Vegetable Lo Mein

Something I've always ordered when we get Chinese takeout is either lo mein or chow mein, I will always choose noodles over fried rice! Here on the west coast chow mein has fried noodles, but they are not super crunchy or crispy. At least not anything I've had here in California. The chow mein here has the same noodles as lo mein, but they are stir fried separately instead of tossed in at the end. The noodles do have a slight crunch and more chew to them, but I would still consider the noodles to be soft. Especially since they soften over time and when you get takeout there's some time between when it's cooked and when you get it home. The main difference other than the crunchier noodles is chow mein tends to only have a couple of vegetables like celery and cabbage. Lo mein generally has a plethora of vegetables, which is why I prefer to make lo mein at home.

This recipe was a bit of an ordeal, it took over a week to perfect and six attempts total to get the right sauce. The short story is I started with a stir fry sauce recipe from another blog, combined that with a yakisoba sauce recipe to make a sort of hybrid sauce since I love that spice that yakisoba has. It was all wrong. So I started to try other recipes I saw online, and come to find out I don't really love hoisin in my sauce because of the five spice, white pepper isn't as good to me as black pepper, and I don't really like using sherry in the recipe either (most recipes call for Chinese cooking wine but say sherry can be substituted). I also found that while I love a bit of light colored soy sauce, having more than the amount of dark soy is just too salty to me. So when it comes down to it, this is a very basic sauce. I can't believe how many attempts it took, but there you have it. The flavor and type of lo mein I had been wanting to achieve. I will include my little list of tips at the bottom of the page if you're interested, but otherwise enjoy the recipe!

Spicy Peanut Chicken and Noodles

  If you love noodles but hate the carbs that come with them, this recipe is for you. I try to keep it low carb most days. Eating high carb meals gives me stomach aches and makes me feel tired and sluggish. The problem is, I love carbs! It's a struggle, but meals like this give me my carb fix with doing damage. This noodle dish is creamy, spicy, sweet, crunchy, and satisfying. 

Beef Pho for Under 200 Calories!

Well hello, we meet again. It has been quite some time since I've published a blog post. My absence is due to many reasons, one of the main ones being that I recently published a book! That's right, I wrote a book using iBooksAuthor and my book is now published to the iTunes store. If you have an iPad you can download it for $1.99, it's called "Healthy and Homemade Recipes" ^_^ 

Spicy Asian Chicken Stir Fry, under 250 calories

  Oh don't worry, you haven't been redirected to the wrong page. The dish pictured above was indeed 218 calories total!

  The stir fry came out spicy and sweet with a hint of toasted sesame. More importantly it's super filling thanks to the lean chicken breast and Miracle Noodles. Check out Miracle Noodles (shirataki noodles) online if you haven't heard much about them, I bought mine off Amazon.

Noodle Free Chicken Lo Mein

 Low carb diets are difficult for me because I can't have the pasta. Recently I made chicken pad thai using Daikon Radish instead of noodles and it was fantastic! It greatly inspired me to try out lo mein. This dish is ordinarily made using spaghetti noodles, so instead I decided to use cabbage. This isn't a zero calories meal, but it's a great deal healthier than authentic Chinese food. I can't wait to try it with shrimp or beef next time!

Asian Citrus Tilapia

 I made this for dinner tonight and boy oh boy, it was so tasty. When I added the fish to the hot skillet the smell was just insane. It reminded the hubby and me of those buffalo mustard pretzel chunks. Yum! I served this up alongside sauteed spinach and a few slices of roma tomato with a small drizzle of balsamic. Feel free to use another white fish if you don't have tilapia on hand or available!

Marinated Grilled Chicken and Spinach Salad

Oh yes. That's some lovely grilled (I like it more on the charred side . . .) chicken!! I served this over a spinach salad and a side of sweet potato chips. If you're wondering about the color of the sweet potatoes and wondering why they aren't a reddish-orange, that's because there are two types of sweet potatoes. The orange ones are incorrectly labeled as "yams" here in the states. In fact, yams have a very dark skin and purple flesh; here it's regulation to label the yellow and less sweet-sweet potatoes as sweet potatoes, and the dark orange much sweeter sweet potatoes as yams. Get it? Yeah, it's very strange.

Chicken Satay Lettuce Wraps

I saw these on Rachael Ray the other day and just HAD to try them. If you've been to PF Changs, or some other fancy Chinese bistro, then you've probably seen lettuce wraps on the menu. You've also probably seen the price, which is around $8.00. Okay now, doesn't that seem just a little ridiculous? The appetizer is made from: chicken, lettuce, sauce. Okay seriously, eight bucks?! Chicken, lettuce, sauce. Chicken is extraordinarily cheap (I'm talking $3/pound and that's for chicken breasts, you could use a cheaper cut), lettuce is standard in a kitchen, and the sauces are made from ingredients already in your own pantry. Oh also, they don't even put it together for you! You choose your sauce, the lettuce is separate from the chicken; all the chefs really did was cook the chicken for you. You can get crab wontons (which sound much more complicated) for less money. Nonetheless, you're in luck! I happen to have an amazing recipe for said wraps ^_^

Cashew and Peanut Fried Tofu

I had mentioned a couple weeks ago that I ate at Siam Best up in LA and it was beyond amazing. My sister J. and I shared cashew nut tofu and garlicky broccoli. I had been wanting to replicate the dish for weeks now and I think I nailed something similar! My ingredient list is totally lame and I didn't measure every single thing but the sauce is super simple and frying tofu is a breeze.

Fried Tofu & Peanut Satay Stir Fry

Cooking for one can be a challenge sometimes, especially when we have random ingredients in the pantry and fridge. Armed with a block of tofu, frozen vegetables, a jar of peanut satay, and hope for an awesome meal I called my mother and we came up with an idea for something quite amazing. If I had more ingredients, or the will to go to the grocery store . . . this meal definitely would have possessed the potential to be restaurant quality. Instead, I came up with something delicious and healthy on the fly.

Homemade Tortilla Chips and Guacamole

Here is another wonderful recipe for summer! Luckily, living in California there are always ripe avocados available . . . even in Winter! =) I actually made a quick little crappy video on frying the chips. These can easily be baked as well, I just think they taste better fried =P

Sticky Lemon Chicken with Vegetable Fried Rice

I am beyond relieved it's almost Friday. This week has been eventful, and I'm exhausted! I didn't get a chance to eat dinner until 10 pm today. Totally crazy, but it was worth the wait!

Tofu and Avocado "Sandwich"

Hello again! Two food posts in one day, yay for me finally getting my a$$ into gear! Tonight's dinner was a very quick and simple vegetarian "sandwich." I quote sandwich because there isn't actually bread involved. You'll see what I mean. If you're ready to make a delicious Asian inspired tofu and avocado concoction then get your frying pan ready and heat up some oil!

Teriyaki Chicken Drummers with White Rice & Stir Fried Veggies

Hello gorgeous!! Those are some lovely legs. Easy dish to make, if you don't like teriyaki you can definitely use a different type of marinade.

Spring Rolls

These are really simple and easy to make, and you can use almost any veggies (preferably whatever you have around the house that needs to be used up). For these rolls I used carrots, onion, and zucchini then topped with sesame seeds and fresh mint. To be honest, this was definitely not my favorite combo. The mint made them a little gritty and the veggies didn't taste all that great together. My favorite combo so far is red bell pepper and carrots and cilantro, instead of mint. I also used lemon juice because I thought I was out of lime, then realized I had a fresh lime in the fridge I could have cut up. Whoops! Also, I usually use the Asian Veggie Patties by Morning Star Farms, but I didn't have any so I used the regular veggie patties and it just wasn't the same! Those Asian patties taste so good!

Ooodles of Noodles

This completes the sixth day of eating nothing but noodles for lunch, and sometimes dinner. I tend to follow recipe measurements pretty closely, or I half them. This particular recipe calls for a pound of spaghetti pasta, and without thinking I went ahead and cooked the whole pound =/ Obviously, a whole pound of noodles for two people is a wee bit excessive . . . With that, we've been doing some hardcore noodle eating around here! This recipe was adapted from Everyday Dish TV (an awesome vegan recipe website).