Healthy Turkey Burgers

I can not even tell you how ecstatic I was to uncover the BBQ tonight.  All of this sunshine has me pumped for all of the different options the barbecue opens up for healthy, flavorful cooking.  This recipe is super simple and great for turkey burgers or hamburgers.  The result is a juicy, super-flavorful, good-for-you burger.

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 -2 lbs ground turkey or beef

1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup Mix

1 egg

All of your favorite fixins: cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, avocado, onion, mustard, ketchup, mayo… whatever your little heart desires.

Your favorite hamburger buns.  I really enjoy the whole wheat sandwich thins because I always seem to get way too full with a big ol’ bun and these are much healthier. I have an AMAZING recipe for whole wheat hamburger buns that I promise to share at some point this summer but I didn’t have the time to make them tonight.

Directions:

Mix ground turkey or beef with egg and onion mix until well incorporated.  Form  patties that are about 1/3 lb each (or however large/small you want them) on waxed paper.  The meat will seem very loose and not as firmly held together as ground beef but once they go onto the grill, the egg will help bind them together. Be sure to prepare all of your burger fixins before you take those burgers to the grill.

All of you BBQ pro’s, bear with me for a moment because I may be telling you some things you already know.  For those of us that are not as experienced at the grill, let me share a few tips. First of all, always burn off your grill first.  Get it to at least 400 degrees  before attempting to clean it with your wire brush.  Turn off the heat and scrape away.  Once clean, apply a good coating of cooking spray or oil (with a paper towel) BEFORE turning your grill back on.

Once you have your grill cleaned and oiled, turn your BBQ back on, close the lid and heat back up to 400 degrees F.  Turn your burgers gently onto your grill, one at a time, being very careful not to break them.  I actually turn them onto my hand and then put them on my grill for more control.  Turn your controls down and close lid.  You want your grill to maintain at about 350-375 degrees.   This means all the way down to low on my grill. DO NOT TOUCH YOUR BURGERS for several minutes.  You need them to develop a good sear before attempting to turn them or you will end up with a terrible mess.  For me, this was almost exactly 5 minutes.  Wait until you can actually begin to see the very under edge browning before attempting to peek under the patty.  Once you have a good sear, carefully flip the patties and do the same to the other side.  The second side needs a few minutes but is not nearly as crucial as the first side because the egg is at least holding the patty together for you now.  When your patty is nearly done (right around 10 minutes), add your cheese to the side that is cooked the most so the other side can finish cooking. (FYI that is mozzarella cheese on my burgers, kinda looks like mayo :))

Serve on your favorite bun with your favorite fixins.  I love adding avocado to my burgers because you get the creaminess of mayonnaise without the fat, well, without the bad fat.

Chicken Marsala

I recently had a special request from one of my dedicated followers for Chicken Marsala.  My husband pretty much did a dance when I told him I was going to make it tonight because it is one of his favorite meals.  He swears this recipe is better than the chicken Marsala he just ate at a 5-star restaurant in New York City.  I hope you like it as much as we do. This recipe (with a little altering) originated in the Portland’s Palate cookbook.

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts (I used 3 large breasts)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cracked pepper

3 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup dry Marsala wine

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (reserve about 2 Tbsp for the sauce)

1-2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Angel hair pasta and salt for boiling

Fresh parsley (optional)

Directions:

Trim fat and rinse chicken breasts then pat dry with paper towels.  Slice breasts at a slant about 1″ thick. Place between two sheets of plastic wrap and flatten with a mallet (do not use the textured side of the mallet, that is usually used for tougher beef cuts like round steak… you want to use the flat side here.  You don’t need to pound very hard or the chicken will separate into little pieces.

*Don’t forget to start boiling your water for your noodles 🙂 * Once water boils, add 1 Tbsp salt.

In a shallow dish, combine flour, salt and pepper.  Dredge chicken until well-coated, shaking off excess flour.

In a saute pan, over medium-high heat, melt butter and olive oil.  Add chicken and brown well. You will want to do it in 2-3 different batches so you don’t over-crowd your pan.  As always, make sure your pan is really hot and you hear that good sizzle when you drop the chicken in.  Cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add Marsala wine and chicken broth.  Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 3 minutes.  Remove lid and take a fork to poke each chicken piece and swirl it around in the broth.  This will help some of the flour that the chicken was dredged in to come loose into the broth, thickening it.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese (remember to reserve 2 Tbsp) and cover until cheese has melted.  Remove chicken and place on a warmed plate.  Pour lemon juice into pan and whisk juices and browned bits together.  Add reserved Parmesan cheese.  Taste sauce.  It will seem a bit tart but once the sauce reduces and it is poured over the chicken, it will mellow out a bit. If you feel like you need a little extra lemon juice, this would be the time to add it.  If you feel that it is too tart, you can add a little more cheese or a little bit of butter. Plate individual servings and drizzle with sauce.  Top with a sprinkle of fresh parsley and extra Parmesan if desired.

Perfect Pizza/Calzone Dough

This pizza dough is fabulous! It is really quick and easy and tastes so wonderful.  I use it for making pizzas and calzones. It comes from the Pillsbury Complete Book of Baking (one of my top 5 favorite cookbooks).

Ingredients:

*makes 2 pizzas or 2 large calzones- please note, recipe was doubled in pictures)

2 and 1/2 to 3 cups of all-purpose flour (sometimes I replace 1 cup of the all-purpose with whole wheat flour)

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 pkg. fast-acting yeast (or 2 and 1/4 tsp)

1 cup water

2 Tbsp olive oil

Directions:

In large bowl, combine 1 and 1/2 cups flour, sugar, salt, and yeast; mix well.  In a small saucepan, heat water until very hot 120-130 degree.  If you don’t have a thermometer, it should be hot enough to be a bit uncomfortable on your finger but not hot enough to burn.  You don’t want the water too hot or it will kill the yeast.  Add water and olive oil to flour mixture.  Blend at low-speed until well moistened; beat 2 minutes at medium speed.  By hand (or with dough hook on stand mixer) stir in an additional 1/2 to 3/4 cups flour until dough is smooth and elastic, about 3 to 5 minutes.

On floured surface, knead in 1/4 to 1/2 cup flour until dough is smooth and elastic, about 3 to 5 minutes.  Flour amounts can really vary dramatically based so add the flour until your dough is really soft and elastic but not sticky.  It really should not stick to your hands or your board.  If it does, add more flour. 

Place in a bowl that has been sprayed with non-stick spray then flip the dough over so some of the oil is on top, keeping the dough from sticking to the plastic wrap you are about to top it with 🙂 Top with plastic wrap and a cloth towel.  Let rise in a warm place until light and doubled in size (about 30 minutes).

For pizza, place oven rack at lowest position; heat oven to 425 degrees F.  If you have a pizza stone or stoneware cookie sheet, place it in the oven to get hot. Punch down dough several times to remove air bubbles.  Divide dough in half; If you are a pro at throwing the dough up in the air to shape it, you probably are not in need of a good dough recipe, so for the rest of us, a rolling-pin works just dandy. Place dough on pizza pan (adorned with a good sprinkle of corn meal) and top with your favorite toppings. If you are using pizza stone, prepare pizza on a transferable surface like one with a good dose of flour or corn meal so you can easily transfer it to your hot stone which also should get a little sprinkle of corn meal.  Bake for 20-30 minutes depending on the thickness of your toppings and your personal crispness preference.  Lift one of the edges up to see if the bottom of the crust has browned to ensure that the center is not doughy.

For Calzone, heat oven to 425 degrees F.  Punch dough down several times to remove air bubbles.  Divide dough in half.  Roll dough into a circle (doesn’t have to be perfect) on a well-floured surface. Fill one half of the circle generously with your favorite sauce and pizza toppings, leaving a good inch around the edges with no sauce or toppings .  We used pepperoni, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperjack cheese, black olives and thinly sliced green peppers.  *Tip- obviously none of us eat pizza because it’s great for our waistlines, but I do pop my pepperoni in the microwave for a quick minute on a bed of paper towels to remove most of the fat.  It takes so much of the grease that I am always sopping up with a napkin out of the pizza but does not affect the taste or texture at all.   I do this with salami too.

Fold other side over toppings to form a half-circle and crimp the edges.  Roll edges inward, toward filling one pinch of dough at a time to make a fancy fluted edge.  It really doesn’t matter too much what it looks like at this point because once it bakes, the ones that are all pretty unbaked end up looking a lot like the ones that are just pinched together.  The most important thing is to just make sure that your edges are well sealed.  Brush top with egg white and cut a few vents in the top (just deep enough to penetrate the top layer of dough). Place on a pizza pan or hot pizza stone coated with corn meal.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until nicely browned.  Top and bottom should be firm and brown.

Tip for freezing dough: To freeze 1 pizza crust, prepare as directed above.  Bake dough (with no toppings) at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes.  Cool.  Place in a moisture-proof freezer bag.  Freeze for up to 2 months.  Thaw before using and top with favorite pizza toppings.  Bake at 425 on lowest oven rack for 18-22 minutes or until crust is golden brown and toppings are thoroughly heated.

Chicken and Artichoke Cacciatore

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.  We had such amazing weather today to accompany our very busy day of t-ball opening ceremonies, team pictures and our first game.  My sweet husband also got our zip line up and running which is going to provide endless hours (at least in my dreams) of excitement for our boys… that is until they start fighting about whose turn it is.  I will just keep pretending that whole sibling rivalry thing doesn’t exist and go back to my dream of drinking iced tea, working in my garden while the fresh bread is baking in my clean house, all while my boys lovingly frolic through the yard playing without any arguments…. ahhhhhh…. that’s nice.

This is one of my all time very favorite recipes.  I discovered the original version (I have altered it slightly) about 10 years ago in one of the best cookbooks on the planet (Portland’s Palate).  This meal will make you feel like you are dining at a 5-star Italian restaurant even though you hardly spent any time preparing it.  The oven pretty much does all of the work for you.  I spent about 15 minutes prepping this for the oven, popped it in and went for a walk/run/race/piggyback with my family.  By the time we came back, it was time to start the noodles, and in no time, we were sitting down for an amazing dinner that the boys actually ate without complaining (rare in our little family).

Ingredients:

4 small chicken breasts or two large breasts cut in half lengthwise

3/4 cup all-purpose flour for dredging

1 tsp salt (for dredging)

1/2 tsp cracked pepper (for dredging)

1-6 oz. jar marinated artichoke hearts, do not drain

1-15 oz can stewed tomatoes; do not drain

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1/4 cup water

1 Tbsp olive oil

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 cup sherry (or your favorite red wine)

1 box angel hair pasta

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix flour, salt and pepper together.  Rinse and trim chicken breasts, pat dry.  Dredge in flour.

Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large dutch oven.  I would highly recommend using a dutch oven if you have one.  If you don’t, you can find them deeply discounted at Ross Dress for less or TJ Maxx or other discount home stores.  If not, don’t sweat it, a deep (oven safe) pan (or crock pot for that matter) will work just fine.  Add chicken.  Make sure your pan is hot and you hear a good loud sizzle when you add your chicken.  Cook on both sides for 3-4 minutes or until browned.  Add artichoke hearts, stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, water,  garlic, herbs, and pepper.  Remove from heat. Cover and bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.

Start heating the water for your pasta.  Remove chicken from oven.  At this point your chicken will be extremely tender and will shred very easily (if desired) with a fork.  After shredding, add red wine and bake an additional 10 minutes. While chicken is cooking, add pasta to boiling water.  Add 1 Tbsp salt to the pasta water once it reaches a full boil. Once drained, angel hair pasta is infamous for sticking together… If you are having this issue, run a little hot water over the noodles.  This will rinse some of the starch away and allow the noodles to separate. Just be sure to drain thoroughly again.  

Serve over angel hair pasta or rice. Top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  If you are looking for a healthier version, use some whole wheat pasta or don’t shred the chicken and serve whole breasts with no pasta.  The chicken sauce itself is really pretty healthy.

Sweet and Salty Broccoli Salad

I had this broccoli salad for the first time a few years back and was completely shocked at how much I loved it.  First of all, I am not a veggie lover and raw broccoli is not exactly at the top of the list either.  I was a little scared to try it because it seemed to be quite a strange combination but I gave it a “no thank you bite”(as we call it in our house) and I was instantly in love.  I had 3 helpings and it immediately jumped into my “favorite recipes” stack.  This is a great recipe for potlucks and holiday dinners.  Make sure you bring a few copies of the recipe with you because you will most likely be shelling them out.

Ingredients:

4 cups broccoli florets

4 strips cooked bacon, crumbled

1/2 cup finely diced red onion

1/3 cup golden raisins

1/4-1/3 cup sunflower seeds

Dressing:

3/4 cup mayo (I like the mayo made with olive oil)

1/4 cup sugar

1 and 1/2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

Directions:

Chop Broccoli into very small segments (you can accomplish this by cutting at the very top of the stem just under the little buds, then chop the larger parts of the stem into small pieces.)

As you may have seen in other recipes on my blog, I always dice my onions by cutting off the top, removing the peel and making slices down through the onion toward the root (being careful not to cut all of the way through) then turn your onion 90 degrees and repeat.  While holding the onion on its side, make slices all the way through to result in perfectly uniform onion pieces and completely eliminating watery onion eyes by leaving the exposure of the root to the very end.

Combine broccoli, bacon, red onion, raisins, and sunflower seeds.

Combine mayo and sugar.  Add vinegar.  Whisk together until smooth.  It will seem very lumpy at first but will get smoother as you whisk it together.

Pour dressing over broccoli mixture and stir until evenly mixed.  Chill for at least one hour before serving.

Raspberry Lemon Cranberry Sauce

If you are planning on having any type of cranberry sauce this Easter… STOP!!!! Please do yourself a favor and toss aside your canned cranberry sauce.  I just tried this recipe from Cooks Country Magazine for the first time tonight.  I have been trying several recipes over the past year and have not been overly impressed…. until now! I made this tonight and I CAN NOT stay out of it.  It is seriously the freshest, most deliciously sweet spoonful after spoonful of heaven, and this is coming from a girl who isn’t super wild about cranberry sauce in the first place.  The raspberry and touch of lemon zest add such a wonderful new element to boring old bitter cranberry sauce…

*Side note – Thank you everyone for bearing with me on my lack of recent postings.  My family has had a really crazy past couple of weeks so I have had to put my blog on the side burner for a few days here and there so this crazy wonderful life didn’t swallow me whole.  🙂  I am hoping to get some extra time in the next few days to catch up a little bit. With our black lab just coming out of an extensive knee reconstruction surgery along with my poor hubby (who has pneumonia) traveling to New York City for the week, my free time outlook is looking a little bleak.  I am hoping for some “late night, kids and dogs sleeping time” to get back into the groove.  Thanks to everyone for continuously making my recipes and sharing all of your successes with me.  I have a fridge full of delicious ingredients and a camera full of pictures of recently made recipes burning holes in my little blogging fingertips.

Ingredients:

3/4 lemon-lime soda (Sprite or 7-up *do not use diet*)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1-12 oz bag cranberries (hard to come by fresh this time of year, I used frozen)

1 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)

1/2 tsp lemon zest

Directions:

Rinse cranberries and pick out any shriveled  or discolored berries.  Zest Lemon and rinse raspberries.

Bring soda, sugar and salt to a boil over medium heat.  Add cranberries and simmer until slightly thickened and two-thirds of berries have burst, about 5 minutes.

Transfer to serving bowl.  Stir in 1 cup raspberries and lemon zest.  Cool completely for at least one hour.  Serve.  (Sauce can be refrigerated for up to one week.)

 

 

 

Flavor-Packed Taco Salad (It’s healthy too!)

I love taco salad!  I always forget how much I love it until I take that first bite.  It is one of those meals, if prepared correctly, really satisfies your hunger without making you feel an ounce of guilt. The best part is the crunchy tortilla bowl.  It takes the place of crumbling greasy tortilla chips on top of your salad and in my opinion tastes surprisingly fabulous!

Ingredients:

4 flour tortillas (We use the raw Tortilla Land tortillas, cooked)

1 can black beans, drained

1 lb ground turkey breast, or lean ground beef cooked and seasoned with your favorite taco seasoning

1 head iceberg lettuce

1 can sliced olives

1 tomato, diced

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

1 cup of your favorite salsa (Ours is Emerald Valley – generally found with refrigerated salsa in your local grocery store)

1/4 cup low-fat or fat-free sour cream

1 avocado, sliced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Brown your ground turkey or beef, drain if needed.  Add taco seasoning as directed on packaging.  Set aside.

Prepare lettuce – firmly hold head of lettuce, core side down, slam head down onto counter then turn lettuce over and pull out core.  Next, I like to break off all of the thick, white bases of the lettuce leaves. Fill head with water then turn over and shake to drain.  Remove top two outer leaves and discard.  Slice/chop/break lettuce into bite-sized pieces.

Prepare tomato, avocado, olives, and cheese.  (We always buy the cans of whole olives and use our egg slicer to slice the olives.  My boys love this job partly because they love helping mommy in the kitchen but mostly because they always get to load up one hand with a full set of olive tips.)

Spray one side of tortilla with a small amount of non-stick spray.  Place tortillas, greased side down, onto ramekins.  Pinch edges vertically in a clockwise (or counter-clockwise) direction (see picture) to form your “bowl.” Place in preheated oven on a baking tray for 7 minutes.  Carefully remove ramekins from underside of tortillas.  Place tortilla bowls with flat side down on baking tray and return to oven for 3-4 minutes or until crisp. Set aside.

For dressing, mix salsa and sour cream together.

Place ground turkey or beef and cold black beans in the bottom of bowl.  Top with lettuce, tomato, cheese, olives avocado and dressing.

As you eat, crumble your bowl to give you that “tortilla chip” taste and texture without having to eat greasy chips.

Ground Turkey and Rice Bake – Low Fat

How many of you are ready for tank tops and shorts, and heaven forbid bathing suits?…NOT ME! I am going to attempt to make one or two lower fat recipes every week.  Not only do I want to offer a variety of recipes for my wonderful followers but I would really love feel comfortable in my summer clothes.  Now people who know me know I’m not the diet type because I LOVE food way too much.  So my diets consist of trying to make some better choices and adding some fun exercise in when I get the chance.  This recipe came from my sister’s collection and quickly became a staple in our house.  Not only do my hubby and I like it but the kids devour it.

 

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey breast (ground beef is also yummy in the “not so low-fat” version :))

1 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped onion (red, white or yellow)

1 cup long grain white rice

1-14 1/2 oz can stewed tomatoes, undrained

1/2 cup sliced olives

1-4 oz can diced chili’s, drained

1 and 1/2 tsp beef base

1 and 1/4 cups water (feel free to use 1 and 1/4 cups beef broth in place of water and beef base)

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp pepper

1 cup shredded low-fat cheddar cheese (of course it’s always better with regular cheddar but low-fat does the trick)

fat-free or low-fat sour cream if desired for serving

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In an oven-safe skillet, brown ground turkey (or beef) with celery and onion.  Drain fat if there is any.  Add rice, tomatoes, olives, green chiles, beef base, water, chili powder, Worcestershire and pepper (everything except the cheese and sour cream). Bring to a boil.  Cover and bake for one hour.  Remove from oven and top with cheese.  Cover and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

 

Chicken Pockets

I hope everyone has enjoyed their weekend as much as I have.  We had such beautiful weather this weekend so we were able to do hours upon hours of yard work.  I just can’t wait to plant my garden! It is going to take a lot of work and a lot of soil TLC to get the ground ready but I am up for the challenge. I will try to post pics as I go.  This will be my first garden in the Pacific Northwest.  I can’t wait to plant something and actually have it grow.  We are originally from Southern Oregon where it’s hard to grow anything but potatoes, lettuce, zucchini and alfalfa. We will see how it goes.  I have so much to learn so let’s hope it will be a success and not an epic failure like my first attempt at a “salsa garden” in S. Oregon.  If you start noticing that I have not blogged anything about my garden come August, you will know that we are leaning more toward the “epic failure” side of success 🙂 If anyone has any great tips or maybe a favorite gardening blog, I would love for you to share.  Okay, let’s get on to dinner…

This recipe is one that has been a family favorite for years.  I believe it originated somewhere in my grandmother’s kitchen.  It is such an easy dish to make and so fun to eat… my kids LOVE it!

Ingredients:

3 oz cream cheese, softened (I use low-fat)

2 Tbsp margarine or butter

2 cups cubed, cooked chicken

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

2 Tbsp milk

2 Tbsp chopped green onion

2 pkgs crescent rolls

Progresso Italian Bread Crumbs

1 can cream soup of your choice (I like cream of chicken and cream of celery.  I tried the “Campbell’s Healthy Request” this time around in an effort to make the recipe a little healthier and wasn’t too impressed.  It seemed to lack a lot of flavor, but if you are trying to cut back on the fat and salt, it will definitely do the trick.)

1 and 1/2 – 2 cups milk

Directions:

Mix cream cheese and margarine together until smooth.  Add salt, pepper, 2 Tbsp milk and onion.  Stir in chicken.

Put two triangles of crescent rolls together to form a rectangle.  Put filling in the middle and fold dough over top to form pockets, sealing dough completely.  Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

Mix soup together with 1 and 1/2 to 2 cups of milk until it reaches the consistency of a thick gravy.  Heat in the microwave.  Spoon over Chicken Pockets and serve.

*note* – If you want a little more filling and less bread, double the filling recipe.  There is enough dough in each rectangle to hold 2x the filling if that is how you would prefer it.

 

Delicious Sweet and Sour Pork

I have always loved the flavor of sweet and sour pork at restaurants, but as some of you have learned by now, I am super picky about meat so if it is coated and fried, I don’t order it because I can’t see what I am biting in to.  I finally learned how to make it myself about six months ago and am SO excited because I can eat every bite with confidence and truly enjoy it.  This recipe is so tasty! I love how dredging the meat in corn starch instead of flour then double frying it makes the outside of the meat so crisp.  But even better than that, the meat that is being fried has been soaked in a delish marinade to make it extra tasty.  The ingredient list may seem a little daunting but it’s really pretty simple once you get cookin’.

Ingredients:

2 tsp soy sauce

1/8 tsp white sugar

2 tsp corn starch (the original recipe calls for potato starch which I can not seem to find)

1 tsp sesame oil

ground black pepper to taste

1 pound pork loin, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 cup water

2 Tbsp white vinegar

1/4 cup ketchup

1/4 cup white sugar

1 pinch salt

2 tsp corn starch (again if you can find potato, use it)

1 dash red food coloring ( I found that 3 drops was sufficient)

1 egg, beaten

1 cup corn or potato starch

2 cups peanut oil for frying

1 green bell pepper, cut into large chunks (I used my bag of leftover frozen peppers which worked great)

2 cayenne peppers, sliced (instead of the cayenne peppers, I used Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce since it was in my fridge, worked perfectly)

4 slices canned pineapple, chopped

2 cloves garlic, sliced

2 green onions, sliced

Directions:

Whisk together the soy sauce, sugar, 2 tsp potato (or corn) starch, sesame oil, and black pepper in a large bowl.  Mix the pork into the marinade and turn until all the pork is covered.  Allow to rest for 15 minutes.

To make the sweet and sour sauce, whisk together the vinegar and 2 tsp starch then add ketchup, 1/4 cup sugar, salt, water, and red food coloring in a separate bowl.  Set aside

Dip the pork pieces in the beaten egg.  (I actually found that just pouring about half of the egg over the pork and mixing it all in was much easier than dipping each little bite sized piece), then dredge in the 1 cup potato (or corn) starch.  Use your hand to press the starch onto the pork, assuring a consistent coating.

Heat the peanut oil in a wok (I don’t own a wok but my large frying pan worked just fine) over medium-high heat to a temperature of 375 degrees F.

Fry the pork pieces in the hot oil until crisp and light brown, 4-5 minutes.  Remove pork from the oil and drain on a paper towel, keeping the oil hot.  Return the drained pork pieces to the hot oil for 30 seconds more.  Remove and drain again. (This might seem silly but I have tried it without this second step and it does make a difference in the crisp outer layer of your pork.)   Pour off all but about 1 Tbsp of the oil from the wok.

Heat 1 Tbsp of reserved oil in the wok over medium heat.  Cook the green bell pepper, cayenne pepper (or chili sauce), pineapple, garlic and green onion in the heated oil for about 5 minutes.  Add the sauce and stir until it thickens.

Stir in the pork at the last minute until it is coated with sauce.  Remove from heat and serve over rice or noodles.

Top with sesame seeds, peanuts,  fried noodles and/or chili sauce.

*Recipe was found on allrecipes.com from BETSYLINDSEY.