Chow Mien

In our effort to "eat healthy", we've been working out some new recipes.

This one was quite tasty! The hardest part is actually the prep time as the cooking takes only about 10 minutes --- the slicing and dicing took about half an hour


This would easily feed four, or be one dinner for two and two lunches that would easily reheat in the microwave


1/2 pound lean pork or chicken thigh meat
3 medium size carrots
4 ribs of celery
1 red or green pepper
5 green onions
6 to 8 medium mushrooms
1 cup mung bean sprouts (or 1 14 oz can)
1 5 oz can bamboo shoots
1 5 oz can water chestnuts
2 tsp corn starch
1 cup chicken broth
3 Tbls soy sauce
2 Tbls peanut oil
2 packages raman noodles (throw the sauce packets away)



Prep:
slice the meat into thin slices (tip: its easier to slice really thin if the meat is partially frozen, so if its fresh, put it in the freezer for about an hour and a half before this step -- a really sharp knife helps too)

In a sealable container or a zip bag, put the corn starch and the meat -- toss well to coat all the surfaces

Slice the carrots and the celery on the diagonal into thin pieces

Cut pepper into strips

Cut green onions into pieces about 2 inches long

Slice the mushrooms

Drain the canned veggies

Mix the soy sauce and the chicken broth together


Cooking:
Put pan of water for cooking raman noodles on heat to bring to a boil (water should be boiling before you start cooking the meat and veggies)

In a large heavy saute pan (or a wok if you have one), heat 1 tbls of the peanut oil. Cook the meat quickly, keep it moving and do not over brown. Remove meat from pan.

Add second tbls of oil to pan. Starting with the carrots and celery, add veggies to pan. After about a minute add peppers, onions and mushrooms. After another minute, add canned veggies and return meat to the pan. Stir to mix well.

Pour broth/soy sauce mixture over pan, cover.

Drop noodles into boiling water.

After 3 minutes, remove from heat.

Serve veggie mix over raman noodles.

Just one more thought about using chicken instead of pork – using toasted sesame oil instead of peanut oil – the taste just seems to go together!