Use It Up Sunday

I hate throwing food away, so I try to cook up anything I have left on the weekend before the food goes bad.  It is usually fruit and vegetables that are on the brink of spoiling.  I had a lemon and orange that were in desperate need of saving.  I also had a tiny bit of milk, tons of peppers, and carrots.

I decided to make a lemon loaf and a huge stir fry with an orange sauce using Nectresse as a sweetener instead of sugar.  I haven't tried it in actual food since receiving it from Influenster.

Lemon Loaf

1/2c. vegetable shortening, melted
1c. sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2c. applesauce
1 1/2c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp/ salt
1/2 c. milk (I used unsweetened almond)
1/3c. lemon juice
1/4c. sugar

Preheat the oven to 325.  Melt shortening and combine with the sugar, mixing thoroughly.  Mix in the lemon juice and the applesauce until combined well.  Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until blended.  Add the milk last.  The mixture is a bit stiff.   Empty into a greased loaf pan.   Cook for 60 minutes or until a toothpick is clean when inserted (I had mine in for 70 min).  Poke holes all around the bread and over the top.  Mix together the rest of the lemon juice and sugar.  Pour over the top and enjoy!

Quick, Delicious Rice

2c. rice
4 vegetable bouillon cubes
5c. water.

Put all of the ingredients into the rice cooker and set to cook.  The rice should be finished when switch flips to keep warm.  If not, add more water and set rice cooker back to cook.  Keep doing this until rice is to desired texture.

Stir Fry with Orange Sauce

2 Tbsp. EVOO
1 onion, diced
3 green peppers, slice thin
1 yellow pepper, sliced thin
1 orange pepper, sliced thin
1 red pepper, sliced thin
2c. broccoli, cut into small pieces
1/2c. mushrooms, cut small
2c. baby carrots, cut into thirds
1c. zucchini, sliced
salt and pepper to taste

For the sauce:
1 orange
water
1 Tbsp. Lite soy sauce
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
2 packets Nectresse
2 Tbsp corn starch

Heat a large pan over medium heat.  Add the EVOO and onion.  Cook onion until transparent.  Add the carrots and peppers first.  Cover and cook for about ten minutes.  Add the rest of the vegetables.  Cover and cook for about ten more minutes or until tender.
While the vegetables are cooking, mix together the sauce ingredients.  I used the juice from one orange and squeezed it into a 1c. measuring cup.  Then, I filled the rest with water.  Dump it into a small bowl and add the other ingredients (Lite soy sauce, ground ginger, Nectresse, corn starch).  Mix until blended together.  Pour sauce over vegetables.  Raise heat to high to allow sauce to boil.  Lower heat and simmer about 10-15 minutes, stirring vegetables in order to coat them in the sauce mixture.  The sauce will thicken.  Serve over rice.

It is the best stir fry I ever made!  I really like this sauce.  Kevin even liked it.  Of course, I didn't tell him it had orange juice in it.  He is like my cat and has a strong aversion to oranges.

Did you make anything this weekend?