Homemade Lo-Mein

Hi there food lovers!

Sorry my posts have been non-existent lately. I actually have been cooking quite a bit, but have lacked the motivation to get on and blog about it. I don't have any good excuses; I just have felt kind of blah about it lately. But this week I've been making some neat stuff every night, and each night has been something new that I've never made before or haven't made in a really long time. It's been refreshing this week which has given the motivation to get back in the swing of things. I think sometimes you just get stuck in a rut, and that makes it hard to get excited about what your cooking.

I really enjoy Chinese food. For me, it's right up there with pasta and Greek food. Pasta is my all time favorite, second is Greek (which funny enough has a lot of pasta-influence) and lastly would have to be Chinese food. There isn't much food I don't like, except for sushi. I can't touch that stuff…sorry sushi lovers!

I used to eat Chinese food a lot more than I do now, but I've cut back significantly because it's laden with excessive amounts of sodium and MSG and other bad things that make me bloat up like a puffer fish. I've been hankering for some lo-mein, and thought about stopping by my favorite little Chinese whole-in-the-wall restaurant, Jasmine ( by the Berkshire Publix in Naples). Then I thought to myself, why can't I just make some at home? I'd never done it before how hard could it be? Turns out, it's very easy and way healthier than what I would of gotten at Jasmine's.

I found authentic Lo-Mein noodles in the Chinese section at Publix. They came in a peculiar looking box named "China Boy." They were more expensive than regular pasta at about $1.69 a box, but I figured I would try them out and see if they were worth it.

I heated up about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in my pan over high heat. I have a wok that I should of used, but it was easier to use a regular pan than go hunt down the wok. Once the pan was hot, I grated fresh ginger root and garlic directly into the pan. Then I added very thinly sliced chicken breast and let those brown up nicely. After that had browned, I added snow peas, carrots and celery. I would of liked to have added broccoli as well, but I forgot to pick that up at the store. I added very little soy sauce, some Thai-chili sauce (Chris and I both like spicy food so I was pretty liberal with it) and a dash of some bottled stir-fry sauce from Kikkoman. I added the cooked lo-mein noodles, which cooked up very fast in about 4 minutes and combined all the ingredients together. This was one of those things that I knew just by looking at it that it was going to be yummy. One taste was I needed to confirm that fact! This was some great tasting stuff, and it was really easy and a lot healthier than I what I would of eaten had I of caved in and got take-out!

This made a ton of food. Chris and I both ate it for dinner that night, he took it for “pre” dinner with him the next day to school, and I still had enough left over to take for a good size lunch to take to work. Next time that I make it, I’m going to try to use whole-wheat thin spaghetti and see how that is. I’m also going to use pork next time and I think that will give it even more flavor than the chicken. I hope you try it and enjoy it as much as I did!

Cheers and Happy Cooking,

Rosie