Garlic Chicken Stir-Fry in Garlic Black Bean Sauce & Cinnamon Apple Crunch!!!

The Menu: Garlic Chicken Stir-Fry in a Garlic Black Bean Sauce and the most heavenly dessert known to man.

Sauce before:

Sauce after:

Pressing garlic is hard work!

 

We can all assure you it tastes infinitely better than it looks. Cooking it in so much sauce has the wonderful effect of producing tender, juicy chicken.

 

Pouring syrup

Before topping

Right before being attacked and devoured:

The Recipes:
Stir-Fry. Make garlic black bean sauce by blending a 15 oz. can of black beans with 3 cloves of garlic and about 6 oz. of water. Cut cleaned chicken and saute with plenty of garlic and some soy sauce until cooked on the outside. Stir-fry washed and cut broccoli, bell pepper, scallions, and carrot; when about half cooked add back chicken and add sauce. Cook until sauce is bubbly and chicken is cooked thoroughly (add soy sauce as desired). Serve steaming over brown rice.
Apple Crunch. Scatter sliced apples in greased baking dish. Stir together 1 cup flour, 1 cup packed brown sugar, ¾ cup oats, ½ cup melted butter, ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional), and plenty of cinnamon until crumbly. Whisk together 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup cold water, 1 tbsp. cornstarch, and 1 tsp. vanilla extract in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until syrup is clear, and all sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes. Pour hot syrup over the fruit, then scatter crumble over fruit mixture. Bake at 350 until the top is brown and the crunch is bubbly, about 1 hour. Serve with vanilla ice cream. (Hint: don't tell anyone you make this; and try to do it in such a way no one will smell it. If someone finds out, they'll likely devour the entire thing on the spot.)

Spirali & Roasted Zucchini

The Menu: Organic whole-wheat spiral with homemade tomato sauce and roasted zucchini

The Recipes:
Pasta. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain reserving about a half cup of cooking water. Add to sauce and mix well, adding cooking water to moisten as necessary. Add back to heat for a minute or two, stirring well, to warm before serving.
Tomato Sauce. Saute onion in olive oil until the onion begins to brown. Add chopped garlic, rosemary, and celery for cook another 5-8 minutes, or until the celery is soft. Stir in the tomatoes and bring to a boil. Simmer another 30 minutes, or until the sauce is thick (you can also blend all or some of the sauce to thicken it and make the consistency more uniform). (from Cucina Povera.)
Zucchini. Wash zucchini and cut into slice about 1/4 in thick. Toss in roasting pan with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast at 450 for ? minutes until they're as squishy as you want them.