Honey Cashew Chicken

For my birthday last year my sister-in-law gave me subscriptions for Cooking Light and Rachel Ray. Both have been great! I love getting good ideas from them, testing things out and tweaking the recipes.When the June issue of Cooking Light came I was super excited because there were several recipes that looked great, I kept going back to this one several times to put it on my weekly menu but finally made it this week and it was delicious.  My husband complained because he doesn't like cashews, he whined a bit but then ate two plate fulls so I guess he got over it, my kids ate it up and were hunting for the cashews and were both clean-pate-clubbers. Hope you and your family enjoy this one too!

Ingredients:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced thin then in strips
1/2 t salt
fresh cracked pepper to taste
1 T canola oil
2 cups broccoli florets
1 cup shelled edamame
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 onion, sliced (I used a red one but it doesn't matter)
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1/3 cup unsalted cashews
1 T rice vinegar
2 T honey
2 T soy sauce (I use Tamari, gluten free)
Sriacha (hot chile sauce) to taste

Directions:
Heat wok over medium-high heat, add the oil, season chicken with salt and pepper then add to the wok. Cook on high until chicken pieces are browned and cook through. While that is cooking whisk together the rice vinegar, honey and soy (if you don't have kids and like a little spice go ahead and add some Sriacha about 1t-1T be careful it is really hot). Remove chicken cover with foil then add to the wok the broccoli, onion, garlic and bell pepper. Stir-fry for about 2-3 minutes then add the edamame, cook for 1 minute then add the chicken back in along with the cashews. Pour the sauce over the top and toss a few times to combine. Serve over rice or just eat it alone, delish!

I usually slice my veggies for my meals early in the day when my kids are having 'down time'

These are what you need for your sauce, whisk until the honey is no longer sticky

Slice the chicken thin, then in small pieces

Stir-fry the veggies

Then add back in the chicken and the sauce.

Weight Watcher Friends: This dinner is healthy, colorful and delicious you won't feel at all like you are 'cutting back' when eating this one. If you divide this into 4 servings each serving is 7 points. It is a lot of food, I served mine over 1/2 cup of rice and it was a 10 point dinner.
Source: Cooking Light June Magazine

Beef Tostadas

Well life has been crazy to say the least, good but crazy for sure! I used to have this idea of the "lazy days of summer" but that has definitely not been the reality for us so far. We are up and out early each morning for swim team and then the days haven't seemed to stop until bed time, play dates, dr. appts, birthday parties, etc. We did get to go on a last minute beach trip with some precious friends last week and that was super great, relaxing and made for a perfect weekend getaway! I have been cooking a lot lately but I have been making some of my favorites that have long been posted. I threw this together last night and when I say threw, I mean it! I had extra kids over at my house from 10am-4:45 so I had no time to shop, so I loaded up my kids in the car at 5pm for our weeks grocery shop, which any mom knows is NOT an ideal time to take two kids to the grocery store, wait... is there ever an ideal time to take two kids to the grocery store?? I knew I had set out ground beef and I had seen these precious little taco cupcakes on Pinterest, where you use a wonton in a cupcake pan and fill it with taco meat and top with cheese and salsa, and I thought my kids would love it and it would be fun. I don't really care for wontons so I wanted to try it with a corn tortilla but my daughter saw the tostadas and everything changed. We just  had to try those 'giant chips'! And so my taco cupcakes flew out the window and I made these instead.

Ingredients:
1lb lean ground beef (I usually buy Laura's Lean Meat)
1 cup sweet onion, diced
1 small green bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup fresh pico style salsa (I always use La Mexicana)
1 T fresh cilantro
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cumin
Fresh cracked black pepper to taste
1 Package Tostadas

Directions:
Brown the ground beef in a non-stick skillet for 2-3 minutes over medium-high heat. Add the salt, pepper, and cumin. Then once the meat is about 2/3 brown and 1/3 pink add the onion and bell pepper. Saute together until the the meat in cooked through and the onion and peppers begin to wilt. Next add the salsa and cilantro and cook for 1-2 minutes. Then just turn to low until you are ready to serve. To serve, plate a tostada then top with 1/3 cup of meat top with salsa and fresh cilantro and serve. Yum!! My kids put colby jack cheese on top and ate them like they were pieces of pizza. It was a fun dinner and super easy!

In this pic the meat was slightly pink but I don't think you can tell, it looks cooked here.

This is after you add the salsa and cilantro and it's ready to serve!

The finished Product, Yum!

I did try to put the meat mixture in a corn tortilla in a muffin tin to try the taco cups but they fell apart once I took them out of the pan, but they sure looked cute in the pan. I am going to work on this one!

Weight Watcher Friends: This could go a few ways, when I used the point builder on ww site, I got that 1/3 cup of the meat mixture had 2 points and each tostada has 1.5 points so each one made is 3.5 (without cheese, the meat mixture had enough flavor I didn't miss the cheese, and I love cheese). I had two of them. But if you divide the entire meat mixture into 4 portions each portion is 4 points and 3 tostadas have 4 points, so I think I actually could have had 3 for the same amount of points which makes no sense however I really don't think I could have eaten 3 I was perfectly happy with 2 :)