More dinner thoughts

My plan for children cooking one dinner each per week is still working well. They have all become excellent cooks who need very little assistance and neither J. nor I need to cook four days a week. Sometimes they choose to make something new, or to make something new to them, or because they really just want a certain dish. I get final approval because I just don't enjoy eating the same thing over and over. I generally need a month to feel as though we haven't just had something. There is great excitement when I agree to a favorite meal because there has been a long enough break from the last time. 

[Interestingly, I feel the complete opposite about breakfast and lunch and will happily eat the same breakfast every day for weeks on end. No, I know none of this makes any sense at all.] 

But back to dinners. Tonight was one of those nights where a family favorite made an appearance. L. made a copycat version of Panda Express' orange chicken. If you want to try it yourself, I suggest adding chopped onion and bell pepper to it, sauteing them after you remove the chicken and before you continue with the rest of the recipe. Plus, by adding vegetables, you can get away with using less chicken. We tend to use three halves chicken breasts for the seven or eight of us in stir fries, bulking the meal up with more inexpensive items. 

The recipe is really very good. Cook some jasmine rice and steam some frozen dumplings and that's all you need.