken into chunks and set it aside Then I cut off the mushy edge of the red pepper  and cut the remainder into strips, julienned the onion, cut the cauliflower into florets, cut a hunk out of both an orange and a green pepper and cut that into strips, minced a clove of garlic, and sautéed everything in a pan coated with olive oil until it was wilted. Next the General Tso sauce went in followed by about a tablespoon of ketchup, a dash or 3 of hot sauce, and the juice that surrounded the pineapple chunks. When I added the chicken and pineapple chucks everything was stirred together well, and I did add about 1/2 cup of the bbq sauce that the chicken was in because it seemed a little thick. (remember this was a thin sauce). I tasted it and found it lacking just a bit so I threw some powdered ginger in the pan and gave it a quick stir. The really thin bbq sauce left it a little too watery so I made a slurry of a couple of tablespoons of water with about 1/2 teaspoon of cornstarch and popped it in the pan to tighten every thing up. All that needed to be done was to nuke the rice.  The chicken was served over the rice and we had what might fondly be called a salvaged meal.

And now I have learned my lesson and will clean the fridge either Sunday night of early Monday morning so any leftovers can be rescued and incorporated into the weeks menu, maybe. Or I might forget about this entirely and start next week having to adjust again to keep from tossing nearly dead leftovers.

                                                  And this is just for kicks and giggles


26 comments:

  1. See it was edible, I thought you were going to clean behind the fridge and I got scared....

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  2. Sounds to me like you ended up with a good dish! It's amazing how fast food piles up in the fridge and then you can't find anything. Have a great rest of the week, Anne!

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    1. Thanks Pam! I am continually amazed at how many bit and pieces of food have to be reformatted.

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  3. Sounds like you managed to create a wonderful dish with all the bits and pieces! Creative meal planning!

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    1. I would not call it a plan since it was more of a happenstance!

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  4. Great use of that food there, Anne. I semi regularly pull out the stove, but the fridge-yeah, long over due! My inside of fridge i long overdue as well.

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    1. Ugh! The inside of mine was way overdue too which is why I had to cut the mushy part of red pepper that had gotten shoved to the back of the crisper drawer. I didn't mention the liquid cucumber I found in the same drawer

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  5. Great save - I hate wasting food. You could call Monday night Leftovers/clean fridge night and not meal plan at all for that day?

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    1. I could and should. TheHub does not eat leftovers, so I have to reformat them and make them into something he thinks he has not eaten before. Maybe I should call Monday the retrofit day!

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    1. I must too since I have been planning them and rarely follow it at all.

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  7. Good save! I usually have more fruit than I can possible eat that must be eaten now. I love liquid bananas. NOT!

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  8. I am usually pretty good with fruit, but cucumbers . . . .

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  9. Wossomotta U...telling a sibling that would be his/her alma mater was the ultimate insult when we were teens.

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    1. That's very funny. I actually have a Wossomatta U tote.

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  10. If you incorporate your fridge contents into your meal plan, how are you going to have a reason to deviate from the plan?

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    1. I actually laughed out loud when I read your comment, since I can't follow a plan even if I do incorporate my "used" food. I am a really bad follower, but it is kind of fun to think about the possibilities I will surely stray from following. I think it might be some quirky disorder of mine.

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  11. I don't know how it tasted, but the photo is quite appetizing!

    I do my meal plan, but I almost always announce to my family that menus are subject to change based on the whim of the cook. Last week I did pretty well at following it in spirit. This week I was off by Tuesday night....lol

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    1. It was really good, in fact TheHub had a second serving so there were no leftover leftovers!

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  12. Sometimes you luck out. Sometimes you make abominations. It's always fun when you're scrounging together random bits and bobs. I'm glad this one turned out ok. :)

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    1. It was really tasty. (even though I am not a true fan of sweet and sour anything) Sometimes I do like the challenge of whipping something up from unrelated leftovers.

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  13. Yes, I am more than old enough to remember Rocky and Bullwinkle :) Oh my, that takes me back! Like you my menu plan is just a possibility and I frequently change my mind and my plan. My challenge this week is to get three meals out of four chicken breasts! (for 2 people) Last night we had fajitas, to change it up tonight we'll serve the chicken on a bed of brown rice. I hid the rest of the chicken in the back of the fridge and haven't quite figured out what it will become - likely a stir fry with pasta. Nothing like a good challenge to stir up the taste buds!

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    1. You should be able to get the 3 meals easily! We use about 1 1/2 chicken breasts for the two of us if they are chopped or sliced, so that is what I do with them most of the time. I always have a lot of veggies to fill in the gaps.

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