Midweek Meal Inspo; Carbonara, Stuffed Bell Peppers, Potato Chip Chicken Tenders and more

It’s summertime and we have been having fun in the kitchen. We all always are trying new food and during the summer, there is just a bit more flexibility in times as our children don’t have tons of clubs and the like to attend. This week, we had some new recipes and some old favorites that we just haven’t had for a while. Robin also helped with a beef and broccoli dish right before school ended, which came out grand, so I included that too. Let’s get into this week’s meal inspiration.

Chicken Satay with Rice Noodle Salad

Inspired by the most recent Harlow Chinese School cooking lessons, I wanted to make Chicken Satay for us all to have! We aren’t a big peanut butter household, though Robin really loves peanut butter, so having a recipe that marinated the chicken in soy sauce, fish sauce, lime juice, honey, ginger, sriracha, and garlic made sure that the chicken was taste with or without the peanut sauce! We marinated this for the majority of the day, then put them in metal skewers and bake them in the oven. I made a rice noodle salad with Nước Chấm and some cabbage and carrots. We also made the peanut butter dip, that only Dann, Robin and I enjoyed (as expected). Amelia and Kai really liked the flavor of the chicken as is, which was fantastic.

Carbonara with Garlic Bread and Salad

Amelia has a friend that often visits us, and she loves carbonara. So, obviously, when she came over we had to make some up. This is an extremely recipe that just has double cream, two egg yolks, and a handful of parm. We fried up the bacon, set it aside, waited for the pasta to cook, then drained it. The pasta then returned to the pot, off the heat, and we added in the sauce and bacon, stir it together. This was served with just a garlic bread and some salad. It’s a cheats carbonara, so simple but always pleasing!

Beef and Broccoli with Noodles

Robin really wanted to help cook dinner, which is quite rare! We made some beef and broccoli with noodles. These were rice noodles, but very thick ones! We made the beef sauce by combining ginger, garlic, water, soy sauce, brown sugar, corn starch and sesame oil. We then cooked off our beef and added this sauce in. I par-cooked the broccoli so that it was softer, before adding it to the sauce along with baby corn that Robin picked out. We served it all over the noodles and it came out fantastic. Just one of those easy to make, delicious to eat meals.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Dann specifically asked for stuffed bell peppers this week – not sure why. It’s a bit warm to use the oven recently, but we turned on the air con units earlier in the day and got the house nice and cold before using the oven! I cooked off some beef and made some rice, before combining them together along with two cans of tomatoes, some italian seasonings, garlic, onion, and tomato paste. Once it was cooked down, I added a bunch of cheese and then put them in each pepper. These then went in the oven for 35 minutes, covered. After that, I took the whole tray out, added cheese to the top of each pepper, and put them back in the oven for another 10 minutes uncovered. These were served with salad.

Potato Chip Breaded Chicken Tenders

Potato chip breaded chicken tenders was a fun meal I remember having as a child, though they were from a freezer. We took some chicken breasts, sliced them into strips, and then breaded them in potato chips! I did half ready salted and half prawn cocktail. It’s done by dipping the chicken in egg then in potato chips. I baked them in the oven until cooked through, but then popped them in the air fryer so that they got really crispy. I am still not sure about putting raw chicken into the air fryer, I am just not convinced. We had curly fries and beats to go with this!

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