Chicken, Basil & Spinach Stir-Fry

While I am in the kitchen and I observe a couple of little lurkers in the kitchen checking out what's cooking in the pot, I can already understand how our dinner is going to be. My bigger son, who can easily peek inside the saucepan can recognize the ingredients. My smaller daughter though, has to rely on her nose to understand if the scent permeating from the saucepan is to her liking or not. Most often? I hear complaints and it's a promise of a long dinner. Sigh. Welcome to my world as a cooking Mom.

My over-used question to both: What is wrong with dinner? Even if I already know the answers. There's too much green. It looks boring. The smell is funny. My answer: The greens are healthy for your tummies. Don't underestimate boring-looking dishes and I admit, there is a funny smell. It's colatura di alici (Italian fish sauce) and not everyone likes the smell.

As always, the steamed white rice saved us from little howlings of disagreement. My daughter's favorite food is rice with grated parmigiano reggiano and extra virgin olive oil. Serve her that and she will shower you with all the sweet things she has in store for you. But since Mom & Dad are smarter, we give her pieces of chicken, with no trace of green whatsoever, mind you.

My son is easier to deal with. As long as there's just chicken, no trace of white rice on his plate and just a couple of spinach leaves with an exchange of a few minutes of playtime in the iPad after dinner, then we got ourselves a deal.

Me & my husband? We go through dinner with quiet appreciation of the food. It's white meat and there's a load of spinach so he loves it while I like the Asian touch. The dinner has proteins, fibers and carbohydrates. It's complete, healthy and simply good. Like what I told my kids, don't underestimate the looks. 

Recipe, recipe, where are you? It's over at She Knows. Click on this link to get you there. You can find me often there, creating new recipes for everyone other than my blog. If you would like to see the others I have created over the past year, click on this link.

Enjoy your week guys!