Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken with Brown "Fried" Rice

My struggle to stay on the WW continues. I only want to lose 8 to 10 pounds, but dammit if I can't stick with the plan. My struggle really comes down to two things; my love for food and the damn weekend. The boyfriend and I like to drink and go out to eat (that part is more me than him). We aren't alcoholics or anything, but going to the bar Friday for Happy Hour and/or having a Sunday Funday are common things for us. At 4 points a drink, they add up fast. Of course when you drink, you like to eat and that means more points. I usually save my weekly bonus points for the weekend, which is a big help, but finding delicious but WW appropriate recipes during the week can be somewhat challenging.


Pinterest is a good site to find all sorts of things, good and bad (trying to find a healthy recipe when your friend pinned 100 dessert recipes is not helpful.) I don't think my boyfriend fully understand the appeal until an amazing dish is created that I found off the site. This would be one of those recipes. Weekly, I ask for ideas for dinner. This week, he wanted something Asian and I had the perfect idea. I pinned this recipe months ago but never made it. I saw on Facebook that a friend made it a couple weekends ago and raved about it, so I knew it was something we needed to try. And guess what, it really was amazing!! I made a healthy "fried" brown rice to go along with it and everything was simply amazing. Not only was it filling and satisfied our Asian craving, it was with my point allowance for the day. Next time, I'm going to add some other flavors to the sauce and try to make a General Tao style version, I'll post that when I do. Chicken is 10 points for 4th of chicken and 3 points for 1/2 cup rice.

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken with Brown "Fried" Rice

Chicken

• 1 pound chicken breast; cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 cup corn starch
• 3 eggs; beaten
• 1/4 cup oil
• Salt and pepper

Sauce

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 tbs ketchup
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Heat oil in large skillet to medium-high heat. 
3. Salt and pepper chicken to liking.  
4. Place cornstarch in a medium mixing bowl.
5. Place eggs in another medium mixing bowl.
6. Take a third of the chicken and toss in cornstarch to cover, then dip in egg, then place in skillet where each piece is not touching.
7. Cook til brown, then flip. The chicken will not be fully cooked.
8. Continue in batches until all chicken is browned.
9. Mix all sauce ingredients up.
10. Place chicken in a 9x13 baking dish and pour sauce over chicken.
11. Bake for 50 minutes, turning chicken every minute minutes or so.

Brown "Fried" Rice

• 1 bag Uncle Ben's Ready Made Brown Rice
• 1 egg; beaten
• 1/4 cup onion, diced
• 1/4 cup carrot, diced
• 1/4 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 1/8 cup green onion
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• Pam or spray oil

1. Spray Pam or oil in large fry pan and heat to high. 
2. Add egg to pan, cook for one minute, then turn. Then chop up in to little pieces. Remove and set aside.
3. Add onions, carrots, and peas to pan and cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Add rice and soy sauce, cook for 3 more minutes, stirring constantly.
5. Remove from heat and mix in green onions and egg. 

Tips and Tricks

• If you would like some sauce to pour over chicken or rice, once chicken is cooked, remove from dish and a 1 to 2 tbs of water to sauce to thin out sauce.
• You can use any rice you have on hand, just measure out to 2 cups rice.
• Add any vegetables you have on hand to rice. Peppers, mushrooms, edamame, and brocolli would all make good additions. 
• If you would like to use cut more calories, you spray oil instead of oil when cooking chicken.