Better Than Takeout
March 16, 2019 12:30 PM
Lately my meals have been inspired by random foods that are on sale at the grocery store. I decided to get some extra chicken breast (in case I needed a little more for that pizza), and it was on sale for $1.48/lb which I figured was a decent price. I also saw these 1lb bags of green beans for $1 each, and I impulse bought two of them.
I used two Woks of Life recipes. With the green beans, I decided to make Sichuan Dry Fried String Beans. I ordered this at a local Chinese restaurant once and they were delicious. They were also like $10, so when I saw that Woks of Life had a recipe for it, I had to try it.
Originally, I had intended to use both bag of green beans, but we ended up saving the second one for a different recipe. But that's why there's so much pork. I think I'll use a lot less pork next time, or even omit it completely.
We also made Thai Chicken Stir-fry with Basil and Mint. Except we didn't use mint. This had a very strong fish sauce smell, which is great, since I love fish sauce. I probably should have doubled the basil since I didn't use mint.
So delicious and way cheaper than takeout
Kung Pao Chicken
March 9, 2019 11:30 AM
I actually have no idea what Kung Pao Chicken even is, but I saw this recipe on Jessica Gavin's site and I basically had everything I needed to make it, so I figured why not.
We first had to make candied walnuts, and I took no part in this process since my sister knows how to do this, and if I were making this on my own, I would skip the walnuts altogether. I think it probably tastes better without the walnuts, anyway.
It did make the dish look nice though. Overall, the dish was very sweet and probably could have used something like fish sauce to give it a better flavor. But hey, this was certainly way cheaper and probably healthier than takeout.
Stir Fried Veggies and Chicken
February 23, 2019 6:26 AM
Somehow in all our cooking, I feel like we have too much food and not enough food at the same time. We're just always running out of vegetables! I am very adamant about having vegetables in every meal I cook. I can leave out meat, or I can leave out a starchy element, but I need vegetables. And I found myself going to the grocery store almost every day just because I needed more veggies.
So I decided to subscribe to a service that delivers produce on a regular basis. I kept seeing ads for Misfits Market on Facebook, and I wanted to give it a try. My first box contained the above produce and at full price, it's $23.50. This is what their site says:
We ship fresh, imperfect produce for up to 50% less than what you pay in stores.
I'll say this. The produce is probably better looking than what I get at Aldi, but definitely not cheaper. But then again, the Misfits Market produce is organic, and I never look at the organic section in Aldi.
But, on to the meal I cooked!
Since I had an eggplant, I needed an eggplant recipe. The first idea that came to my mind was to stir fry it, so I checked The Woks of Life and I saw Stir-fried Eggplant, Potatoes, and Peppers. I had some potatoes in my box of produce and some bell peppers in the fridge so that was perfect.
I always think of stir fry as a really easy method of cooking, but this was kind of complicated, with the putting things in the wok and taking them out, and putting them back in later.
And just because it is nice to have meat in my meals, I also made Thai Peanut Chicken from Budget Bytes. Chicken drumsticks are still on sale at Aldi! We added more fish sauce to the marinade and also upped the amount of soy sauce.
It was a lot more effort than I wanted to put in for a weeknight meal, but it was delicious.
Odds 'n Ends
February 10, 2019 8:50 AM
Just another post of three recipes that I'm lumping together for no apparent reason. All of these recipes are from Budget Bytes.
Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry
Remember that salad we had a while ago? Well we turned the rest of the cabbage into stir fry.
My mom bought me this huge 6 quart pan years ago, and I finally took it out of the box. Which was a good idea, because the first time I ever stir fried cabbage I spilled it everywhere since it barely fit in the pan.
Fluffy Garlic Herb Mashed Potatoes
Well, at least I think that's what recipe my sister used. I was feeling mentally drained after work on Friday, so she cooked this on her own.
Our mashed potatoes weren't really all that fluffy since they were only hand mashed. But I personally like it with chunks. I know my sister deviated from the recipe, but that was mostly because she didn't really measure everything.
Oh, and she added a whole head of roasted garlic.
German Potato Salad
And this is what I used the other half of the potatoes for.
I probably should have cut the potatoes before boiling them because I think they still had a bit of a crunch in the middle. Oh well, I've talked to people that eat potatoes raw so I figured it's okay.
If I make this again, I would cut the potatoes in half before boiling, and also use way more bacon than it calls for. I doubled the bacon, but it still felt like it could have used more.
