Chicken Stir Fry

How do you get your kids to eat their vegetables?

This is pretty much the most difficult thing for kids, next to bed time, not hitting, wake up time, yelling indoors, and no running at the pool. But over the years, I've found one solid answer: pretend they're not vegetables. And the best way to do that is: sauce & seasonings.

That's why Chicken Stir Fry is one of my all-time favorite dishes, because it's relatively healthy (if you forget about all the sodium in soy sauce). It has chicken, a lot of vegetables, and rice. And the nice thing is, if you're missing a couple vegetables, you can always add different ones. This time, we didn't have peas in our house, so we worked around it.

Any vegetables you're missing, you're fine. Let's be honest here. If your kids are eating even one vegetable, it's cause for celebration.

Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients:
1 6oz bag of Frozen peas
1 6oz bag of Frozen green beans (or canned)
1 6oz bag of Frozen corn (or canned)
1 6oz bag of Frozen broccoli
1/2 medium-sized onion
1 1/2 cups of uncooked white rice (or other type is fine too)
2 thawed chicken breasts, cut into cubes
1/2 cup soy sauce (light sodium)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 TBSP cornstarch
1/2 TSP powdered or minced ginger
1 TSP garlic powder (or minced garlic
1 TSP smoked paprika
2 whole carrots (can use mini carrots)
1/4 TBSP butter
1 TBSP vegetable oil
Salt & Pepper for seasoning

I try to keep this recipe really simple (if you're the type that likes natural veggies that aren't pre-frozen, etc., you might be reading the wrong recipe blog). Time is important. I'd rather use my time playing with my kids than slaving over a hot stove. Or taking a bubble bath. Or relaxing. Or just about anything other than slaving over a hot stove.

Directions:

1) Rice is going to take the longest. So I measure out 3 cups of water (adding in a pinch of salt and butter) on the stove and once the water is boiling, add in your rice. (The rice is always half the amount of water you add. So if you want more rice, add more water)

2) Next, if you're using frozen chicken, start thawing it out in the microwave.

3) Add oil to your wok and cook on medium heat. Then chop the carrots and onions and toss them in the wok (they need to cook the longest)

4) Then add in the rest of your vegetables and close the lid on the wok to cook.

5) Next chop your chicken breasts into cubes and toss them into the vegetable mixture in your wok.

***There's another option to this if you want your chicken to be a little more sauce-y (see what I did there?) and you have extra time. Marinate the chicken with the soy sauce mixture described next) and then chop the chicken and add to the vegetables.

Marinating your chicken in the soy sauce mixture

6) The sauce is the best part. Mix the brown sugar, cornstarch and soy sauce together in a small bowl, and then pour onto the chicken and vegetables.

7) Season the chicken and vegetables with garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt and pepper.

Combine chicken and vegetables!

8) Let your chicken and vegetables mixture cook for another 5-10 minutes (depending on how hungry your family are and how long they're willing to wait) and then serve over rice.

9) Enjoy your kids eating vegetables without whining (hopefully).

Yum!