Panko-Crusted Sesame Chicken is My New Life

In my mother's never ending battle to find fast, easy meals for her family, she has recently discovered a recipe for Panko-crusted Sesame Chicken. For possibly the first time ever, every single member of my family loved what she made for dinner. It's also super healthy, so I'm going to give you the recipe.

I want to eat it so badly. Courtesy of In Sock Monkey Slippers
P.S. I'm sorry I didn't take my own picture. 

Ingredients-

• 3 1/2 pounds chicken, cut in serving pieces - My mother used boneless, skinless chicken. She also advises to cut the chicken into "finger shapes," whatever that is.
• 1/2 cup corn starch
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup sugar - In my families never ending goal to be healthy (and skinny), my mom took the sugar completely out of the recipe. If that sounds like hell to you, just cut the sugar in half.
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions, including 3 inches of the green part
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup toasted white sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup safflower oil - My mom also decided to take this completely out of the recipe, because she thought that it would make it to oily. She was probably right.
• 2 1/2 cups panko (Japanese bread crumbs) - The chef of this recipe (a.k.a my mom) advised me to tell you that you will need way more panko than that. She said that you should add about an extra 1 1/4 cups.
• Peanut oil for frying - Because peanut oil is horrible for you (I think), my mom used coconut oil instead. P.S. coconut oil is magic sauce, and it makes the chicken taste like coconuts.

Directions- 

1. Wash the chicken and pat dry.
2. In a small mixing bowl, combine the corn starch, flour, sugar (or no sugar), and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, soy sauce, onions, garlic, sesame seeds, and safflower oil (remember, no safflower oil if you want to be awesome).Whisk in the corn starch mixture.
4. Place the chicken pieces in a sealable plastic bag.
5. Pour in the batter and turn to coat. - basically "turn to coat" means to get the chicken covered in gross eggy stuff.
6. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, or as long as overnight, turning the bag to keep the marinate combined. Overnight marinating enhances the flavor of the chicken.
7. Season the panko with the remaining salt and spread on a work surface. Remove the pieces of chicken from the bag, allowing the excess marinade to drip back into the bag. Roll the chicken in the panko, making sure each piece is well coated. - It is impertinent that the panko doesn't get wet, or else it all stick together. So, use one hand to grab the chicken and drip off the marinade, then use the other hand to roll it around in the panko. 
8. In a 12-14 inch skillet, heat the peanut oil (coconut oil) to 350 degrees. Fry the chicken until golden brown, turning frequently. The chicken is done when the thickest part of the thigh is pierced with a fork and the juices run clear. Drain on paper towels. Serve warm or at room temperature. - In order to fully cook the chicken and keep it warm well she was finishing frying the rest of the chicken, my mom would pop the pieces into the oven after she fried them, at about 300 degrees. 

Recipe courtesy of California Heritage Continues: A Cookbook

This chicken is literally the most amazing thing on the planet, and you should definitely make it. It makes amazing leftovers, and the day after my mom made it I had it for lunch, and was looking forward to coming home and eating more, but then it was all gone. I'm still kind of bummed that I didn't get more of it. So, the moral of the story is to make a double batch and eat as much of it as possible, before the rest of your family can get to it. 

~Mia

Flax Seed Energy Ball Things

So I'm back with an all new recipe, and this one is actually healthy, unlike my last one. If you have already read my most recent post about what to eat while you're exercising, you've heard about these magical delicious-I-don't-know-what-they're-called ball things. When the nutritionist was at my dance studio (again, refer to my last post for more information), she showed us a recipe that is super easy and fast for these energy balls to eat before you exercise , that give you the right kind of energy. At first, I was suspicious because she put coconut in them, and I'm a strong opposer to coconut. But, I decided to give it a try, and it changed my life. Now, these mysterious spheres of excellence are all I eat- it's probably not safe. Now I am here to share this excellence with you- here we go!

Look it's them! Courtesy of Gimme Some Oven

Ingredients:

• I cup uncooked quick oats -Make sure you use the right kind of oats- one time I used steel cut oats and they were the weirdest flax seed ball things I've ever tasted. You can also use gluten free oats. 

• 1/2 cup peanut, almond, or cashew butter -I always use almond butter. Whole foods has a lot of really good brands. You can also use any other kind of "butter," except regular butter. 

• 1/3 cup honey or maple syrup -I usually use honey because it's healthier and less sugary-tasting. Also, if you don't have honey or maple syrup, you can use agave. I tried it once, and it tastes pretty good-it's just sweeter.

• 1/2 cup wheat germ, flaxseed, or flax meal -I've always use flaxseed, and I think it tastes really good. But, my dad has mentioned that you could also try chia seeds. My only concern with using chia seeds is that when they touch liquid, they get really goey and weird.

• 1 tsp vanilla extract -You could always use almond extract instead.

• 1/2 cup Craisins, dried blueberries or sour cherries, shredded coconut (unsweetened), or chocolate chips -You can pretty much put anything you want here, but make sure not to add to many things- this can amp up the calories. My favorite is the shredded coconut. 

All you have to do after mixing all of the ingredients in a bowl is put it in the fridge for half an hour. Then, you can either roll them into balls, or just smush it all into a tubberware container and eat it with a fork, which I may or may not do.

Since this recipe is designed to be eaten to boost your energy while you're working out, it's kinda higher in calories than some other foods (like celery). Not so much that you'll have to go to fat camp, but enough that you can't just eat it whenever. The best time to eat this is right before a workout, or during one when your energy is low. You also don't want to eat a huge quantity at once, because if you do some math that means you eat even more calories. 

My favorite Cure for a Sugar Craving

Have you ever had one of those moments where you just need sugar? Well, I have. I have them a lot. One Saturday after a delicious dinner of salmon and sweet potatoes, I had one of these moments, and I decided to do something about it. My mom had just bought some fancy cookbook with food for athletes, and I found a recipe for Flourless Chocolate Cake. It looked so delicious, and I was also avoiding my homework, so my mom and I made it. It took a satisfying 60 minutes, but we had our cakes and knew all the secrets to making them, and I'm here to share those secrets.

Don't these look so delicious?

The recipe looks like this:

Ingredients-

• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup liquor (our house was lacking liquor, so we used agave instead)
• 10 large eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (sadly, we were out of that too, so we used almond extract- the cakes ended up tasting a bit like almonds)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• sprinkle of cayenne pepper (who would want cayenne pepper in their dessert? We used cinnamon instead)

The process of combining these ingredients is slightly confusing, and hard to do, but lucky my mom worked in a bakery and she showed me how. 

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin tim or use cupcake liners in the tin.
2. Put water in bottom half of a double boiler or fill a small saucepan halfway with water. Bring to a gentle boil. - This is where it gets tricky. Let me explain it in more detail. Find a metal, or glass bowl and rest it on top of your sauce pan. Then fill up the saucepan with water, but make sure the water won't touch the bottom of the bowl - thats what keeps the chocolate and butter from burning. 
3. Into top of double boiler or metal bowl in sauce pan, add chocolate chips, butter, and liquor. When the chocolate and butter begin to melt, blend thoroughly. It should have an even, shiny finish. Remove from heat. - Try to keep stirring as it melts.
4. While the chocolate is melting, whip eggs in a separate bowl until frothy. Add sugar, vanilla, salt, and cayenne/cinnamon/other spice. - Beat the eggs until they're a lovely pale yellow
5. Ladle a bit of the egg mixture to the warm chocolate mixture and whisk quickly so that the eggs don't cook. Continue adding egg mixture and whisking until about one-third of it is incorporated into the chocolate mixture. Then pour the chocolate mixture back into the larger bowl containing the remaining eggs, and stir to combine. - Don't get lazy and skip the beginning of this step! If you don't do this right, you cake will loose all of it's fluffiness, which would be such a shame. Try having someone else ladle the egg in while you whisk.
6. Pour batter into muffin tin, filling each tim halfway. Bake 15-20 minutes. Cakes should be light and dry on the outside (with cracks on top) and dense and moist on the inside. - Yield! It took me 1 muffin tin, I mini muffin tin, and 7 ramequin bowls to use all of this batter. Feel free to cut the recipe in half.  

Recipe courtesy of The Feed Zone Cookbook

I couldn't get over how amazing these little cakes tasted! I loved the almond undertone, and it was amazing with cinnamon. These little cakes are amazing because they are on the low sugar side of deserts, and aren't really rich and chocolatey. They are a new favorite of mine! 

Fun Fact- According to the cookbook, these are also a favorite of Lance Armstrong.

~ Mia