Another simple way to add lots of veggies to my dinners is with Asian inspired dishes.  I love that I can mix up the recipe I found for Chicken Stir Fry from Hoosier Family Love.com and have it ready fairly quickly.  The most strenuous part of the recipe is chopping the vegetables.  For my heartier vegetables I try to chop a bunch on a free evening and bag them together for nights that I want to just throw a few in a salad or in a stir fry such as this.

For this dinner I had red and yellow peppers, baby carrots, onion, mushrooms and 1 bunch of broccoli crowns on hand.  It was perfect.  But, next time I will use whatever vegetables I have on hand again to use up all those bits and pieces that somehow usually get lost in my vegetable drawer.

Verdict:

This was awesome!  Now, I used apricot jam instead of orange marmalade and doubled the sauce because my family likes things saucy (reflected in recipe I used below) and substituted ground ginger for fresh but the rest of the recipe was the same.

I felt good about getting some more vegetables into my family.  I served this dish over white rice with fortune cookies on the side.

Ingredients:

Chicken Marinade:

• 1 1/2 lbs chicken, cubed raw chicken
• 4 TBSP soy sauce
• 4 TBSP lemon juice
• 4 TBSP olive oil
• 1 TBSP garlic, minced
• 2 tsp ground ginger

Sauce for Dish:

• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 4 TBSP lemon juice
• 4 TBSP soy sauce (use low sodium if available)
• 3 TBSP Apricot Jam
• 4 TBSP hoisin sauce
• 1 TBSP garlic, minced
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 TBSP corn starch

Vegetables for stir fry – approximately 1-1 1/2 cups per person.

Rice for serving.  Make according to package directions.

Directions:

1. Place cubed chicken in a large bowl with soy sauce, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and ginger.  Stir until well combined.  Cover and refrigerate chicken for at least 1/2 hour.
2. While chicken is marinating chop all the vegetables you would like for your stir fry.  You may use any combination of vegetables your wish.
3. Mix all ingredients for the sauce for the stir fry in a medium bowl.  Stir until well combined and set aside.
4. Cook chicken in a large wok or skillet over medium heat until cooked through.  Remove chicken from pan and place on a plate in a warm oven.
5. Add 1 tsp of canola oil to your pan.  Add vegetables in to begin cooking.  If you are using root vegetables or broccoli begin with those and slowly add in the lighter peppers, onions, etc… as you cook.  Mushrooms, snow peas, etc… should be added in at the very end of the cooking process.
6. Once the vegetables are completely cooked add the chicken back into the skillet.
7. Pour the stir fry sauce over the chicken and vegetables and stir continuously allowing the sauce to thicken and vegetables to cook in the sauce about 3-5 minutes.
8. Once sauce is well thickened and food is warmed through remove pan from stove.  Serve chicken mixture over cooked rice.