Satay Lettuce Wraps

 Ingredients

  • ½ cup dry-roasted peanuts
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable or peanut oil (we used peanut oil)
  • 1 ¼ pound thinly sliced pork or chicken cutlets, or 1 ½ pounds ground pork or chicken (we used ground chicken*)
  • Pepper
  • ¼ pound oyster, baby white, or shiitake mushrooms, chopped or thinly sliced (we went with shiitake mushrooms and thinly sliced them before chopping them up)
  • 1 bunch scallions, chopped or thinly sliced (we sliced ours)
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • one (1 ½-inch) piece ginger, cut into thin matchsticks or finely chopped (we chopped up our ginger)
  • 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
  • ½ cup unsweetened apple juice or chicken stock (we used chicken stock)
  • ¼ cup tamari sauce
  • A few dashes hot pepper sauce (we used sriracha)
  • 1 small head iceberg lettuce, core removed and head quartered

Directions

  1. Using a food processor just your knife and arm strength, cut up the peanuts until they look finely chopped.
  2. Take a large-sized skillet out and pour your choice of oil in. The original recipe talks about tilting the pan twice or so at this point but really we think that was their way of trying to tell the reader to make sure the oil coats the inside of the skillet. Once you’ve swirled the oil around, turn up the heat to high and wait for the oil to get hot. Once the oil’s hot, throw your pork or chicken in and cook it for 5 minutes, or however long it takes for the meat to look browned, seasoning the meat with the pepper while it cooks. Next thing to do is toss in the mushrooms, scallions, garlic, and ginger, tossing or stirring all the ingredients around constantly for 2 minutes. After those two minutes pass, move everything in the skillet off to the side or edges so that you can plop the peanut butter down in the center, allowing it to melt. Using a whisk preferably or a fork if you don’t have a whisk, stir in the stock or apple juice, tamari, and your choice of hot sauce to the peanut butter, adding the peanuts to the skillet afterwards. Stir everything in the skillet together at this point, combining the sauce with the skillet mixture.
  3. Take the mixture out of the skillet and place it either in a group serving bowl or into individual bowls so everybody knows they’re getting equal portions. Serve the lettuce cups/wedges alongside the mixture and when you’re ready to eat, simply spoon however much of the mixture you’d like into each lettuce wedge and enjoy !

Serves 4

*We didn’t realize until we got home that the brand of ground chicken we bought adds up to 1% vinegar and rosemary extract. Hopefully it didn’t affect the end results flavor.

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This was a tasty dish that was fun to eat. It had a little saltiness from the tamari and chicken stock, a savory taste from the chopped peanuts as well as the peanut butter, and a faint heat at the end of the bite from the hot sauce. Great thing about this serving style was that everyone else can enjoy a mild heat while you can spread some more hot sauce onto your own portion before chowing down to up the heat level for yourself. The crunch from the lettuce and chopped peanuts was a nice contrast to the rest of the textures in the meal. It was also a pleasant surprise that you really do feel full after eating this dish, no side dishes necessary.

Recipe source unknown.

Take care everybody !

Peanut Noodles with Pork

 Ingredients

  • Kosher salt
  • 12 oz. Chinese chow mein noodles or spaghetti (we used whole wheat spaghetti)
  • 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 2 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
  • ¼ cup soy sauce
  • 3 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil
  • 2 carrots, shredded (about ¾ cup)
  • 1 jalapeño pepper, finely chopped (remove seeds for less heat) (we didn’t remove the seeds)
  • 1 bunch scallions, chopped (white and green parts separated)
  • 1 (2-inch) piece ginger, peeled and minced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 12 oz. ground pork
  • ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

  1. Get a large pot out and fill it up with water, bringing the water to a boil. Salt the water until it tastes like sea water. Put the noodles in the water and cook it based off the directions you find on the box that the noodles came in. Once the noodles are done, take ½ cup of the pasta water out and leave it off to the side while you drain the rest of the water out, leaving the noodles off to the side just for now. Take a large mixing bowl out and add the following ingredients to it, stirring to combine: peanut butter, vinegar, two tablespoons water, two tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of the toasted sesame oil, shredded carrots, and half of that finely chopped jalapeño. Now you can add the noodles to the bowl, stirring the noodles around so they get coated in the sauce.
  2. Take a large skillet out and pour what’s left of the sesame oil into it. Turn the heat up to medium-high and wait for the oil to get hot. Now that the oil’s hot, throw the ginger, garlic, and white sections of the scallions into the skillet, stirring constantly for roughly 2 minutes or until the garlic looks golden. Now place the ground pork in the skillet, breaking it up into bite-size pieces and stir everything around until the meat’s browned and fully cooked, which should take about 5 minutes. At this point, stir what’s left of the soy sauce into the skillet and take it off the heat afterwards.
  3. Place the skillet mixture in the large mixing bowl with the noodles, throwing half of the scallion greens as well as half of the cilantro into the bowl as well. Toss everything together, adding some of that pasta water in if you think the sauce is too thick for your liking. Split into 4 bowls and if you like, add some additional jalapeño, scallion greens, and cilantro to your own individual bowl.
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This is a favorite of ours now. You can taste the ginger, peanut butter, the heat from the jalapeños, and a great freshness from the green onion and cilantro. You also get a nice sized portion which is great since the dish is so tasty !

This recipe came an issue of Food Network Magazine.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Food Network Magazine.

Take care everybody !

Mall Chicken Teriyaki

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into small chunks
  • 3 ½ tablespoons mirin
  • 3 ½ tablespoons soy sauce (we used low-sodium soy sauce)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons dark soy sauce (we didn’t find any bottles in our town that mentioned their soy sauce was dark so we just used more regular low-sodium soy sauce)
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon grated ginger
  • 1 ½ teaspoons sesame oil (we used toasted sesame oil)
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • Steamed rice, to serve

Directions

  1. Get a large mixing bowl out and add everything to it (excluding the 2 tablespoons of oil and steamed rice).
  2. Stir everything in the mixing bowl until the marinade looks thoroughly combined and the chicken is thoroughly coated in the marinade. Stick the bowl in the refrigerator while the chicken marinates for 2 hours.
  3. Now that the 2 hours have passed, take a wok or large skillet out (we went with a skillet) and pour the two tablespoons of oil into it, turning the heat up to medium-high. Once the oil’s hot, take the chicken out of the mixing bowl (leave the marinade in the bowl for now) and add it to the skillet, making sure the chicken is kept in a single layer (so everything gets cooked equally) and don’t stir it for a minute so that it can get a nice sear on that side touching the skillet.
  4. After that minute passes, start stirring the chicken around constantly for an additional minute before pouring the marinade in, turning the heat down to medium afterwards. Let the sauce simmer, continuing to stir the chicken around in the skillet. Once the sauce looks thicker and is coating the chicken and the chicken is fully cookedqu, take the skillet off the heat and serve immediately over that steamed rice.
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As soon as you take a bite of the chicken, it really does take you back to eating teriyaki chicken in the mall. The chicken is juicy and tender, and as far as the sauce goes, it has some sweetness to it but it’s not overwhelmingly sweet and it creates a sticky texture once it coats the chicken.

We got this recipe from Woks of Life.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Woks of Life.

Take care everybody !

Shrimp & Shiitake Stir-Fry with Crispy Noodles

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ tsp. cornstarch
  • ½ cup chicken broth (used Swanson’s reduced-sodium chicken broth)
  • 2 Tbsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce
  • 1 small head bok choy
  • 1 lb. uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (used 31-40 count)
  • 2 Tbsp. canola oil, divided
  • 2 Tbsp. minced fresh ginger root
  • 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced (used 2)
  • ½ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (we used 1 tsp.*)
  • 1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced (we used a yellow onion)
  • 2 cups sliced fresh shiitake mushrooms
  • ¼ cup chow mein noodles (we didn’t measure out how many we used)
  • Hot cooked brown rice, optional (we used it)

Directions

  1. In a small bowl, add the cornstarch, broth and soy sauce to it, stirring to combine until it’s smooth. Leave the bowl off to the side for now.
  2. Take the bok choy and cut off the root end, leaving the stalks with their leaves. Now slice off the leaves so you’ve got leaves in one pile and the stalks in another. Slice the leaves and stalks, leaving them off to the side in their separate piles.
  3. Take a large skillet or wok out (we used a skillet) and pour one tablespoon of canola oil into it. Set the heat to medium and once the oil’s hot, toss the shrimp in to cook until it turns pink. Take it out immediately and put it on a plate, covering it afterwards to help keep the shrimp warm.
  4. Pour the rest of the canola oil into the skillet. Now add the ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes to the skillet, stirring it around for one minute. Now place the onion, mushrooms, and bok choy stalk slices into the skillet, continuing to cook and stir constantly for 4 minutes. Add the bok choy leaves in and cook for 2-4 minutes or until the vegetables are crisp-tender (2 minutes did the job for us).
  5. Take the cornstarch mixture you stirred together in step one and pour it into the skillet. Wait for a boil to occur and then stir for 2 minutes or until the sauce has thickened (2 minutes worked well for us). Toss the shrimp back into the skillet, cooking just long enough for the shrimp to warm up (should only take mere seconds to occur). Spread the chow mein noodles over the dish. Serve the skillet mixture over the rice if you want to.

Serves 4.

*The first time we had this, we didn’t feel like it had enough heat so we decided to double it. We got the heat we wanted but it did result in some coughing, sneezing, and runny noses.

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This is such a scrumptious dish ! The bok choy stalk has a crunch to it which is a nice contrast against some of the softer things in the dish. The bok choy also provides a nice level of bitterness that isn’t overpowering at all. The sauce has a little bit of sweetness to it. The shrimp was juicy and tender and the flavor of the shrimp still came through at the end. There’s definitely a spicy component to this dish now ! Eating this with brown rice does cut down on the heat some and the rice will make you feel fuller with less of the skillet mixture. The chow mein noodles don’t have any flavor really but they add a really nice crunch to the dish ! We did decide it was better to just add the noodles onto our portions so we could have as little or as much as we wanted per plate.

Recipe source unknown.

We weren’t paid in any form to mention Swanson.

Take care everybody !

Spicy Shrimp Fried Cauliflower Rice

Ingredients

  • 8 oz. fresh or frozen medium shrimp in shells, peeled and deveined (we used frozen shrimp)
  • 1 (1 ¾- to 2-lb.) head cauliflower, broken into florets (5 cups) (our cauliflower was in that weight range but we only got 3 cups)
  • 1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil (we used extra-virgin olive oil)
  • 4 tsp. grated fresh ginger
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 cups coarsely chopped napa cabbage
  • 1 cup coarsely shredded carrots
  • ½ tsp. sea salt
  • ½ tsp. crushed red pepper
  • 1/3 cup sliced green onions
  • 2 Tbsp. snipped fresh cilantro
  • Lime wedges

Directions

  1. If you’re using frozen shrimp like us then thaw the shrimp first by running it under cold water, patting it dry afterwards. Doing it in multiple batches, add some of the cauliflower into a food processor, pulsing until it’s broken into rice-size pieces.
  2. Take an extra-large wok or skillet out (we used a skillet) and pour the sesame oil in, setting the heat to medium. Once the oil’s hot, add in the eggs, stirring them around gently until the eggs are cooked. Take the eggs out of the skillet and let them cool down a bit before cutting them into strips.
  3. Using the same skillet you just cooked the eggs in, pour the olive oil in, turning the heat up to medium-high. Toss the ginger and garlic in, stirring constantly for 30 seconds. Add cabbage and carrots in next, stirring for 2 minutes or until the vegetables have started to soften (2 minutes worked for us). Add the cauliflower rice in, continuing to stir for another 4 minutes or until the cauliflower starts to soften (the rice was so small, it was hard to tell when it started to soften so we just cooked it for the 4 minutes). Now stir in the shrimp, salt, and crushed red pepper, stirring until the shrimp’s fully cooked. Toss in the egg strips and green onions, stirring just long enough for them to get heated.
  4. Take the skillet off the heat and sprinkle the cilantro over the shrimp mixture, serving it with lime wedges on the side.

Serves 4 (1 ½ cups each)

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This was the first time we’d ever made cauliflower rice so maybe it’s something we did but there’s just no mistaking this as actual rice, it was too soft. With all that being said though, the flavors of this dish were on point ! Adding some raw green onion slices to this gives it a nice crunch component that’d  be missing from the dish otherwise. Squeezing some lime juice over your serving makes the dish that much tastier. There’s also some heat to this but it’s not so strong that it’s all you can taste.

This recipe came from a Better Homes & Gardens magazine.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Better Homes & Gardens.

Take care everybody !