We have been eating all of our meals at home, except for a couple of visits to Young’s Lobster Pound. At Young’s, the girls got takeout, and also ate their lunch in the car. The weather has been too cold to sit at the picnic tables. Our other favorite restaurants, like The Hichborn, are closed until spring.

We have been eating well, and Lou made sure that would continue by assigning everyone a night to do the meal of their choice. Last night, Catherine & Beth showed me how to make Sesame Chicken. Tonight, Lou and Beth are making Vegetable Soup, I am in charge of takeout tomorrow, and Lou and Catherine are doing pork tenderloin on Friday.

Sesame Chicken & Fried Rice

I wanted someone to show me how to make one of the Asian recipes from The Guiltfree Gourmet. This is one of the food gurus I follow who makes low calorie, low sugar recipes. These are also low in WW points. Click for the full sized images.

Beth and Catherine agreed to show me how to make this, even though they had never made it. Presumably, their cooking skills are much more advanced than mine.

There was some grumbling about the large number of ingredients, but they stayed true to the recipe. I tried to assure them that The Guiltfree Gourmet did extensive testing, and had a reason for all of his ingredients.

The secret to keeping the sesame chicken crisp is to mix it with the sauce just before serving. Catherine did this masterfully 👍. Catherine started the fried rice, and Beth finished it up. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone, but this was cauliflower rice and it was g-o-o-d. Even Lou ate some.

There were a lot of steps. The breading called for crunched rice crispy cereal with a bit of panko and breadcrumbs. This mixture was then toasted in a pan on the stove. The sauce was made from several types of soy sauce, oyster sauce, chicken broth, and multiple spices. The chicken pieces were cut into bite-sized pieces, then marinated in a baking soda solution for 15-20 minutes to tenderize the chicken. Each piece of chicken was individually breaded. No shake and bake allowed! We had more chicken than the recipe called for, so the chef extended the breading with more panko. The tray of chicken bakes for 14 minutes, then each chicken piece is expertly flipped (that was my job) and returned to the oven for 6 minutes.

Both dishes came out great! Kudos to our chefs and to The Guiltfree Gourmet.

Thank you, Catherine and Beth, for helping me learn to cook sesame chicken! I will definitely use this recipe again to make the other variations on The Guiltfree Gourmet’s website. And the fried rice was an excellent way to showcase the versatility of cauliflower rice.

Stay Safe!!!