Chicken and Mixed Veggies in Brown sauce

I baked split chicken breasts the other night and used the leftover chicken in this dish. I didn't measure it, I just used what I had. I also used whatever veggies I had. I just eye ball the amounts to a ratio I like. You can use any meat you like and any combo of veggies for this dish.

You all know I love split chicken breasts because they are always on sale for 99 cents/lb. I baked  all the chicken at once and made a couple meals out of it. #1 baked chicken with gravy. #2 chicken salad #3 BBQ chicken (just for 2 lunches) and this dish. I pulled the chicken off the bone for the chicken salad, BBQ chicken and this chicken and veggies in brown sauce.

1 bottle of low sodium soy sauce (kikoman is the brand I like most by far)
3 TBSP corn starch
1-2 cups of water
3 TBSP brown sugar
3 cloves of garlic. minced or pressed, whatever you like
1 TBSP minced onion
1/2 tsp fresh ginger. crushed, minced, whatever you like
 Use as much or as little ginger as you like.
I cut 2 chunks of ginger and cook in sauce but remove before eating.
 I am not the biggest fan of ginger but without it, it doesn't taste right

Make this sauce your own. Use more or less of any of the ingredients.
This is just how we like it. The above recipe makes about 4-6 servings.
There are times when I doubled it to make more.

Cook all ingredients in pot on med heat then simmer until thickened. (corn starch needs to be cooked out)
Pour over meat and veggies and bake just to meld all ingredients together. 10-20 minutes @ 350

 I used frozen veggies in this dish. I use frozen veggies OFTEN. They go on sale all the time at our 3 local grocery stores for $1 and I try to keep stocked up. The broccoli I actually purchase mostly in bulk because we eat a lot of it. It is my Sons favorite. I always do the broccoli florets. I put all the veggies in a baking dish or any dish that is appropriate size and I defrost them in the microwave. This way they will never be over cooked and all the nutrients won't cook out. Also, I made this whole meal for about $10! That's about $1.70 cents per serving!

Pretty Healthy Meal For About $16.00 And About $2.30 a serving!!

Ok so it's 9:09pm and my husband isn't home from work yet, Anthony is sleeping and Isabella is sleeping. For those of you who read my last post, things are pretty much the same but I am getting a lot closer to managing all of it and making room for blogging. I normally wouldn't blog at night but I am so impressed with myself that I had to share :)

If you keep up with me on FB, then you may have seen my post about our new healthy eating habits. If not, you'll be reading about it now and in the future. No one in my fam is too overweight so we aren't going extreme with healthy food. We already eat semi healthy. I really wanted to make better meals, with healthier ingredients. More veggies, more whole grains, less animal proteins and less processed foods. I also have become the portion police lol and make the plates myself so I can portion it all out. I am also working on a strictbudget, even with coupons, it's tight but I am making it work and very proud of it. 

Tonights dinner was peppercorn boneless pork chops, brown rice, broccoli and roasted brussel sprouts. It made enough for 5 dinners and 2 lunches. I paid about $16.00 for all of it and that's about $2.30 a serving!!! Here's how I did it.

Pork chops were on sale. I got 12 for $8.53
don't remember how much per lb.

Frozen brussel sprouts and broccoli 1 bag each $1.70 per bag
I love frozen veggies, they are the closest to fresh and they are cheap and easy.
I hardly cook them, I thaw/defrost and warm or roast quickly.

Mahatma brown rice small bag (I think 1lb) was $1.16 I had a 50 cent off coupon that doubled to $1 making it 16 cents for the bag but I only used half of it so that's 8 cents for this meal

2 pkgs of weber peppercorn marinade 98 cents each

I used a bit of butter as condiment, olive oil and vinegar for marinade I added $2.00 for tax and those ingredients

Total $16, made the 7 servings and it's $2.30 per serving!

Recipe
The marinade calls for 1/4 oil, 1/4 water and 2 TBSP vinegar, per packet and I used 2 of them BUT I won't use that much oil so I only did 1/4 oil, 3/4 water and 4 TBSP vinegar (apple cider)
I mixed it but only used 1/4 of it to marinate the pork in a ziploc bag. I saved the rest to cook with so we have a sauce.
I sear the pork on both sides in skillet, then add remaining marinade, cover, and simmer till marinade thickens. DONE!!

I defrosted broc in microwave and then warmed it.

I thawed brussel sprouts in baking dish on counter (you don't have to) I drizzled olive oil on them and drizzled a few spoonfuls of marinade on them too.
I roasted them @ 450 till tender then broiled them on low for a few min till they were a bit charred.

I baked the rice of course. Here is the link for those directions:
http://mytwocents-meliss.blogspot.com/2011/08/baking-rice.html

This pic is of my lunch for tomorrow. Anthony doesn't like brussel sprouts so I gave him 2 servings of broc and some broc for Joe's lunch so I used some mixed veggie and spinach leftover from my lunch today.

I have no idea how many calories etc. I don't really count calories. Like I said before, I am not trying so much to lose weight, I just want us to be healthier and make smarter, healthier choices on a reg basis so we can eat "bad" here and there when we want to without guilt!