Chicken and Napa Cabbage Salad

My father-in-law- is a great person: he loves people and always goes out of the way for them. He might not eat a lot himself but he still cooks (and he is a great cook, too) - not for himself but for others. Every Sunday afternoon he gets together with his friends to watch a movie (he knows everything about movies, and he is the biggest Jayne Mansfield fan I've even known), and of course, he makes some snacks or lunch for his movie group.

The other day he came across a great recipe and he ran it by his movie group. Everyone loved his Chicken and Napa Cabbage Salad! I was curious, and eventually I got a newspaper article with this recipe (not sure which one it was otherwise I would credit it) and a almost full bottle of sesame oil. Thank you Pappa Robin!

My husband loves Chinese Chicken Salad, and I was going to spoil him a little bit (as if he is not spoilt enough) and make him this Chicken and Napa Cabbage Salad for dinner (followed by some other food, of course). All I can tell you it was a success! Easy to make, colorful and very delicious. The ingredient are pretty basic but it is the sesame oil based dressing that makes a difference. And it is a Weight Watchers recipe too! Here you go:

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 5 cups thinly sliced Napa cabbage
• 2 cups shredded cooked skinless chicken beasts
• 1 cup matchstick-cut carrots
• 1 green bell pepper thinly sliced
• 2 scallions thinly sliced on diagonal

Directions:

1. Whisk together lime juice, sesame oil, salt and black pepper in large serving bowl
2. Add cabbage, chicken, carrots, bell pepper and scallions and toss to coat.

Serve immediately and enjoy! 

In-kitchen BBQ

Last night I was going to make pork fried rice for dinner (Dave’s favorite) but wasn’t attentive enough taking the meat out of the freezer - it turned out to be chicken breasts:) Chicken fried rice he likes too but I wanted to try something a little bit different, just for a change. Since I had a bunch of wooden skewers I decided to make chicken BBQ, and to save time (hungry husband = unhappy husband) do it indoors just on a grill pan. It was easy, fast and turned out very yummy and also fun to eat. I just wish I had more spices/sauces in my pantry last night.

Fried rice

My husband Dave is a big fan of Chinese food and he was the one who introduced me to it. While sushi became very popular in Russia being served everywhere (and even where they don’t belong) Chinese food is still not the primary choice for eating out or home cooking, and very unfairly.

First encroachment upon Asian cuisine

Last Thursday was such a beautiful day that I decided to take a walk around our neighbourhood. Having no concrete destination, I ended up near our grocery store. I didn’t need anything but why not to do some window shopping there? Sounds crazy but to tell you the truth I enjoy grocery store window shopping, especially when it is not crowded. It is not like running around with a cart and a shopping list often full of banal bread-milk-eggs and being stressed out over not forgetting something - it is more like exploring a well-known place to discover what FMCG, agriculture and retail have to offer today.