Dinner is the most important meal of the day because it gives us a chance to end our day with connection with loved ones and a meal that unwinds us from work or school stress.
But, unfortunately, many of us end up in a dinner rut, where we make the same meals we’ve ever made and become bored with the simple flavors and uninteresting combinations.
Instead of caving to this, allow yourself to change it up some! These are three amazing sweet and spicy dinner ideas that will excite you to try more things.
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Spicy Tuna and Rice Hand-Food
Low Work Required: Serves One
For this, you’ll need a quarter cup of dry rice, roasted seaweed snacks in small sheet form, high-quality canned tuna, some rice wine, sushi vinegar, soy sauce, neutral oil, and sriracha.
First, cook the rice as you usually would, and once it’s done, toss in a teaspoon of the vinegar and rice wine.
Next, pour a teaspoon of neutral oil in a pan with a tablespoon of sriracha, and heat your tuna until it’s warmed through and well coated. Pour on top of the rice, and then drizzle sriracha and soy sauce on top.
This simple meal is delicious when hand-eaten with the seaweed snack sheets.
Sweet and Spicy Glazed Chicken Breast and Veg
Medium Work Required: Serves Two
To make this, preheat your oven to 420 degrees and oil a pan. Coat two chicken breasts with oil and pepper jelly.
Toss green beans, broccoli, or whatever veggies you like with the same pepper jelly, oil, and a tablespoon of soy sauce.
Bake for twenty to thirty minutes until everything is cooked through and the pepper jelly chicken has a nice glazed look. This is delicious with soft rolls or fresh rice!
Pork and Veg Fried Stuffed Dumplings
More Work Required: Serves Four
If you’ve never made dumplings from scratch, you can follow this recipe from NYT Cooking which produces around 35 wrappers.
You’ll need to combine one pound of ground pork, three scallions finely chopped, two tablespoons of cilantro, chili flakes, and four tablespoons of soy sauce for the filling. Fill them according to the NYT recipe, and then set them in a pan that’s on medium heat with less than half an inch of water and place a lid on them.
When they’re finished steaming, drizzle hot pepper jelly into the pan around their edges, and let it cook with the lid off until the dumplings are easy to remove and the jelly has caramelized into a crispy, tasty crust.
You can dip these in any classic dipping sauce, but they’re also fantastic on their own. Because it’s pork, ensure it reaches an internal temp of 150 degrees before consuming.
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Mix Things Up to Enjoy Yourself More!
Although it’s strange to try new things sometimes, it’s exciting to be able to eat foods you haven’t before! So try some of these sweet and spicy foods, and surprise yourself with how much you’ll love them. Not only are they nutritious, but they’re also crowd pleasers!