Haley's Cashew Chicken

My friend Haley made this recipe for us one night. It was fabulous. The peanut sauce is a bit spicy.

Cashew Chicken
Serves 4 to 6

You will need: 
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons canola oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
8 scallions, chopped (white and green separated)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons peanut sauce
3/4 cup unsalted, roasted cashews, roughly chopped
1 large zucchini, sliced into half-moon pieces.

Directions
In a large zip top bag, toss the chicken with the cornstarch, salt and pepper until the chicken is coated.

In a large nonstick pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken, tossing often, until browned and cooked, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, white ends of the scallions, and zucchini and cook for 3 minutes. Add the vinegar to the pan, toss for 1 minute. Add the peanut sauce and a few tablespoons of water; cook, tossing, until the chicken is cooked through, about 1 minute.
Remove from heat and top with scallion (green part only) and cashews. 
Season to taste with more salt and pepper. Serve over rice.

Coconut limeade

I believe I have found my summer drink. Yes, I know summer isn't here yet, but I long for it. I can't believe we are still running a heater in March.

I stumbled upon two interesting recipes on Allrecipes.com for Brazilian limeade. One involved cream of coconut, so I had to try it! 

It was really easy and so refreshing! The other recipe involved sweetened condensed milk, and I can't wait to try that one some day... when I run out of cream of coconut! ;) 

For 3 servings, you will need:

2 limes

3 tbsp. cream of coconut

2 cups of water

1 cup of crushed ice

1/2 c. white sugar

First, slice of the ends of your limes and discard. Then slice the limes up thinly.

I heated 1 cup of the water to dissolve the sugar in. Then when it cooled a bit, I placed it in the blender with the rest of the water, the ice and the lime slices, and the cream of coconut. Give that baby a few whirls. Then, strain into a pitcher. Discard all the pulp (it's bitter, you don't want it!). Fill a glass with ice and pour in your new yummy limeade. :) 

Original recipes here:

Easy Brazilian Lemonade with sweetened condensed milk

or

Quick Brazilian Lemonade with cream of coconut