January 1, 2016 - Thai Chicken Skewers with Peanut Sauce

So here is to January 1, 2016. Our first dinner of the year: Thai Chicken Skewers with Peanut Sauce  Let me tell you, it was amazing! I have actually made it one time before and it was just as big of a hit this time as it was the first time I made it. My three big girls gobbled it up without hesitation(...that alone makes me give pretty much any recipe 5 stars... come on!) But seriously, the peanut sauce...I could lick it out of the bowl (But, worry not, I licked it down once everyone was finished). 

Thai Chicken Skewers, with peanut sauce on the left; served with Costco's Asian Cashew Salad and Steamed Brown Rice--Yum.

Its in the middle of winter and there wasn't a chance that our [slowly dying] outdoor BBQ wasn't going to make a comeback for this dinner. So, I thought long and hard... Ah-ha! my brand-new $20 griddle that I got for Christmas... PERFECT. So they grilled away on my pancake pan (or so that was the sole intent of why I had it on my Christmas list... we LOVE waffles/pancakes at our house, I even make them in batches to freeze so in the mornings my girls can pop them in the toaster if we're in a hurry, but that's another post).

Skewered chicken pieces, grilling away on my pancake griddle... you can almost smell it, can you not?

 I put this down on my meal plan to be served with steamed broccoli and steam brown rice. However, like many times, I got distracted by the kiddos and forgot to start the broccoli. Thankfully, I had a Costco Asian Cashew Salad pack, so I just added that instead, since it was super fast to throw together. One of the hardest parts of cooking, I think, is timing it all, so its all done at the same time. When we first got married, that took quite a long time to get used to. Like, for example, our very first Christmas as newly weds, we lived out on the east coast and weren't able to be with family that year. So, I made my very first Christmas dinner for my husband and me, making pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, gravy, salad and rolls... I roll it all out to the table we sat down to eat and as we cut into the pork tenderloin...and we the pork tenderloin was to be cooked 45 min PER POUND... not 45 mins total. We ate nice hot pork tenderloin, and had "microwaved" everything else... My husband didn't care, but I did, of course, it was a big of many fails in cooking those first few years, one of which, I still have yet to overcome... burning bread. Seriously, I still cannot broil bread without burning it, its just not possible. Its not meant for me.

I have an awesome rice cooker (costco, I think?), and I like my brown rice to be a little sticky. The way I cook our brown rice is to soak it. I take two cups of brown rice and soak it in a bowl of cool water for 20 minutes. If I'm putting it in the rice cooker, I put the drained rice in the inside bowl and fill it with clean water to the 3 cup line.  Set the brown rice settings on the machine... perfectly sticky brown rice.

If I'm cooking my brown rice over the stove, I soak 1 cup of rice for 20 mins. Then I add the soaked and drained rice into a sauce pan and add 2 cups of water. I bring it to a boil, once it comes to a boil, I turn the heat down to a simmer, put the lid on and let it cook for about 45 minutes. Not quite as sticky as the rice cooker, but still very good.

That's it!