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. 

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.

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.

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.