Plated Meals Week January 7th and Promo Code 2 Free Meals!

My first Plated meals arrived! Plated is a service similar to Hello Fresh, where you pick certain menu items each week and they send the fresh proportioned, ingredients to your door. All you need are a few staples like pepper, salt, and oil and you can make the meals within 30 minutes. I had another discount code for this, and since Hello Fresh doesn't deliver to my area, I tried Plated. For this week's meals, I decided on:

Asian Hot Wings

I received a Pioneer Woman cookbook for Christmas, and I've said it before in some of my posts, Ree Drummond is my favorite food blogger. I watch her Food Network show and whenever I'm looking for a recipe I look at her recipes and Alton Brown's recipes first. I was flipping through her cookbook, and saw the Asian Hot Wing recipe. We keep party wing packs in the freezer, whenever they go on sale. So I adapted the recipe quite a bit, but it was still delicious, and incredibly spicy. I love spicy foods, the more my nose runs and my eyes water the better I always say! But if you don't like spicy you may want to keep away from this recipe, or adapt it to your spice tolerance.

The original recipe calls for frying the wings, but it makes such a mess and requires constant attention. I've found you can oven fry them with much less mess, and no attention required except a timer.

*Note: The original recipe also calls for 2 Tbsp of minced red onion. I skipped this mostly because I was feeling lazy, but if you wanted a less spicy version of this you could leave the onions in, and skip some or all of the jalapeños and red pepper flakes.

My 2nd SactoMoFo

You may remember a past post about Sacto MoFo explaining that it's a food truck get-together in Downtown Sacramento that they put on during the summer. Well, I went to a second one, and finally got to bring B. We tried some delicious food and here is what we tried. We tried foods from Volkswaffle, Red Truck, Star Ginger, and Chairman Bao.

First, was a waffle from Volkswaffle. We got strawberries and whipped cream on ours, and it was a delicious sweet treat to start off our food truck testing.

San Francisco Food Tour, Part 3: More Food Trucks!

I made another trip to San Francisco to try more food trucks with B! It was raining so, we didn't want to venture far into the city. So we took public transit to the city, and then walked a few blocks to seek out the Bacon Bacon truck and the 3-Sum Eats truck. They happened to be at the same spot, but unhappily, there wasn't a covered area to eat our food. We decided to go back the the Caltrain station, and ate our food there. I totally binged, I couldn't quite believe how much food I managed to eat. Here's the 3-Sum Eats menu for the day. I know they have varying items on different days, but here's what they had the day we went. 

Here's the sandwich B ordered, which I only got one bite of: the Cornflake Crusted Fried Chicken Sandwich. There were 2 chicken breasts, which I was surprised by. It had a great flavor and the slaw was a nice crunchy addition to the fried chicken. It also had a delicious mayo on it that had great flavor as well. 

This is the sandwich I ordered: Rosemary, Black Pepper, and Brown Sugar Crusted Bacon BLT. The tomato jam was delicious, and there was so much thick cut bacon on this! It was pretty messy, but I worked through the mess and ate the whole thing.

Now to what we ordered from the Bacon Bacon truck. Below, the Spicy Belly Fries, which were pretty good. The spicy peppers were a nice spicy touch to all the pork trimmings covering the fries.

Here's the Triple B Taco. This had some crunchy bacon interspersed with the pork and more of the peppers. By the time we got to eating this, the tortilla was kind of soggy, but it was still tasty. 

We then headed to Palo Alto on the Caltrain, and went to Edgewood Eats, which is kind of like Off the Grid. Some of our past favorite food trucks were there, including Chairman Bao and Koja Kitchen. I didn't really try anything new, just wanted to get some of my favorites again, while I had the chance. Here's a shot of the trucks...

Another shot of trucks...

Here is my Steamed Pork Belly boa, which this tasted better than the first one I had. Don't know what that was, since it wasn't because I was starving. Perhaps, it was because the pork seemed hotter and fresher? I have no idea, but I'm planning at trying my hand at making this at home soon, so look for that.

Here's the Steamed Coca-Cola Braised Pork bao. The last time I had this, was on a baked bun, and it was just as delicious on the steamed bao. 

Then I headed over to Koja Kitchen and ordered what I got last time, the Kamikaze Combo. I didn't bother with photos, since I already got good photos the first time there. But, I didn't get a good photo of the Mochimisu dessert, so I got a great shot this time. Here it is, in all it's glory...

That was the end of the eating, we were so full by the end of the day. To be honest, I wasn't blown away by the Bacon Bacon truck. It was good, but I thought 3-Sum Eats was much better. I mean, they have that whole "everything on our menu has bacon in it" thing going for them, but I didn't find the food very original or life changing. 3-Sum Eats is much more original, with their menu changing almost everyday. I was disappointed I didn't get a chance to try the chips with Dirty Ranch from 3-Sum Eats, because I love ranch. I also ordered their lemonade of the day, which was a nice refreshing blend of white nectarine, pear and mint. I highly suggest trying 3-Sum Eats, and if you really love bacon, maybe try Bacon Bacon. I don't think it would be worth making a special trip though.

Japanese-Style Crispy Pork

We had some pork chops in the fridge, and I found this recipe for them. I served them with cucumber spears and edamame. The sauce that is included in the recipe is absolutely delicious and perfect for this pork dish. The pork turned out so flavorful, tender and crispy. I added a little Sriracha to the sauce to add some heat!

Here's the recipe adapted from Food Network Magazine

Ingredients:

• 1 pound thin-cut boneless pork chops or cutlets, trimmed
• Kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine, sake or sherry
• 1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated peeled ginger
• 1 medium English cucumber
• 1 bag of frozen Edamame
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
• 3/4 cup cornstarch
• Canola oil, for frying (or peanut oil if you have it)
• 1/4 cup tonkatsu sauce (a sweet-spicy Japanese dipping sauce, sold near the soy sauce; or make your own by mixing 3 tablespoons each ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and sugar with 1 1/2 tablespoon water and 1 tablespoon Sriracha.)
• 
  
• Directions:
• 1. Start boiling a pot of water for the edamame. Season the pork with salt. Mix the rice wine and 1 teaspoon ginger and spread on the pork. Stack the pork and set aside.
  2. Peel, and quarter the cucumber; cut into 4-inch spears. Toss with the sugar and vinegar. Toast the pepper flakes with 1 tablespoon salt in a skillet over medium heat, about 4 minutes; set aside.
  3. Pour edamame into boiling water. Cook according to package directions. When finished cooking, drain.
  4. Beat the eggs with 1/2 cup water in a shallow bowl. Put the panko and cornstarch in 2 separate shallow bowls. Dredge each piece of pork in cornstarch, dip in egg, then coat with the panko. Heat 1/4 inch of peanut oil in a large skillet over high heat. Fry the pork in batches until golden, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Drain on a paper-towel-lined plate.
  5. Sprinkle the cucumbers and edamame with some of the spiced salt. Mix the tonkatsu sauce and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon ginger in a bowl. Serve the pork with the edamame, cucumbers and sauce.

San Francisco Food Tour, Part 2: Food Truck Edition!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my 100th post! This is a very special one, and one of my favorites. Food trucks! I have been on a recent food truck quest, and my hometown doesn't really have many food trucks, i.e. 2 : ( So, I went to visit B, and we decided to take public transit from his house, to San Francisco (about a 30 min drive normally) and try a bunch of local food trucks. It was so fun! I scoured through Twitter, and found some of the best ones, and we discovered some along the way that were big hits as well. The first we tried was the Chairman Bao truck. This is one the most popular trucks in the city, with 2 trucks roaming all over the Bay Area, and over 10,000 followers on Twitter. We had decided beforehand to get a bunch of food from varying trucks, and share it so we each got to try everything. Here's the truck:

We settled on the baked Spicy Chicken with Toasted Sesame Puree, Pickled Carrots-Cucumber and Cilanro bun....

...The baked Coca-Cola Braised Pork with Savoy Cabbage, Yellow Mustard Seeds and Kewpie Mayo bun...

...and the steamed Tender Pork Belly with Tumeric Pickled Daikon and Green Shiso bun.

I was kind of sad to hear they sometimes have a duck bun, that wasn't on the menu when we visited, but I'll save it for another time! The food was amazing! So flavorful, and thoughtful when it came to the ingredient combinations. We tried everything, but I sort of kept the pork belly bun and the braised pork for myself. They were too good to give up! It was so nice out that we decided to sit on the grass in the mid-day sun and eat our food, so sorry for the photo quality. It was kind of windy too, and I almost decided to move to the car, but we had already started eating. There was no way we were moving until we finished eating!

I was really glad the Chairman truck was my first food truck experience, because it was such wonderful food. The buns were so soft, and the baked ones were perfect if you wanted a big sandwich, and the steamed were perfect for trying everything on the menu. 

We then roamed around the city for a while, to get our appetites up again, and we were waiting for Off The Grid to start. Pretty much everyday of the week, lunch and dinner, Off The Grid organizes several trucks to get together at a certain place in and near the city and serve food for a few hours. It's a great way to be able to sample several trucks at once, and you can compare menus and decide what you want to try the most. I highly recommend bringing a friend, so you can get a bunch of different items and share. It's also nice to be able to have each of you get in different lines, so you get all the food at about the same time. That's what I B and I did, and it worked out beautifully.

The next truck we tried was the Hapa SF truck. I ordered the lumpia, which I've had homemade before that was hard to beat. The lumpia at the Hapa SF truck, was delicious and it came with the right sauce for it. B and I scarfed those down in a minute flat! Here's the truck:

Here's the wonderfully flavorful, crispy lumpia! They were kind of small, so don't share with too many people!

Once again, I was kind of disappointed that I didn't get a chance to try their other menu items. Next time! If you've never had lumpia, I recommend finding an authentic Filipino place and try them. I think they're better than even great egg rolls, when done right. You definitely need that sweet-spicy chili sauce to dip them in.

The truck that B was waiting in line for, while I was getting lumpia, was Señor Sisig. A little side note: B and I had a huge love for what are called carne asada fries in San Diego. Our favorite place was Cotixan's (warning, Flash site) and they are a huge portion of french fries, guacamole, sour cream, cheese, pico de gallo and carne asada. The key to them though is that they make their own hot sauce, and you add a couple of those all over the fries and stir it up, and eat with a fork. It's definitely a two person affair trying to finish this huge serving, but it's the perfect drunk food, especially since mexican food is mostly open 24 hours in San Diego. Back to the food trucks: We zeroed in on these because we have been crazily missing carne asada fries. The item we ordered from Señor Sisig, was the Sisig Fries. They were kind of similar to carne asada fries, not quite as good, but still delicious and they were consumed within minutes. Here's the truck:

Here are the fries:

The fries consisted of french fries, nacho cheese, sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo, jalapeños, and pork. These are not made to be "mexican food", they are Filipino food. I did enjoy the nacho cheese sauce (it's one of my guilty pleasures) and the jalapeños were a nice touch. It was missing the hot sauce that I used to get with carne asada fries, but these were very tasty! I would definitely order them again.

B had ordered his own main dish much earlier in the night, and I was still trying to decide on what my main dish of the night would be. The truck I decided on was still kind of setting up, when many of the others had already opened and started serving. I was so glad I waited because I discovered this gem: Koja Kitchen. It was the highlight of the night. I still couldn't tell you if it was better than Chairman Bao, but they were so close. I had never tried kimchi before, but Koja Kitchen introduced it in a way that was so amazing, and my preferential way, on fries! They had a few delicious looking menu items, but I noticed they have something called the Kamikaze Combo, which was a combination of their Koja BBQ Beef and Rice Patty sandwich, and their Kamikaze Fries, and a drink. I ordered the combo, because everything looked so good! Here's the truck:

I upgraded my Koja, to the Korean BBQ Short Rib Koja. So good! The rice patty "buns" tend to crumble a little, but they are kind of crispy, and I just used a fork and ate the koja right in the wrapper.

Kamikaze Fries: Crisscut fries topped with Korean BBQ Beef, sauteed onions, kimchi, green onions, and drizzled with their signature sauce and Japanese mayo. These were amazing, and I can still taste them every time I look at this photo. They haunt my food dreams...in a good way : D

B and I sat and decided we needed dessert before we were done with our food truck tour. I had taken a mental note of what each truck had while I was deciding on dinner. I noticed Koja Kitchen had a wonderful looking dessert called the Mochimisu. It was tiramisu using mochi for the chocolate part.

The thing I loved about the Koja Kitchen truck, besides the amazing food, was their truck. They had some great ideas about promoting their food right on the truck itself, that really drew people in to order from them. They had a few LCD TVs on the side of the truck, 2 with a photo of the menu on them, and the other TV had a photo slideshow of the menu items. It was great, because you got to see the food, not just read the menu description. They had nice professional photos taken of their food items, and it really made me want to order from them. More food trucks should take note and do this where possible. Or at least have photos on their site. Either way, works for me. I'm more likely to order from a truck if I can get a visual sense of the food. If I imagine it looks good, I'll order it. Also, sauces. If you have an original looking sauce on your food, I will probably try it. I love sauces. Anyways, I digress.

Overall, the day was successful! We had some amazing food, and I would try any of these trucks again. Go track down your local food trucks and do a tour! You won't be sorry! Some of the most original cuisine is no longer in a restaurant, it's on a truck.

La Bou

I love this little restaurant! La Bou is a small chain in the Sacramento area that serves sandwiches, soup, fresh baked french bread, baked goods, and salads. They're only open until about 4PM, so it's mostly breakfast and lunch. My favorite thing to order is a half sandwich, half salad combo, with a BLT on the baguette, and the Chinese Chicken Salad. I also usually order half a baguette, sliced, with a large dill sauce. Let me tell you a bit more about this wonderful place to eat.


Their baguettes are amazing! I always get a bunch of it to go, because it's so cheap and a great tasty snack. The dill sauce is a must-get. You dip the slices of bread in the dill sauce, faint, rinse and repeat. I love getting the sandwich on this bread as well, and sometimes in a moment of pure sin, I dip my BLT sandwich into the dill sauce. Their BLT is simple, but heavenly on this bread. I usually season it with some salt and pepper, but otherwise it's perfect.


The Chinese Chicken Salad is amazing as well. It comes with peanuts and this wonderful dressing that is the kind of dressing you want on every asian salad. It also makes me feel a little healthier, even after scarfing down half a baguette without hesitation.


I don't order much else, but from what I hear, pretty much everything on their menu is delicious. Their soups are wonderful looking, and perhaps when it gets colder, I'll try some of those. If you order a combo, it comes with 2 slices of baguette, so you have those to dip in the soup or in the dill sauce.


If you get a chance to go here, go as soon as possible! If you need a quick, cheap snack, just order half or a full baguette sliced, with a large dill sauce; you won't regret it, I promise.

BLT on baguette, with more bread and dill sauce

Chinese Chicken Salad

Freshii Restaurant and Gobi Butter Masala with Chicken

B and I had a day together today, and thus went to try a new restaurant. I got a recommendation for Freshii from a co-worker, and so looked up the menu and ventured out there. It's a make-it-yourself kind of place, and you walk in a grab a clipboard with a pencil and a menu paper to write your selections on. They have a pre-made menu with items you can just write down and order, or you can make your own salad, wrap, bowl, or soup. You add the veggies and protein you want, along with toppings and sauce or dressing. Then they make your order that's made just for you. 


I had a spicy peanut noodle salad type deal, with rice noodles, cucumbers, wontons, carrots, mandarin oranges, edamame, grilled chicken, and spicy peanut sauce. It comes in a take out container, which was nice because I couldn't finish mine! B had a classic wrap and added sriracha to it, and his was really tasty! I think I liked his better than mine! But this is definitely on my list of places to grab food during my lunch break at work. Here's what I got...

So, then when B and I got back to my place, I started making dinner. Dinner consisted of cauliflower and chicken masala with rice and naan bread. I found this recipe on my favorite new way to procrastinate, Pinterest. I added chicken just to add another flavor, but could easily be left out and just have the cauliflower, for a vegetarian meal. In fact, I think I liked the cauliflower better than the chicken. This recipe does require a lot of spices you don't use often, so I substituted a lot, but I also have collected a few Indian spices over time, so that worked out. I was worried my substitutions would change the flavor too much, but it was a little spicy, and also flavorful.

Here's the recipe adapted from Journey Kitchen.


Ingredients:
For Cauliflower:
½ medium Size Head Of Cauliflower, split into small florets (about 500g)
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 Tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste (I just peeled an inch of fresh ginger, grated it, along with 3 cloves of garlic, also grated)
1 tsp Garam Masala
1 Tbsp Butter
½ cup Water
Salt To Taste
For Masala:
3 Tbsp Butter
1 Red Onion (Large, finely cubed)
3 Tomatoes, diced (Medium, red, ripe)
2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
2 tsp Ginger Garlic Paste/ 2 Cloves Garlic With ½ Inch Cube Ginger
1 tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 Tbsp Crushed Cashew Nuts/Almond
1 Tbsp Coriander Powder
½ tsp Turmeric Powder
2 Tbsp Heavy Cream/Thick Cream
1 tsp Dried Fenugreek Leaves/Kasuri Methi (I substituted this with 1 tsp of dry mustard)
½ cup Water
1 Bay Leaf
1 Green Cardamom, cracked
½ tsp Ground Cumin
1 Stick Cinnamon (2 Inch)
Salt To Taste
Chicken:
1 Whole Chicken Thigh, drizzled in olive oil, add salt and pepper, cooked with whatever method you chose, and shredded


Directions:
1. For the cauliflower, wash and separate the cauliflower into small florets and add all the ingredients except water and butter. Heat the butter in a sauté pan and add the florets. Once the florets starts to brown add water and let the them cook covered for about 5-7 minutes. You just want the florets to be tender and not mushy. Pour everything into a bowl and set aside.

2. For the masala, heat the butter in the same sauté pan. Add the cinnamon stick, cloves, green cardamom, black cardamom, bay leaf and black cumin.

3. Add finely chopped onions and let it cook.

4. Once they are lightly golden, add the ginger garlic paste.

5. Tip in the turmeric, red chilly powder, cashew nuts, coriander powder, tomatoes and tomato paste. Let the tomatoes completely cook till they form a paste.

6. Add water and let it come to a boil. Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaf. Pour mixture into a blender and blend the mixture to a smooth sauce.

7. Add the sauce back to the sauté pan and let it come to a boil.

8. Add the cauliflower (along with the water) back in and let it cook for 5 minutes. Mix in the cream and crushed kasuri methi (or dry mustard) and cook for another 5 minutes. Garnish with more cream and some coriander to perk it up. Serve with white basmati rice, and buttered naan.

Sizzling Fresh Mongolian BBQ

I love Mongolian BBQ!!! This is another one of those restaurants I had to make a special trip to whenever I went home from college. Believe it or not, San Diego has a terrible excuse for Mongolian BBQ, in the form of a chain restaurant with fewer choices and they won't let you do it yourself! Even weirder, in my hometown, I have 3 mongolian bbq's within 20 minutes of my house. However, this one is my favorite and also conveniently the closest. The owner here is always there, super friendly, and you get rice, soup, egg rolls and wontons waiting at your table once you get your food. Lunch is cheaper, but you only get one bowl, so fill it up! Then dinner is unlimited bowls and a little more expensive. 

I have never had a bad experience at this place, and this was the first time I've gone and had to stand in line. So I went to Mongo the other day with B, since he loves it to, and I may have perfected mongo with the best combination of ingredients. Do you want to know my secret? Ok, fine I'll tell you what I did. I did make mine a little spicy, so take note of that if you're trying to recreate this. I also loosely followed the Mild sauce recipe they post above the sauces, with changes I make note of, hope I didn't forget anything!

• Beef
• Noodles
• Broccoli
• Celery
• Onions
• 3-4 Jalapeno slices
• 2 ladles of House Sauce
• 2 1/2 ladles of Teriyaki sauce (change)
• 1 1/2 ladles of Sweet and Sour Sauce (change)
• 1/2 ladle of Kung Pao sauce (change)
• 1 ladle of Wine sauce
• 1 ladle of Ginger sauce
• 1 ladle of Sugar sauce
• 1/2 ladle of Sesame oil (change, I don't like it too oily!)
• 1/2 ladle of Chili oil (change)
• 1/2 spoonful of garlic
• Baby corn
• Peanuts
• Cook it!
• Couple spoons of red chili paste they have on the counter
• Sprinkle of sesame seeds

The Bistro at the Strand on the UCSD campus

You may have noticed that I fell in love with every kind of asian food whilst in San Diego. It was so prevalent there and so many of the recipes I cooked were some type of asian food. I craved it, all the time and I'm still have withdrawals for my favorite sushi place down there Ki Sushi.

So here is another restaurant post, this time in a college dining hall! I absolutely could not believe my eyes when I walked into this restaurant/dining hall the very first time, because it looks like a modern, fancy restaurant. I only had 2 chances to try the food at this place, but each time was fresh, and delicious. They have a sushi bar or sit down tables. I highly recommend making a reservation if you want to try the food here, because they are only open M-Th from 11-3! 

The prices are relatively cheap and they accept dining dollars or TritonCash if you attend UCSD. They give you a fancy bottle of tap water for your table, so you never run out. They give you some tasty wonton chips with several dipping sauces before your meal. I am still upset I never had the chance to try the Ahi Avocado Poke appetizer, but everything else I tried was delicious. 

I also tried the Hoisin-Glazed Roasted Chicken, but sadly I don't have pictures. But the first time I went I tried this:

Here are the Chicken Fresh Rolls, after I already dug in!

Then for dessert I tried this:

This was the Banana Turon with Green Tea Ice Cream, so refreshing!

All I can say, is that I hope this is the way dining halls are going in the future. The architecture was so modern, yet strange, but the service was so professional and quick. And the food was innovative and new for a dining hall. If you ever get a chance to try the food at The Strand, do it! 

Here's the inside. That building in the background is part of the transfer housing, which is where I lived  during my Junior year at UCSD. They hadn't built this restaurant until my Senior year, which is partly why it was so hard to get over there, plus classes conflicted. 

Dan Dan Noodles

I'm a big fan of noodle dishes with a spicy peanut sauce, and this one did not disappoint. I got this recipe from the last regular episode of Good Eats to air "Use Your Noodle 5". This recipe is so easy and cheap to make, so I recommend it to all you poor college students! :) 

Tip: When you buy fresh ginger, you never use the whole freaking thing in one recipe. What I do is use what I need, and then freeze it. Just stick it in a plastic bag and throw it in the freezer. I never defrosted it before using it, because you can still peel it and cut it fairly easily even while frozen. That way you're not wasting it and it doesn't mold like it does in the fridge. 

Another tip, I always keep a big jar of roasted peanuts in the pantry. I prefer unsalted, just so they are not affecting the salt content of the dish. I sprinkle them on many asian dishes and they are just handy to have around, because I found myself using them more than I expected.

Here's the recipe adapted from Alton Brown.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cooking Time: 15 min | Difficulty: Easy | Serves: 4

Ingredients:

⅓ cup Creamy Peanut Butter
4 Cloves Garlic, minced
2 Tbsp Grated Fresh Ginger
2 Tbsp Low-Sodium Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Dark Brown Sugar
1 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Oil
1 Tbsp Rice Vinegar
1 Tbsp Chili Oil
¼ cup Low-Sodium Chicken Broth
8 ounces Ramen Noodles (4 packets of Top Ramen noodles, just discard the flavor packets)
½ cup Roasted Peanuts, chopped
3 Scallions, finely chopped

Directions:

1. Place the peanut butter, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and chili oil into the bowl of a mini-food processor. Process until the mixture is well combined and forms a paste, 1 to 2 minutes. With the processor running, gradually add the chicken broth and process until the sauce is creamy and well combined, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a large mixing bowl, cover, and set aside while you prepare the rest of the dish.

2. Place 4 quarts water into a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the noodles and cook until al dente, 1 to 1 ½ minutes. Drain thoroughly in a colander. Add the noodles to the bowl with the sauce and toss to combine. Serve topped with the peanuts and scallions.

Cashew Chicken

I have tried a few different cashew chicken recipes, and this is by far my favorite. I always loved ordering cashew chicken at Chinese restaurants, but it's so easy to make! This was another go-to recipe, and I usually added whatever kind of vegetable I had laying around. This photo is the time when I added some red bell pepper to it (because I'm not a big fan of the green bell pepper). 

Here's the recipe adapted from a recipe I can no longer find on the internet, sorry I can't give credit.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cooking Time: 15 min | Difficulty: Easy | Serves: 2

Ingredients:

1 pound Boneless Skinless Chicken, chopped
4 Cloves Garlic
½ cup Cashews
½ Bell Pepper, diced (optional)
2 Tbsp Hoisin Sauce
4 Green Onions, sliced
1 Tbsp White Wine Vinegar
1 Tbsp Corn Starch
⅓ Water Or Chicken Stock
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
Kosher Salt And Pepper
Steamed White Rice

Directions:

1. Cook white rice according to package directions. Preheat large skillet or wok over low heat. Add olive oil, garlic and cashews to skillet. Saute over low heat until garlic becomes golden, but don’t let the garlic brown, or it will become bitter.

2. Salt and pepper chicken. Add chicken to skillet and cook until chicken is no longer pink. Add cornstarch to a small bowl with the water and mix well. Add cornstarch and water to chicken. Then add hoisin sauce and vinegar. Simmer for 5 – 10 minutes, until sauce has thickened. Just before serving, add green onions and serve with rice.