Italian Sweet & Sour Chicken

When you move, you try to use up all of your ingredients.  It's no fun to try and move bottles and bottles of oils, vinegars and sauces.  In the last few weeks in your old house, your meals are planned around whatever you have sitting in the cupboard, and frozen in the freezer.  The bottles are emptied as you make salads with champagne vinaigrette, Chicken breast with balsamic glaze and soy sauced vegetables.

When you arrive in your new home, you have to start from scratch.  Collect your oils and vinegars all over again.  And sometimes you plan your meals around items that you think you own, but in fact, do not.  Like when I was trying to make this sweet and sour chicken.  I was in need of a simple red wine vinegar.  While making the grocery list I thought to myself "Of course I have red wine vinegar, I didn't use it all before I left New Haven."  Wouldn't you know, Tuesday night came around and I was without red wine vinegar. 

I did however have a bottle of balsamic vinegar!  So we went in a different direction with the flavors in this dish, more italian, less asian.  It worked out so well, because I recieved a box goodies from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program!  Inside the box were these delicious items...

Look, risotto!  That will work perfectly with my italian sweet and sour chicken!  And it was perfect.  While it's not going to equal spending a half hour at the stove, Bird's Eye did a pretty good job!  The mushroom risotto was what I decided to pair with our chicken dinner.  (Boyfriend ate the rest of the items while I was out of town this weekend!  He said they were good and that the risotto was his dinner one night!)  Apparently they are coming to stores in September, aka, tomorrow!

Italian Sweet & Sour Chicken

Adapted from Grill it!

This post was meant to go up last week! Sometimes blogger doesn't like to post my scheduled posts, I'm not quite sure why!  Sorry for the lack of pictures, this meal was complete, just as my batteries died.  Just imagine some chicken, with a dark glaze!  Soon, oh I can't wait, I'll be buying myself a digital SLR!  I'm so excited!  Then I'll have to remember to plug it in when it's not in use :)
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 cup pineapple juice
1 cup sugar
1 jalapeno chili, chopped
1 2-inch piece of ginger, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow pepper, chopped
3 tbsp cilantro, chopped
1 lb Chicken breasts

Cook chicken breasts on your grill or grill pan.

Combine vinegars, pineapple juice, sugar and jalapeno in a medium pot.  Heat over medium heat and reduce by half, about 15 minutes.  Strain and add peppers and cilantro.

Remove chicken from the grill and drizzle with sauce.  Pop some steamfresh in the microwave and you've got dinner in just a few minutes!