Sunday, January 22, 2012

Celebrate Chinese New Year With VH

My kids go to a very diverse school so they learn about many different cultures and traditions first hand and Chinese New Year is one of their favorites. They love learning about the Chinese zodiac and making decorations. They have taught me quite a bit about Spring Festival, as it's called in China. It is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays and this year January 23rd starts the year of the dragon.

Chinese New Year is a great time to add a little culture to dinnertime. When I want to mix things up and bring some culture to our meals, I talk about it with my boys and we go shopping together at the local Asian, Polish or Italian market to decide what we would like to try. My picky eater is much more receptive to trying new dishes when he has played a part in the decision-making process.

When I told them I wanted to make something special for Chinese New Year we decided to look at some recipes on the VH Sauces website and see what sounded good. We couldn't narrow it down to just one, so tonight we will be having Mandarin Chicken with Broccoli and tomorrow dinner will be Grilled Szechwan Pork Ribs. Both of these Asian-inspired recipes have big flavour but the ingredients are quite common so I won't even have to make a special trip to the Asian market.

VH Sauces make it easy to add big flavour to your meals but if you just don't have the time to cook, VH Steamers may be just what you need. These Asian-inspired meals can be found in the frozen food section at your grocery store. They use DuoTray SteamCooker technology to steam your meal to perfection while locking in flavour and preserving texture, all in under 5 minutes!

You can connect with VH on their facebook page for product info and delicious recipes.

To help you celebrate, VH Sauces is providing me with a Chinese New Year prize pack valued at $60 to give to one lucky reader. Enter using the rafflecopter form below.

*Disclosure – I am participating in the VH Chinese New Year Celebration program by Mom Central Canada on behalf of VH.  I received compensation as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

70 comments:

tanyab79 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Elle said...

One of my fave VH sauces is teriyaki but I like all of the ones I have tried.

Elle said...

introducing culture? trying recipes and discussing food and social mores during the meal. always fun to try new things.

Happy Chinese New Year!

~ The Country Mouse ~ said...

We take the kids out to restaurants and try new foods, and then later we recreate them at home.

~ The Country Mouse ~ said...

One of our favourites is sweet and sour. I always have VH Sauces on hand.

Glogirl said...

We have stir-frys on occasion but our family is not very adventurous with our food and we could use a greater infusion of culture!

Glogirl said...

I like the Honey Sesame Chicken VH Steamer.

ksceviour said...

I try to introduce culture by trying new meals,chinese,italian,mexican etc..
ksceviour at hotmail dot com

ksceviour said...

My favorite VH sauce is the cherry sauce..we use that on everything!

ksceviour at hotmail dot com

spike said...

We try foods from other cultures on a regular basis-some go over better than others

spike said...

I really like the Honey Garlic cooking sauce.

Samorjj said...

BY introducing different dishes at dinner... one at a time. We have a rule that you must try everything once, so I make things I know they like and add one new thing.

Samorjj said...

We love the plum sauce.

loriag said...

By trying recipes of different cultures! so for St. Patrick Day we had a meal of Irish foods!

loriag said...

orange Ginger Stir Fry Sauce

loriag said...

orange Ginger Stir Fry Sauce

Annie1 said...

Love Sweet & Sour sauce!

RAFFLECOPTER
NAME
is
Anne Taylor

Anonymous said...

we like the Red Curry Cooking Sauce
Janette

Belinda M said...

my favourite is the teriyaki stir fry sauce


bluebelle0367(at)hotmail(dot)com
belinda mcnabb

binabug said...

teriyaki

Amy C said...

My favourite is sweet and sour sauce.

Rebby said...

I love to cook spicy indian food!

Rebby said...

I have not tried VH steamers, but I would like to try the Zesty Orange Chicken

D.Calvert said...

we always incorporate ethnic food in our dinners, this way they try everything!

D.Calvert said...

Tyriaki would be my favorite

roswell said...

we just like to try food from different places, i traveled alot when i was young so i usually have a story or 2 to go along with the food

roswell said...

i love all things teryiaki so that would be my favorite

karasceviour said...

We occasionaly eat chiense food, other than that, we dont introduce much culture,,would love to win this! karasceviour at hotmail dot com

karasceviour said...

My favorite VH sauce is the sweet n sour, karasceviour at hotmail dot com

ginette4 said...

Eat food from different cultures. Use different spices, have stir fry's, tacos, chinese :)

ginette4 said...

My fav VH steamer is Chicken Teriyaki

flowerchild said...

we introduce culture by having theme nights like mexican (tacos) or india (curry chicken)
thanks
flower_child_23(at)hotmail(dot)com

flowerchild said...

My favorite VH sauce is general tao stir fry sauce
thanks
flower_child_23(at)hotmail(dot)com

Valerie said...

I try to introduce culture by trying new meals from all around the world.

Robyn said...

I introduce culture by introducing a variety of foods and discussing them and their origins with my family. We also eat foods to celebrate various cultural holidays.

Robyn said...

My favourite VH Sauce is the General Tao Stir-Fry Sauce

Tinatchick said...

I start by starting to introduce different types of ingredients first and then see how that goes over before making full meals

Tinatchick said...

sweet & sour sauce

pamalot said...

I have a really cool set of spices from around the world so we often try new recipes...

pamalot said...

one of our favorites is the honey garlic

pamalot said...

one of our favorites is the honey garlic

renee said...

I try to make different foods that they havent tried before
reneetaylor at sympatico dot ca

Susan Margaret said...

I've been giving them all types of food since they were little so now it is second nature to them!

C Wilson said...

I LOVE to cook so I am constantly making all kinds of ethnic foods and b/c of this they love all kinds of foods and spices

C Wilson said...

My fave VH sauce is Teriyaki

Sue Sueper said...

We share our culture by digging right in :-)

Sue Sueper said...

General Tao stir fry sauce is my favorite

Maegan Morin said...

I always try to cook from a variety of cultures. Once a week we have japanese, italian, chinese etc... I like that it adds a variety to the norm.

Maegan Morin said...

My fave VH sauce is either Teriyaki or Honey Garlic... They are both sooo yummy!

pierreandre75 said...

My family loves TERIYAKI as always :)
pierre.delossantos@ymail.com

Bree said...

I don't introduce much culture into our meals, but would love some ideas. We do however, try different sauces and dips with different foods!

breej23 at hotmail dot com

Bree said...

I love the sweet and sour sauce!

breej23 at hotmail dot com

Katrina Brady said...

I like to bring home recipes from places we have visited

sweetpeg at gmail dot com

*r* said...

i read recipes on the web and then recreate them at home

Tammy D said...

We do different foods from different cultures each week. sometimes we even use chop sticks :)

Tammy D said...

sweet and sour sauce is my favorite!!!

MissT said...

I have a cook book that has ethnic food recipes in in we just pick form there once a week and try new stuff

MissT said...

General Tao Stir-Fry Sauce

mariposaman said...

I try new foods from time to time.

Torviewtoronto said...

would like to enter this lovely giveaway

Anonymous said...

I try new dishes on my husband when he is too hungry to complain about what I am giving him. :)
choochoopuppy(at)hotmail.com

Anonymous said...

Favourite sauce is the teriyaki stir fry sauce.
choochoopuppy(at)hotmail.com

Katrina Brady said...

My favorite sauce is the sweet and sour cooking sauce. Makes yummy sweet and sour chicken or ribs in the slow cooker

sweetpeg at gmail dot com

Tina L. said...

I'm always interesting in trying new food. I like to tweak dishes by adding a different seasoning or sauce.

Tina L. said...

I like the honey garlic sauce.

tinalee351 at gmail dot com

tumyii said...

we like to introduce culture particularly to our holiday meals by adding a special traditional side of some kind to our main meal, or making special traditional treats, baking, and desserts!
tumyiix at gmail dot com

tumyii said...

our family loves the VH sweet and sour sauce!
tumyiix at gmail dot com

mariposaman said...

I try to have foods linked to traditional holidays of other cultures. It gives me an opportunity to try different foods at specific times of the year.

Michelle B said...

we add culture by sometimes eating chinese ,british indian food

mariposaman said...

Plum dipping sauce.