This Brown Rice Stir Fry recipe is versatile, too! You can substitute many of the items to add variety while still keeping dinner cheap. The very best part is that my family loves it! Who can argue with cheap, healthy, and smiles on top of it all? Certainly not me!

This dinner takes about 35 minutes to cook. All prep work is done while the rice is cooking, so there is no added time there. The yield is 4 generous servings. You can use whatever oil and vegetables you have in the house, so I used sunflower oil and frozen stir-fry veggies. Enjoy!

Cheap Family Dinner Recipe

First things first – Get that rice cooking! It takes the longest, so get it going according to the directions for whatever rice you have. If you have minute rice, then this cooking time will be cut much shorter, but you can still get it started first.

For my brown rice, I boiled 2 cups of water and then added the rice. I turned the heat down, covered it, and put the timer on for 30 minutes. (A good trick for knowing when rice is done cooking is watching for those tunnels that escaping air creates, but not removing it from heat until there is only a tiny bit of water on the bottom when you stir it.)

Then, it’s time to trim, cut up and cook the chicken or whatever protein you decide to add. Steak or shrimp would be good too.

While the chicken is cooking, make your sweet and sour sauce in a separate bowl. I take my chicken out of the pan without draining it and then cook my veggies until tender. This took 5-6 minutes for me because I used a frozen sugar snap stir-fry veggie mix. Covering them while cooking will keep them from burning or drying out.

Add the sweet and sour sauce and the chicken to the vegetables in the pan. The rice should be almost done, so just stir for a few minutes to reduce the sauce and get the flavor cooked into the chicken and veggies a bit.

Then, add the rice and stir for just a minute or two more before serving. And there you have it! A yummy, healthy dinner for the family in about a half hour for a little over $4! Not too shabby.

Brown Rice Sweet and Sour Stir Fry

 

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Cook time

30 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

This delicious stir fry with brown rice and sweet and sour sauce is healthy, balanced, and costs less than $1 per serving!

Author: True Aim

Recipe type: Dinner

Serves: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 1 cup brown rice
• 1 tbsp oil of your choice
• 1-2 chicken breasts (or whatever protein you would like to add)
• 1 lb vegetables of your choice
• ½ cup chicken broth
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes

Instructions

1. Get your brown rice cooking. Boil the water and then add your rice. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.
2. Cut the chicken breast into bite-sized pieces. Add 1 tbsp of oil to a pan on medium heat and add the chicken. Stir occasionally until fully cooked. Do not drain. Put aside.
3. While the chicken is cooking, make the sweet and sour sauce by mixing the chicken broth, soy sauce, cider vinegar, brown sugar, and pepper flakes in a small bowl.
4. Add 1 lb of vegetables to the pan, cover, and stir occasionally until tender.
5. Add the chicken and sweet and sour sauce to the pan and stir until thoroughly mixed and heated through.
6. Add the cooked rice to the pan, stir for a minute or two, and serve.

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If you really want to save money, you can use eggs instead of meat. Or you could try flank steak or pork tenderloin and maybe some zucchini and summer squash with a honey teriyaki stir-fry sauce. Yum! Makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Leave a comment below explaining how you made this your own, or let us know if you have any creative ideas for other cheap, healthy dinner recipes!

The post $5 Dinner: Healthy Sweet and Sour Stir Fry first appeared on True Aim.

Each time I go to my home town to visit, it’s like a little family reunion.  Almost everyone on my Mom’s side of the family lives in and around the same small town.  She has 12 brothers and sisters; add my cousins and in-laws into the mix and I’m bound to see someone in the family each time I go out!  I really miss being with them, so it was so nice of my Aunt Julie to come visit and cook for me!

We don’t usually cook gluten free, but love healthy alternatives and like to use natural sweeteners.  These cookies were soo easy and soo good; like crunchy little granola bars with a soft center.  They were gone in about 10 minutes!  I found a very similar recipe that uses dried blueberries and pecans.  I think dried apricots or raisins would be good too.

Cranberry Harvest Gluten Free Breakfast Cookies

 

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Taste like the holidays and are packed with protein.

Author: True Aim

Recipe type: Breakfast

Cuisine: Gluten Free

Ingredients

• 1½ cup Old Fashioned Oats
• 1 cup Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
• 1 Tablespoon Flax Meal
• ½ Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
• ¾ Cup Slivered Almonds
• ½ Cup Chopped Dried Cranberries
• 3 Ripe Bananas, Mashed
• 1 Tablespoon Honey
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly oil a baking pan or line with parchment.
2. Mix together all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the mashed bananas, honey, and vanilla extract.
3. With clean hands, form into cookies with 2-3 tablespoons of the mixture and place on the baking sheet ½ inch apart.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

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Can’t wait to hear what you think about these!  Got any good flavor combination ideas?  Maybe a little peanut butter could be substituted for the honey?  Yum!

For more Family Recipes, follow me on Pinterest!

The post Cranberry Gluten Free Breakfast Cookies first appeared on True Aim.

Homemade Granola Ingredients

This master recipe helps you customize your own homemade granola so you can put your favorite ingredients and flavors in.

Base:

4 Cups Old Fashioned Oats

1 Cup Unsweetened Coconut Chips (add more nuts and oats if you don’t want the coconut)

Spices:

1 Pinch of Salt

1 Tablespoon of your favorite spice like cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, or a mixture of cardamom, ginger, cinnamon and cloves for a gingerbread taste.

Nuts or Seeds:

1 Cup of raw sliced almonds, chopped pecans, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds or a fun combination.

Dried Fruit:

1/2 Cup of dried cranberries, raisins, chopped apricots, chopped cherries, ect.

Oil or Fat:

1/4 Cup Melted Butter, Canola Oil, or Coconut Oil

Sweetener:

1/4 Cup + 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar, Maple Syrup, Honey, Agave, or Sweetener of your choice.  I usually use a Brown Sugar and Honey combination.  You could also try 2 tablespoons of peanut butter.

Flavoring:

1 1/2 Teaspoons of vanilla, almond, or your favorite extract.

Optional: Lemon or Orange Zest

How to Make Healthy Homemade Granola

This is a perfect recipe to cook with your kids because it’s not messy and it’s really easy.  My little Emma has shown an interest in helping me cook lately so I recruited her to mix it up.

First, we preheated the oven to 300° and lined an edged pan with tin foil.  Then we mixed together our base, spices, nuts, and dried fruit in a large bowl.

Emma put sliced almonds, cranberries, cinnamon, and nutmeg in ours.  Sometimes we add a handful of mini chocolate chips after it has cooled completely.

In a separate bowl or measuring cup I combined the oil and sweetener until it resembled a liquid caramel.  Our mixture includes melted butter, brown sugar, honey and vanilla.

Emma stirred in half of the sweetener mix with a wooden spoon until it was combined and then stirred in the remaining liquid.  She mixed it really well until it was evenly distributed.

Gosh she’s cute

I spread out the granola evenly on the foil-lined pan and baked for about 30 minutes until it was lightly golden.  If you want your granola to stick together in chunks, don’t stir it!  Set it on a wire rack and let it cool completely before breaking the granola up.  If you don’t like your granola to stick together, stir every 8-10 minutes during the cooking time and right after you take it out of the oven.

We eat our granola on Greek yogurt, with milk like cereal, and just plain for a quick snack.  You could also try topping muffins with it before they go in the oven for a delicious crunch.

What do you like to put in your granola?

For more healthy family recipes like me on Facebook, or follow me on Pinterest.

The post Easy Healthy Homemade Granola Recipe first appeared on True Aim.