Sweet and Sour Chicken

Really...there's no reason to skip making dinner with recipes like this one.  Eleanor saw it in the cookbook she gave Paul for Christmas (Everything Chinese) a couple years ago and thought it looked good.  I'm always happy to get menu input instead of the usual, "I don't care".  So, I made it on a recent evening having it come together in just a few minutes.

The unfortunate thing was that Eleanor had been to a birthday party before I made this and came home with a whole cake that she decorated at the party.  We're talking a from scratch chocolate cake, so we had huge slabs of it when we got home from working out.  Eleanor swam and I did my new favorite group exercise class, Body Combat.  Yikes, we had sugary full tummies and needed something more substantial in our systems.  A few bites of this and we were both full, so we'll have it tomorrow for lunches as well.

Body Combat is lots of fun.  Tattooed biceps on the instructors and a bunch of Y members dancing around punching arms trying to get the rhythm of this class by Les Mills....all the makings of a fun class.  I have been going to this in the fall with some other swim moms during the Sunday practice.  I have also tried to get to a class at least one other day each week depending on my work schedule.  A lot of stress can be relieved through any type of workout, but this one is especially stress relieving! It's the move where you pretend to hold someone down and punch with the other fist.  Ah...just typing that relieves some stress!

I had a remaining cup of uncooked white rice leftover so I made that.  I got that going in the rice cooker while I prepared the chicken ingredients.

1 1/2 c chicken meat
3/4 c pineapple juice (I used what I drained out of the can of pineapple chunks)
2 T rice vinegar
1 t black rice vinegar
1 T soy sauce
Um....yea...right.  I just used 2 T white vinegar since that's what I had.  I usually have rice vinegar, but we're out.
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 red bell pepper
2 T oil for frying (probably used closer to 1 T)
2 T plus 1 t sugar (used 1 heaping T)
1/4 c pineapple chunks
1 T cornstarch mixed with 4 T water
Cut chicken into bite size pieces.  Mix together pineapple juice, vinegar, soy sauce and set aside.  Cut the peppers into bite size cubes.
Add oil to wok and add chicken.  Stir fry until nearly cooked.
In medium saucepan, bring pineapple juice mixture to a boil.  Stir in sugar.  Add peppers and pineapple chunks.  Bring back to a boil and add the cornstarch and water mixture.  Stir quickly to thicken.
Pour sauce over stir fried chicken and heat through.


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