Maia's Fave: Stir-fried broccoli and carrots with diced chicken

I usually post my recipes in my other blog (our family blog) but I thought it would be a nice idea as well for me to share with you some of Maia's favorites. I'll start with sharing her favorite foods since I'm still overwhelming with pride seeing her empty her plates during mealtime this past weekend.

We had this for lunch yesterday and this was a special dish I especially cooked for Maia. She's been a broccoli monster since she got introduced to this vegetable when she was just less than a year old (I think, I couldn't really remember now). Maia could still be picky at times but what we usually do to curve that is we refrain from giving her snacks especially if she's had a full meal during breakfast and lunch to save her appetite for dinner. This works most of the time, but I really couldn't say right now if it's THE long term solution for us.

Anyways, I've tried making this with left over litson manok, fish fillet and shrimps (just substitute the chicken with whatever meat or seafood you have). It's a really flexible dish and you can add in your kid's other fave vegetables (as long as it won't alter the taste so much - i.e. sayote, cabbage, cauliflower)

Prep time: 15 mins (mostly chopping duties)
Cooking time: 15-25 mins 


What I used for this recipe:

• 2 pcs of breast fillet, diced/cut into bite size pieces
• 1 cup of broccoli florets 
• 1 medium carrot, cut into 1/4 inch strips
• 1 pc small white onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp oil (you can use whatever you have but of course olive oil would be the healthiest), I used coconut oil for this one because I wanted to stir-fry the chicken so I needed something that has a higher smoking point 
• 1 tsp cornstarch, diluted into 1/2 cup of water (this is optional. you can use plain water  if you don't have cornstarch)
• 1/4 teaspoon, light soy sauce
• salt and pepper to taste
• a few drops of sesame oil (for the chinese taste hehe)
• chopped leeks (this is optional because we had to pick them out of Maia's plate anyways), for garnish

How I did it:

1. Blanched the broccoli florets and carrot strips in boiling water for about a minute, drained and set aside

2. Sauteed garlic and onion. I usually let the onion sweat (because I find my dish a lot more tasteful when I do)

3. Add in the diced chicken. Stir-fry till chicken turns whitish (I like it when the chicken gets a little brown of the side, it gives me assurance that it's really cooked). Season at this point with light soy sauce, salt and pepper (I usually season my meat and not the veggies)

4. Add in the veggies, stir-fry for 2 mins. 

5. Add in the cornstarch slurry. Then stir till sauce thickens. Simmer for 2 mins.

6. Serve with hot, steamed rice. Enjoy!!!!

This recipe was able to feed 4 hungry stomachs at lunchtime. We were able to set aside a small bowl for the little miss's dinner and we were rewarded with 2 clean plates on both meals. Yay. We were happy parents!

BEFORE AND AFTER (well actually on the left was her lunch plate but I wasn't able to take a photo of the plate after. Right plate was from dinner and it was just a repeat of the lunch plate so I figured this would do *lol. That was more than a cup of red rice, mind you!

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