Chicken & Green Beans with Peanut Sauce

I picked a whole big bowl of green beans from the garden today, parboiled them, and stir-fried them with some chicken breast. Over rice it was a super delicious and easy supper! And you could smell the peanut butter throughout the entire kitchen… mmmmm!

Peanut sauce:

2 Tablespoons sesame oil

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

4 Tablespoons creamy peanut butter

2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Whisk it all together until smooth and set aside.

Just sauté some cut up chicken breast (about 3 or 4) until it is no longer pink. Throw in some fresh parboiled or frozen green beans and stir-fry them until they are hot. Add the peanut sauce and heat through. Serve over white rice.

Blueberry Lemon Streusel Muffins

This is a simplification of a recipe I found on Pinterest. I am going to write it in steps so that no one will be as confused as I was when I made it. It has quite a few steps (but still less than the original recipe) and dirties quite a few bowls but, thankfully, it was worth it in the end… My quest for the perfect blueberry muffin may be over???

 

Step one: Combine 1/4 cup sugar and the zest of 1 lemon in a small bowl. Set aside.

Step two: Combine 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup flour in a bowl. Mix in 3 Tablespoons melted butter until it turns into pea-sized pieces.

Step three: Mix 2 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt in a large bowl.

Step four: Whisk together 2 eggs and 1 1/8 cups sugar in a mixing bowl until smooth. Add 1/4 cup melted butter and whisk until combined. Whisk in 1 cup buttermilk and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Step five: Take the lemon/sugar combination and sift out the lemon zest through a fine sieve, reserving the sugar for topping the muffins. Stir the sugary lemon zest into the flour mixture.

Step six: Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the egg/sugar mixture. Mix until it is just combined. The batter will be very lumpy. Don’t worry, you don’t want to mix it too much!

Step seven: Gently fold in 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries. If using frozen, toss them with 1 Tablespoon of flour before folding in.

Step eight: Fill 12-15 prepared muffin cups. Top each with streusel and a bit of the lemon sugar. Bake at 425 for 17-20 minutes or until the tops are firm and golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes in pan and another 5 minutes on wire rack. Eat warm.