Lettuce Wraps and Asian Cucumber Salad

Well, we made it through snowmageddon and for the first time in 13 years my work was closed. Woo hooo! Well, not really. I thought I would enjoy snow days more, but instead of relaxing I spent it shoveling for 5 hours so I could get my car out just in case I had work the next day. My brother and I (with my husband supervising since he cant move his back still) shoveled the sideway, our cars, and our part of the alley out. Then we realized no one else was shoveling so we shoveled 4 more houses to the left. On the right was a 10 ft hill that a bulldozer created early in the morning cutting off one side of the alley. Once we shoveled 4 houses down, we realized that there were around 4 more houses to go. By this time two other guys from other houses had come out and suggested we take on the hill instead. So we did the hill and every part of me still aches... plus I was really angry with our neighbors who live under us. When we first came out, they came by (from a friends house) and laughed. When we asked for help, they said they had a snow blower and we asked that they bring it. They left and didn't came back until we finished everything. We even texted them while shoveling and no help. The next snow day I spent the whole day working on an IEP and I would like to complain about that too, but you never know who reads things on the Internet, so all I have to say is that I find some people's work ethic disgusting.

The day before the snow I went shopping and wanted something that tasted fresh. I had looked at a lettuce wrap recipe from This Week For Dinner and kept it in mind when shopping. My husband hates tofu (I have no idea why, it is so bland and sucks up any sauce that it is) so I had to make a vegetarian and a meat option.

2 Types of Lettuce Wraps

Adapted from This Week For Dinner

Ingredients

1 pound of pork chops (sliced up into small bits) or ground chicken, pork, turkey, etc

1 container of tofu, cubed

1 onion, chopped into small cubes

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 Tbs of fresh ginger, minced

1 can of water chestnuts, chopped

1 container of fresh shiitake mushrooms, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped into small cubes

1 Tbs of soy sauce

1/4 cups of hoisin

1 Tbs of sherry

1 Tbs of Asian chili pepper sauce

1/2 cup toasted cashews, chopped

1 bunch of green onions

2 tsp of sesame oil

1 - 2 heads of butter or bibb lettuce

1 Tbs of hoisin sauce

3 Tbs of plum sauce

If Making Both Types

Add a Tbs of oil in a large skillet and saute garlic, onions and ginger over medium heat until soft. Add mushrooms and bell peppers and saute for a minute or two. Then add soy sauce, hoisin, sherry and chili pepper sauce and simmer for a few more minutes. Stir in chopped water chestnuts and then remove from heat. Put into two bowls. Cook the pork by sprinkling with salt and pepper sauteing for a few minutes until no longer pink. Mix in with ingredients in one bowl. Put a Tbs of oil in pan for tofu and wait till hot. Put in tofu and cook until it is as browned as you like. Put tofu in other bowl and mix with other ingredients. Add 1 tsp of sesame oil, half of the cashews, and half of the green onions in each bowl. Serve with lettuce leaves and dipping sauce.

If Making Just Pork

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add pork (seasoned with salt and pepper to taste), onions and garlic and cook until pork is cooked through. Then add mushrooms and bell peppers and saute for a minute or two. Add soy sauce, hoisin, sherry and chili pepper sauce and simmer for a few more minutes. Stir in chopped water chestnuts and then remove from heat. Add 1 tsp of sesame oil, cashews, and green onions and mix in a bowl. Serve with lettuce leaves and dipping sauce.

If Making Just Tofu

Add a Tbs of oil in a large skillet and saute garlic, onions and ginger over medium heat until soft. Add mushrooms and bell peppers and saute for a minute or two. Then add soy sauce, hoisin, sherry and chili pepper sauce and tofu and simmer for a few more minutes. Stir in chopped water chestnuts and then remove from heat. Add 1 tsp of sesame oil and green onions and mix in a bowl. Serve with lettuce leaves and dipping sauce.

Dipping Sauce

Mix together hoisin and plum sauce and serve!

Asian Cucumber Salad

Ingredients

1 large seedless cucumber, peeled, sliced in half then cut in 1/2 inch slices

2 Tbs of chopped onion

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 cup rice vinegar (unseasoned)

Toasted sesame seeds

Put the cucumber in a bowl and mix with onion. Heat the vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan on low heat until sugar is dissovled. Pour on top of cucumber mixture. Cool in refrigerator for an hour or more. Tastes great the next day. Sprinkle on toasted sesame seeds.

Grilled Asian Noodle Salad

I just finished making around 5 pounds of fudge (I'll post them up later). We are going to my husband's bar's holiday party tonight (yes, it is in the middle of January--after the holiday craziness has stopped). As owners we have to put together the celebration and I spent 6 hours this week wrapping presents. I am so sick of presents! We play a game at the party, which came from his family. We wrap good and funny gifts- for example you could get a shamwow or an ipod, a box of noodles with a $50 gift certificate taped to the outside or one without one, a microwave or a box with a pillow pet. In the game you have two dice. You roll the dice and if you get doubles you get to pick a present. If you open the present, you are out of the game, but if you keep playing you can accumulate more presents. The problem is, if someone else rolls doubles, they can steal your present from you. This year there are soooo many presents so I'll be glad when it is done (2 hours and counting until I have to leave and try to put the presents in 2 cars).

So last week was my week of trying to clear out my fridge. I had random ingredients that my husband and I had bought and wanted to make sure that I could use them up before they went bad. I was able to make two different fresh dishes with what I had in the fridge, so I was happy. It was also the first time that I had used the small eggplants, they are really cute!

Grilled Asian Noodle Salad

Adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients

6 small eggplants (unpeeled, cut on diagonal into 1/3 inch thick slices)

2 containers of fresh shiitake mushrooms (stemmed)

2 bunches of green onions (trimmed so you have green and white)

1 15 oz box of asian rice noodles

2 cups of sugar snap peas (trimmed)

1/4 cup of sesame oil

3/4 cup of hoisin sauce

1/2 cup of fresh lime juice

3 tsp of grated lime peel

3 Tbs of minced fresh ginger

3 Tbs of toasted sesame seeds

Salt and pepper to taste

Place eggplants, mushrooms and onions in a bowl. Add sesame oil and toss to coat. Add salt and pepper. Grill vegetables (I used a grill pan) turning often until the vegetables are tender. Cut mushrooms and onions if you would like.

Boil a pot of water. Drop in sugar snap peas and cook for 1 minute. Take out and place in a bowl of ice water. Use the water to cook the rice noodles. Put into a serving bowl and add in vegetables.

Whisk hoisin sauce, lime juice, lime peel and ginger together. Add to noodles and toss. Add toasted sesame seeds and serve.

Savory Stuffed Apples

This is one of my favorite recipes. I really like the Vegetarian Times "stuffed" recipes. My first true vegetarian dish in this "vegetarian diet exploration" was their stuffed peppers and they were so awesome that I didn't mind just eating vegetables. I made this before with apples that I got from the apple orchard (They had fallen apart so I wasn't able to take pictures) and they were much better than the apples that I just got from the grocery store out of season. Again, I wish there was an apple orchard around here. The one I went to in October was a good 100+ miles away but I so missed the smell that you savor when you walk into a apple orchard store along with apple cider and apple cider doughnuts. They also had the most amazing vidalia onion tomato salad dressing. I really wish I remembered when kind it was so I could try to find my own recipe.

Savory Stuffed Apples

Adapted from Vegetarian Times

Ingredients

1 cup of vegetable broth

2 cups of water

1/2 cup of wild rice

1/4 cup of quinoa

2 Tbs olive oil

1 cup of shiitake mushrooms (finely chopped)

1/4 cup of red onion (finely chopped)

2 tsp of dried sage

1/4 cup cranberries (chopped)

4 medium apples (I used red delicious)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bring 1 cup of water and vegetable broth to a boil in a saucepan. Add wild rice and reduce to medium low. Cover and cook for 50 minutes. Then stir in the quinoa and cook for 20 minutes more or until most of the water is absorbed.

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat and saute mushrooms for around 7 minutes. Stir in the sage and wild rice and turn the heat to medium high heat. Cook for 2 - 3 minutes to meld flavors. Then remove from heat and fold in cranberries.

Cut the apples in half through the stem and scoop out the core and seeds with a spoon, leaving a 1/4 in thick wall around the sides. Fill the apple halves with the rice mixture. Place it in a large baking dish and fill the baking dish with 1 cup of water (or 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup apple cider). Cover tightly with foil and bake for 45 min - 1 hour (until apples are soft)

Spinach Mushroom Fried Rice

I had a craving for spinach. Wow, that is weird to say. I'm still getting used to eating mostly vegetables and actually liking veggies that I would never have tried a year ago. My favorite spinach dish to make and to eat is a Korean side dish with garlic, soy sauce, and sesame seed oil (one of the best condiments ever). I've always made it with baby leaf spinach because that was what was on sale, and for some reason thought that all spinach was the tender small leaves. When I bought spinach for dinner this time, I bough the regular kind, and figured out that regular spinach is not one of my favorites. I was surprised there really aren't any spinach fried rice recipes out there, so I made one myself.

Does everyone ever plan making fried rice ahead of time? I always come up with the idea right before I make it. So I make the rice in the microwave, throw it in a baking dish, then into the freezer to cool it down. It would probably taste better being a day old but it still tastes good!

Spinach Mushroom Fried Rice

Ingredients

2 cups of dried Jasmine rice

3 cups of water

Vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon sesame seed oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon minced ginger

4 tablespoons soy sauce

6 green onions, thinly sliced

3/4 cup of fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup of thinly sliced bamboo shoots

1 cup of baby leaf spinach

Make the rice and cool.

Make scrambled eggs with the eggs and place on a plate. Place a tablespoon of oil in pan or wok and stir fry onion until soft. Add the garlic and ginger and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add 2 more tablespoons of vegetable oil and stir in cooked rice, green onions, bamboo shoots, and mushrooms. Toss and mix until very hot. Then sprinkle with soy sauce and sesame seed oil and mix. Remove from heat, add eggs and spinach. Mix.