Nakano Rice Vinegar Recipes PLUS $25 Gift Card Giveaway

Mizkan and Nakano recently gave us the opportunity to test out one of their Rice Vinegars to experiment with and create our own recipes from.

We were SUPER excited about trying the Nakano Rice Vinegars as we have been creatively using different vinegars and oils in our cooking and on our salads in an effort to eat healthier. There were some health facts that we loved about the Nakano Seasoned Rice Vinegars: they are all natural, low calories, non fat, gluten free and have no preservatives.  Oh-and they have 50% less sodium then their competition!

So Nakano sent us the Roasted Garlic Rice Vinegar to try.

Here was the first recipe we created – so simple, just the way we like it!

Roasted Garlic Garden Salad

What you will need:

• Nakano Roasted Garlic Rice Vinegar
• Olive Oil
• Lettuce/salad blend
• Fresh veggies

How to make: (Super Simple)

• In a dressing carafe, blend 2 parts Nakano Roasted Garlic Rice Vinegar to one part Olive Oil.
• Create your lettuce and veggie salad blend
• Then pick up your dressing carafe and use your wrist to create a spinning action to where the oil and vinegar will blend together.
• Immediately pour on your individual salad (the vinegar and oil will separate in seconds!)
• Enjoy a SUPER HEALTHY, yummy and tasty new salad.  Not to mention SUPER THRIFTY.
• You could literally enjoy this simple dressing each night with a different blend of lettuce and veggies for a new salad sensation.

We also used it in one of our favorite healthier dishes – Stir Fry. We typically make it one way (called It’s A Guy Stir-Fry), but we stepped out to try something new on one of our favorite dishes.

Roasted Garlic Chicken Sesame Stir-Fry

What you will need:

• Nakano Roasted Garlic Vinegar
• 1- lb of Chicken breast chopped (we used pre-cooked from our freezer cooking day).
• Veggies of Choice (recommendations are Bell Peppers, Onions, Carrot Chips, Broccoli, Celery, etc.)
• Sesame Oil
• Olive Oil
• Garlic

How to make:

• First, start marinating the chicken breast by splashing the Nakano Roasted Garlic rice vinegar all over to coat the chicken.  The sprinkle a few drizzles of Sesame Oil over the chicken.

• Next coat the stir fry pan with Olive Oil and begin sauteing the chicken until done if the chicken is not pre-cooked.  Remove from pan and set aside.
• Then begin to saute the veggies in the pan with olive oil, salt, pepper, crushed garlic.  Start with the crunchiest veggies first like onions, carrot chips and celery.  Once you have added the first round of veggies, splash a few dashes of the Nakano Roasted Garlic vinegar over the veggies while they are sauteing. Then once the crispier veggies begin to soften, add the softer veggies like your peppers and broccoli to saute for just a couple of minutes.

• Add the chicken back into the stir fry. Add a few more splashes of the vinegar to moisten and a few drizzles of more sesame oil for the final cooking.
• Serve warm over rice!

This dish was sooooo good! We loved the blend of flavors, especially between the Roasted Garlic vinegar and the sesame oil blended together in this dish – it made the taste of the veggies pop out! It became one of our favorite stir fry meals. To see more of what we eat and how much it costs, be sure to check our weekly menu!

The only thing that we would say is that for being Roasted Garlic flavor, the garlic was very subtle. We both love garlic flavoring and we did have to add extra crushed garlic to the dressing carafe (to soak up the flavors even more) and to the stir-fry.  But it was a great starting garlic base and may be just right for someone who likes subtle garlic flavors. We are looking forward to trying other varieties of the seasoned vinegars too and let more creative juices flow (if you have been reading us long, you know that we are creative in the kitchen!). They have 7 varieties of seasoned vinegars.

Nakano Rice Vinegars have many, many uses.  The Nakano website shares numerous recipes to find your perfect vinegar match! Not only is the vinegar versatile, but it is only around $2.00 a bottle at supercenters like Walmart and Target without sale or coupon.

Well, how would you like to win a full-size bottle of Nakano Rice Vinegar with a recipe booklet and coupons and a $25 Visa gift card to use on anything?

Win a $25 Visa Gift Card

Here’s how this giveaway works, there are five possible ways of entering:

• Head over to Nakano Rice Vinegar website and  sign-up for their quarterly e-newsletter called Splash.  By doing this, you will be able to print a coupon for .50/1 Nakano Rice Vinegar, making them only $1.50 a bottle at Target and Walmart. After you have sign-up for the newsletter, just leave a comment on this post to be entered!

And/Or

• Head over to the Nakano Splash website and then head back over here leave a comment to share your favorite vinegar tip/recipe.

For additional entries:

• Like The Thrifty Couple on Facebook and then leave a comment to tell us you did.  If you’re already a Liker then even better!  Just leave us a comment and tell us you already are.

• Subscribe to The Thrifty Couple email updates PLUS then have our deals delivered to your inbox daily so never miss a deal or another giveaway! You must confirm your subscription before commenting (a confirmation email will be sent to you that you will need to click through to confirm that you would like to receive emails from us!)! If you are already a confirmed subscriber, just leave a comment for another entry.

• Also, spread the love by telling your friends about this product and giveaway. Feel free to share this post and giveaway via email, or any social networking site of your choice (each outlet you spread the word, get an entry!). Of course, come back here and leave a comment on this post of each way that you shared.

This Giveaway will end on Thursday, September 23rd at 11:59 p.m. MDT. Get 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 entries to increase your chances of winning by following the ways to enter above.

A couple of addition points:

1. Leave a separate comment for each of the above things you do, each comment and activity you complete is an entry.

2. Be sure to leave your comments for entries here on this post to be counted as an entry.

*This is a compensated post and the nutritional information, bottle of vinegar, prize pack and $25 Visa card for the giveaway were all given to us by Nakano.