sweet and sour chicken to the rescue!

my husband and i took a meal over to a couple who just had a baby last night. it was quite interesting because i was planning on making chicken enchilada casserole - sans onions and tomatoes as the family is either allergic or the baby is intolerant of them. but then, when calling to set the time for when we'd come by yesterday afternoon, the mom let me know that she now thought that the baby may be lactose intolerant, so she was excluding all things dairy.

woops...that's a problem for chicken enchilada casserole - can't imagine it would be that good minus the cheese, cream of chicken, and sour cream. so, back to the drawing board. what is kid-friendly (they have a 7 year old, too), easy to reheat, easy to make (i only had 2 hours after work to do it), and made without tomatoes, onions or dairy products.after a quick search at CL, i decided on sweet and sour chicken. rice? easy. chicken? already had it thawed. sweet and sour sauce? no biggie. healthy? i added lots of veggies and modified the original recipe to be a bit more exciting.

my take on it:

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: about 1 cup)
Serve with 1/2 cup of white jasmin rice or short-grain brown rice - whichever you like

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon bottled minced garlic
1 teaspoon bottled ground fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast or tenders, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 small bag of prewashed snowpeas
1/2 can baby corn
1 small can of water chesnuts
1/2 cup matchstick carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 (15 1/4-ounce) can pineapple chunks in juice, undrained
1/3 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons marsala wine or dry sherry
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/4 cup dry-roasted chopped cashews

Preparation

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic, ginger, red pepper, and chicken to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove chicken mixture from pan; set aside.Add vegetables and sauté 4 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain pineapple, reserving 1/2 cup juice. Add 1 cup pineapple chunks to pan; cook 30 seconds. Reserve remaining pineapple for another use. Combine the reserved 1/2 cup juice, soy sauce, sherry, cornstarch, and sugar in a bowl, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Return chicken mixture to pan. Stir in juice mixture; bring to boil. Cook 1 minute. Sprinkle with cashews.