For the last couple of months, I’ve been doing a great job of not only planning out dinners each week, but also going through my beloved cookbook collection to try out new recipes. I have quite a few favorite go-to cookbooks, two of them from my friend Mary of Barefeet In The Kitchen blog. Her style of cooking is my style of cooking – simple and perfect for our busy family.

I shared with you Mary’s Cheesy Southwest Beef & Potato Skillet from her first cookbook a couple of years ago and let me tell you, this dish is requested OFTEN in my house. My kids love it and have nicknamed it “cheeseburger on a plate”, I’m thinking the beef, cheese and potatoes have something to do with that. I’ll take it.

Mary’s most recent cookbook The Weekday Lunches & Breakfasts Cookbook is just as awesome as her first one. She writes her recipes so well, with clear and easy instructions that her young sons can follow and cook from. I love how she involves her family in the kitchen (if you follow her on Instagram you can catch glimpses of her sweet family).

This Asian Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry is the first I tried from her new cookbook and it’s one I know I’ll be making again. Seriously, so simple and comes together in under 30 minutes – my family loved it. I cooked it for dinner but it would be absolutely perfect if you are looking for something to meal prep for lunches throughout your week.

How do you make healthy chicken and broccoli stir fry?

1. Heat large stainless steel skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1/2 tablespoon of oil, and let it warm for a few seconds. Add the onion strips and let them cook for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and stir. Push the garlic and onion to the outside of the pan.
2. Pour the remaining oil in the center of the skillet. Add the chicken. Spread across the skillet and sprinkle with cornstarch. Cook without stirring for 2 minutes, until browned, and then use a sturdy metal spatula to lift and flip each piece of chicken. Cook for 1 minute.
3. While the chicken is cooking, stir together the soy sauce, honey and chili paste. Add the sauce to the skillet and stir to combine.
4. Add the broccoli on top of the other ingredients and cover with lid. Cook for 2 minutes. The broccoli should be bright green and barely softened. Remove the lid and stir, scraping up any bits of sauce or meat from the bottom of the skillet. Simmer 1 minute to thicken the sauce, stirring frequently. Serve on its own or over rice, if desired.

All you need for this healthy chicken and broccoli stir fry is a skillet and a few ingredients – you can’t beat that!

I also cooked up her Slow Cooker Green Chile Pulled Pork last week which was great for quick quesadillas or rice bowls. There are so many recipes I have marked to try including her Slow Cooker Nutty Coconut Granola and Taco Rice (all pictured in collage below).

In addition to sharing Mary’s healthy chicken and broccoli stir fry recipe, we are giving away a copy of her newest cookbook, The Weekday Lunches & Breakfast Cookbook, as well as a bonus copy of her first cookbook, The Weeknight Dinner Cookbook. These are two cookbooks I feel will be a wonderful addition to anyone’s kitchen – especially busy families like mine and hers. These cookbooks are true gems! See directly below to enter giveaway. Recipe follows.

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Asian Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry

• Author: Mary Younkin | The Weekday Lunches & Breakfasts Cookbook
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 4-5 servings
• Category: Dinner
• Method: Skillet
• Cuisine: Asian

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Quick, easy and healthy! This Asian Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry from The Weekday Lunches & Breakfasts Cookbook is a great addition to your weekday lunch or dinner rotation.

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Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tablespoons light flavored oil or refined coconut oil, divided
• 1 medium onion, sliced thin
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon chili paste
• 3 cups bite-size broccoli florets
• Cooked rice for serving (optional)

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Instructions

1. Heat large stainless steel skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1/2 tablespoon of oil, and let it warm for a few seconds. Add the onion strips and let them cook for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and stir. Push the garlic and onion to the outside of the pan.
2. Pour the remaining oil in the center of the skillet. Add the chicken. Spread across the skillet and sprinkle with cornstarch. Cook without stirring for 2 minutes, until browned, and then use a sturdy metal spatula to lift and flip each piece of chicken. Cook for 1 minute.
3. While the chicken is cooking, stir together the soy sauce, honey and chili paste. Add the sauce to the skillet and stir to combine.
4. Add the broccoli on top of the other ingredients and cover with lid. Cook for 2 minutes. The broccoli should be bright green and barely softened. Remove the lid and stir, scraping up any bits of sauce or meat from the bottom of the skillet. Simmer 1 minute to thicken the sauce, stirring frequently. Serve on its own or over rice, if desired.

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Notes

Great for meal prep: Store this in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat in the microwave or on the stove. This can be stored in one large container or portioned into individual servings for storage and reheating.

Note: Boneless skinless chicken breasts can be used in place of thighs in this recipe (I used chicken breast because it’s what I had in freezer). However, breasts will cook faster, so take care not to overcook.

Looking for more skillet meals that are great for make-ahead lunches or dinners? Check these out:

Skillet Italian Sausage and Peppers

Skillet Lemon Pepper Chicken with Artichokes, Mushrooms and Asparagus

Southwest Chicken Skillet

Sweet Potato Skillet Tex Mex Style

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Click Here to Pin this Broccoli Salad recipe.

Whenever we get together at my parent’s house with my family for a barbecue during the summer, you can usually count on my mom making this broccoli raisin salad. It’s one of our favorites. My mom’s friend Trish first brought it over years ago and since then my mom has made it several times for our family.

What I love about this dish is it’s simplicity. It’s filled with just a handful of wholesome ingredients and can be made ahead, which makes it great for summer picnics, barbecues or pool days. It’s the perfect combination of flavors from sweet carrots and raisins (have you tried the Jumbo Raisin Medley from Trader Joe’s? Game changer.) to crunchy walnuts – and of course, plenty of broccoli.

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I love the week that falls between Christmas and New Year’s Day. I am a reflective person so it brings me a lot of joy to look back at my year of personal experiences, my family, and my blog. I have to admit, having a blog makes it much easier to remember since it’s all documented and stamped with a date…makes me appreciate what this blog means to me even more, although due to the evolution of the (sometimes big, bad, scary) internet I find myself sharing more about food and less about personal & family over the years. It’s all good.

2016 was interesting. I turned 40. I went back to college. I embraced fitness and got strong (surprised myself). My oldest started middle school. We survived a scary hurricane. My daughter was a guest judge for a recipe contest at a produce conference. My baby turned 3 and became a little person, not really a baby anymore. I went out of my comfort zone and was a speaker at a dietician/healthy blogger conference (and loved it). I traveled to Vermont, Savannah and the Florida Panhandle. My friend Kristen came to visit me and we went to see Justin Bieber and Mickey Mouse. My family & I went to Disney – a lot. I withdrew from college. My husband & I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. I watched family members go through some health problems. We attended the most epic Indian wedding celebration. My daughter and I volunteered for the 2016 presidential campaign. I grew personally and professionally.

2016 was interesting, and good. As always, I’m ready and looking forward to a fresh start from starting a new year.

As for food…I shared a lot of recipes! I’m so grateful for all of you who visit me here, I wish you a very healthy and happy New Year.

Here are your favorites:

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The post Top 12 Most Popular Recipes From 2016 {plus my personal favorites!} appeared first on Aggie's Kitchen.

Another day another frittata muffin. These little baked egg muffins have become a little obsession of mine the last few months, especially since my kids like them (not to mention, they are a good protein packed healthy alternative to the same old after school snack). These Broccoli Cheese Frittata Muffins with Quinoa are light and just right – adding quinoa to the egg mixture adds some density and a little extra filling which I love.

I have made them a few different ways now, Maria’s Frittata Muffins with peas, parmesan and quinoa and Baked Italian Sausage and Mushroom Frittata Muffins – both so good! The combinations are endless and fun to come up with, especially since my daughter is constantly asking for them and giving me ideas!

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Click here to pin this Chinese Five Spice Pork Chops with Broccoli recipe!

One of my goals for the upcoming new year is to start cooking from my cookbooks again. I have a pretty massive collection of cookbooks that I cherish and love, but sadly don’t cook from as much as I used to. Over the years, I’ve become accustomed to creating recipes from scratch to share here on the blog and my cookbooks have been neglected in the process. One of my recent cookbook purchases is a fantastic and practical cookbook called Sheet Pan Suppers and today’s Chinese Spice Pork Chops with Broccoli was inspired from it.

Today’s post is also for this month’s Recipe Redux – the Recipe Redux is a monthly recipe challenge where we focus on a theme and recreate a recipe with a healthier twist. This month’s theme was Grab a Book and Cook, so I was excited to do just that! Since the Recipe Redux is celebrating it’s 54th month we were to find a recipe on page 54 or 154 of a nearby cookbook and reinvent a healthy version of it. I picked up Sheet Pan Suppers and found a recipe using an ingredient that I was defrosting for dinner – pork chops. It happens to be on page 123 (oops!!) because I missed the little page detail until later (I blame my holiday brain!).

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Apparently it’s soup week here in my kitchen! That’s not a bad thing, right? Today I’m sharing a Lightened Up Broccoli Cheese Soup that is heavy on the veggie and light on the cheese. A good balance.

I recently picked up way too much broccoli at the grocery store (those sales always make me think I need more than I actually do, I’m a sucker for sale pricing). We can only eat so much roasted broccoli no matter how much we love it. Since I’ve been craving soup I searched around and found one that worked for me on one of my favorite healthy blogs, Skinnytaste (Gina’s Skinnytaste Cookbook is one of my favorites!). What I loved about Gina’s Broccoli Cheese and Potato Soup recipe is that it wasn’t super heavy on cream or cheese, but was bulked up instead with vegetables that were eventually pureed so it got the creamy texture I was looking for. I made adjustments to the ingredients based on what I had on hand and the soup eaters in the family gave this one a big thumbs up.

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When I said I was ready to start using my grill again, I wasn’t kidding. All I can think of lately are new recipes to make specifically for grilling – anything to change things up and get me out of the kitchen at dinner time works for me. I would much rather be in the fresh (hot) air with the kids running wild playing in the yard, sipping on an iced adult bevvy, than in my kitchen over the stove this time of year. (Check back with me in August.)

Even Amber loves it when I’m out grilling. She’s smiling at me, see?

This particular Grilled Broccoli and Vidalia Onion recipe was inspired by my friends at Produce For Kids and their mission to get more fruits and veggies in your shopping cart this spring and summer to benefit Feeding America. A campaign like this can only be a win/win, wouldn’t you agree? (Read more about it and participating brands below.)

You can pretty much always count on sweet Vidalia onions being in my house while they are in season, they are my absolute favorite. And broccoli…well, we are a family of broccoli lovers so I bring some home from the grocery store weekly. I typically like to roast my broccoli, but I think grilling it is the next best thing honestly. I just love that little bit of smoky char the grill gives it. I just picked up an inexpensive wire grill basket at Target, but I have used (and prefer) one like this (affiliate link).

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If you don’t know by now, I’m pretty obsessed with pizza of any form. I think it’s safe to say, it’s in my blood. As much as I would love to eat pizza daily (I pretty much did growing up in my parent’s restaurant), I know it wouldn’t be one of my better ideas.

Since I crave pizza constantly, I try to get creative and get my pizza fix in lighter ways – enter pita and flatbread pizza.

I put together flatbread (or pita) pizzas for dinner pretty often. They are so easy to make and great for weeknights or even as a healthier alternative to Friday night pizza. For some reason, my kids don’t love pita pizzas as much as I do (boo!) but I’ve found that they do like these flatbread pizzas I’ve been making lately. What’s so awesome about making individual pizzas like this is you can adjust the toppings to everyone’s liking – for instance, my kids are totally okay with chicken and broccoli but hold the red pepper please. No problem.

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Raise your hand if you love a good stir fry. (My hand is raised high – and so are my family’s hands too.)

Stir fries are a busy weeknight’s lifesaver. They are simple, healthy and quick. A no brainer really if you think about it. All it takes is a little prep (those precut bags of veggies at the grocery store come in real handy if you are really short on time) and a good wok.

Here are a few more healthy dinner ideas for you.

I’ve been lacking in the good wok department for quite some time. I have not had much luck with woks over the years for some reason. They have always seemed to get warped and become lopsided on my cooktop and the inside of the wok gets a little sad looking after some time.

Swiss Diamond recently sent me their 14″ Nonstick Wok to test out and I am so impressed. The quality is amazing. It’s a huge wok (and comes with a glass lid) so you can easily make stir fries packed with veggies your whole family will love – like this Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry I made this week. Their nonstick coating is made with real diamond crystals (pretty cool, huh) and they are made of heavy-duty cast aluminum with a flat bottom so no warping, tipping or spinning will be happening.

I’m excited to offer the same wok to one lucky reader too – see the below the recipe to enter the giveaway!

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I mentioned this the other day, but we have finally entered my favorite eating season – warm weather eating. For me this means lots of veggie & grain salads, grilled meats and fruit. Basically light, fresh food. I just crave it this time of year.

A few weeks ago I was craving a broccoli salad. An odd craving yes, but I love broccoli salad and realized that I hadn’t ever made one at home. I wanted to try pulling together a “lighter” version using Greek yogurt. It was delicious, especially with all the add ins – a little sweetness from raisins, a little savory from cheese and green onion, and some crunch from pecans. Of course, you can add a little salty bacon to the mix if you so desire (I am probably in the minority here, but do not feel the need to add bacon to such a great veggie salad! 🙂 )…it’s truly up to you!

I served this alongside my husbands smoked ribs at a family barbecue and it was a hit! Enjoy and have a great week!

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