Friday Night Food

Jeremiah is a big fan of Chinese Food. I, on the other hand, care for it only sporadically. When we were dating, if I even started the sentence, "I think I'd like Chinese for..." -- "YES!" was Jeremiah's immediate response :D He was always ready. 

As we've been discovering dairy seems to be hard for 3/5 of our family, we have decided to forgo Friday night as pizza night. So I have begun to make Chinese food instead. It takes a bit more effort, but take-out is so expensive, I can't justify getting that every week. So I've been working on getting a few recipes in rotation, so we don't get bored, but also get to enjoy our favorites. 

I plan to share a few new recipes over the coming weeks/months (we'll see how long it takes for me to get around to it!). The first one is Chow Mein. I never realized how delicious Chinese noodles were until we lived in TX and I tried lo mein for the first time. I had only associated rice with Chinese food before. But I've found that I really enjoy the noodles! From Pioneer Woman's Dinnertime cookbook, this recipe is located in the 16- Minute Meal section. The first couple of times I made it, it proved to be closer to 30/35 minutes. Then I decided to prep all my veggies before we went to the pool one afternoon, we came home and I threw it all together, and Voila!, 16 minute meal indeed! So, my word of advice is to prep those veggies ahead of time and you'll be ready to get dinner on the table pretty quick! 

Shredded carrots, napa cabbage, and sliced onions, ready to cook! 

Since this was my main course for dinner, I chopped up a couple of chicken breasts I had cooked earlier in the week and added them to the noodles for protein. I decided to double the recipe (partly because I would never use that second half of the napa cabbage, so I figured we might as well use up the entire thing) I'm going to write out for you below and we ate a good lot of it, but also had some nice leftovers the next day.

Look at my adorable helper! 

Ingredients: 1 T. peanut oil 

1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced

1 cup julienned carrots

4 green onions, sliced

1/2 head napa cabbage, thinly sliced (I use the food processor.)

8 oz. thin Chinese noodles, cooked according to the package directions

1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce

1 tsp. sesame oil

Heat the peanut oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook for a couple of minutes, until it starts to soften. Add the carrots, and half the green onions, then stir and let the veggies cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the cabbage and cook for 2 minutes more, then add the noodles, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Toss it together, then add the rest of the green onions. Serve hot. -- from The Pioneer Woman Dinnertime cookbook. 

Our family really enjoys this recipe! I'm excited to share more of our favorites with you!