Tag Archives: Stirfry

Easy “Take out” Orange Chicken

Posted on November 3, 2010 | Leave a comment

I saw a commercial that was advertising that it’s pre-made frozen chinese entrée was faster than getting take out. This made me pause. What if I could make a healthier alternative that was faster than their 30 minute deadline. Wouldn’t that be better? So, I timed myself. Oh yeah…22 minutes, 46 seconds from raw materials to plated “take out”. I really didn’t even have to rush that much. Heh.

  • 1 lb boneless, skinless, chicken breast cut into cubes
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 pkg sugar free orange jello dry mix
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 tbl flour
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1/5 cup sliced water chestnuts
  • 1 green onion, sliced
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • pepper to taste
  • More veggie stuff if you prefer, I only used what I had on hand for this experiment. I imagine peppers would be great in this too. *not in nutritional calculation*
  1. Season chicken with garlic and black pepper.
  2. Heat a skillet or wok to medium. Cook chicken until cooked through.
  3. While chicken is cooking combine water, flour, lemon juice, soy sauce and jello in a bowl and set aside.
  4. Once the chicken is cooked add the water chestnuts. Cook 3-4 minutes.
  5. Add the sauce, cook an additional 2-3 minutes or until the sauce thickens.
  6. Plate and garnish with green onion.

Makes enough to serve 4. Each serving contains 120 calories, 1 gram of fat and .7 grams of fibre. Bet you that pre-made entrée doesn’t have great nutritionals like that! Absolutely great on steamed rice. My husband likes his orange chicken spicier so he added garlic chili sauce to his. Very nummy for those spicy folks out there.

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Posted in Craving Buster, Dinner

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Korean Style Stirfry

Posted on February 21, 2010 | Leave a comment

Another one of those flabuless full of veggie asian style dishes. I love these because they are almost a one dish meal and when you are in a hurry or lazy from a day of gaming and working out (yay weekends) these are so great! It used to be that when these what we call hungrylazy times would happen we would hasten to the takeout menu file or some sort of fast food might be discussed. Well…times have had to change. This can be thrown together in the same amount of time it would take for a pizza guy to get here or to drive down the hill and pick up something. Hmmm.

Looks pretty tasty doesn’t it? It sure tasted better than fast food and left me feeling better afterwards. Sometimes fast food just doesn’t make my tummy happy. Our stirfry had 239 calories and 6.6 grams of fat approximately for three servings. Here’s what we did.

  • 8 ounces sirloin steak sliced
  • 4 tbsp red wine
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 cup carrots, chopped
  • 1 cup celery, chopped
  • 1 cup savoy cabbage, sliced
  • 4 tbsp green onion, sliced
  • 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp ginger root, grated
  1. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of soy sauce on the sliced beef and allow to marinade for atleast 30 minutes.
  2. Combine the remaining soy sauce, hoisin, and red pepper flakes in a bowl. This will be your sauce.
  3. Heat your wok or skillet over medium high heat. Spray with cooking spray and add the beef. Stirfry until cooked. Remove and keep aside in a bowl.
  4. Add the garlic and ginger to the pan. Stirfry until fragrant, usually just a few seconds. Add the carrots and celery. Add a bit of water to start a bit of a steam usually just a tablespoon or two. Cook for a few minutes until starting to get tender. Add the cabbage and green onions. Cook until desired tenderness.
  5. Add the sauce and the beef and stirfry until the sauce has reached the desired consistency.

This dish is awesome served on rice or noodles. Don’t forget to count the calories for your side dish. Sometimes we like to add water chestnuts and bamboo shoots to our stirfry. I totally forgot to add them this time. When you do add them the calories for this dish become 266 calories and 6.7 grams of fat for three servings. Completely worth it though for the crunch and slightly bigger portion that leaves you nice and full.

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Not so bad for you Mu Shu Pork

Posted on February 17, 2010 | Leave a comment

I love chinese food. When my mom went to university she worked in an authentic chinese restaurant. So as you can imagine when I was a little hobbit I was introduced to more exotic cuisine at a very early age…and thrived on it. This recipe is by no means “authentic” but it is tasty. For my mu shu wrappings I like to use rice paper. They keep in the cupboard forever, so you can always have them on hand, and they are much lower in calories than say a tortilla. I found that four of them totals 124 calories approximately. Your average tortilla can be anywhere from 50-100 calories for just one. Also I have heard tell that those rice papers are gluten free, no confirmation on that but happy news for any celiacs looking for fun foods to eat.

The fun thing I find about Mu shu is how versatile it really is. Don’t have cabbage? Thats cool sub in another veggie or skip it. No pork? How about chicken or beef or even tofu instead? All of it makes for tasty moshu as long as you stick to the basic sauce and wrapper concept.

  • 1 lb pork tenderloin or any other meat or substitute
  • 2 tbl white wine
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • 2 shalot, sliced
  • 2 carrots, julienne
  • 2 stalks of celery, sliced
  • 1 cup savoy cabbage, sliced optional

Sauce

  • 4 tbl white wine
  • 2 tbl soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
  • 2 tsp garlic chili sauce (optional, we like our mu shu to have some kick)
  • 1 tbl flour
  1. Combine the ingredients for the sauce in a separate bowl. I usually start with the flour and build by slowly adding liquid to it to avoid lumps.
  2. Cut your meat into thin strips and coat with 2 tbl of white wine and 2 tsp of soy sauce.
  3. Heat your wok or skillet over medium high heat. Give that pan a spray of non stick cooking spray. Add the pork. Stirfry until cooked through, approximately 4-5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
  4. Add the garlic to the wok, stirfry until fragrant approximately 30 seconds. Add the shalots, stirfry another minute and then add the carrots and celery. Stirfry until slightly softened, approximately 3-4 minutes. Add the cabbage and a couple of tbl of water. Stirfry until the water has evaporated and the cabbage wilts.
  5. Add the pork and the sauce. Cook, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens. This usually only takes a minute.
  6. To prepare the rice paper I find all you have to do is douse it under some water for just a second and allow it to soften out of the water on your plate for about a minute.
  7. Then put your filling in, wrap it up, and enjoy!

This recipe serves 4. With the rice wraps each serving is 334 calories. Sometimes we go hog wild on this and it will only serve two of us…we are very naughty about this recipe at times because it is just so tasty! That and 668 calories for dinner isn’t really all that bad when you work out earlier in the day. Sorry the picture is a bit cloudy…thats the steam. Mmmmm! This is great for those times you start craving some chinese take out.

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