Asian Zucchini Noodle Stir-Fry

First - this is supposed to be made with shrimp! I made this on a night when Will wasn't going to be home, so I just left the shrimp off and went veggie. But it would be delicious with shrimp, or even chicken too! The sauce is the best.

I'm posting the recipe WITH shrimp. Just skip that step if you keep it veggie.

1/2 c chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 c hoisin sauce
1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
2 tsp cornstarch
3 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced fresh ginger

1 lb jumbo shrimp, shelled and de-veined

1 medium bell pepper, sliced

1/2 c shredded carrots
2/3 c sliced red onions
1 c sugar snap peas
2 medium zucchini, cut into noodles (I used 4 smaller)

Toasted sesame seeds, for garnish

In a small bowl, whisk together the vegetable broth, hoisin sauce, soy sauce and cornstarch. Set the mixture aside.

Place a large sauté pan or wok over medium-low heat. Add 2 tbsp olive oil and and heat it for 1 minute. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the shrimp to the pan and cook, stirring as needed, until the shrimp are cooked throughout and pink on all sides, about 3 minutes. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper and then transfer them to a bowl, leaving any liquid in the pan.
Increase the heat to medium. Add the remaining 1 tbsp of olive oil to the pan, then add the bell pepper, carrots, red onions and snow peas and cook, stirring constantly, for 3 to 4 minutes until the vegetables are crisp but tender. Add the prepared sauce and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes until the sauce thickens slightly. 

Return the shrimp to the pan, stirring to combine, then add the zucchini noodles and cook, tossing to coat, for 1 minute. Transfer the stir-fry to serving plates, garnish with toasted sesame seeds and serve immediately.

Original recipe found here.

Turkey Sausage Peppers & Sweet Potato Hash

Clearly I'm obsessed with making stir-fry/skillets/stove-top meal since I've been out on summer break - 6 days now. :) I'm sure it's because typically these take a longer time to prep - all the veggie chopping and whatnot. But even so, I could always prep it on Sunday! Once it's prepped, it took less than 20 min to put together. So yummy.

The original recipe used kielbasa.. I used turkey sausage. I also added mushrooms, and instead of regular potatoes, I used sweet potatoes. I finally found a way Will will eat sweet potatoes - roasted, brown, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. So I roasted the sweet potatoes in the oven instead of cooking them in a separate skillet like the recipe called for.

Low carb and deliciousness all in one dish... mmmm!

1 (14 ounce) pkg turkey sausage, cut into 1/4 inch rounds
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, diced
6 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
3 small or 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
olive oil spray
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put foil on a baking sheet and spray with olive oil. Put the diced sweet potatoes in a bowl, and drizzle a little olive oil over them. Sprinkle some salt/pepper and toss. Spread the potatoes on the foil. Bake for about 15 minutes, toss, and then bake them about 10 more minutes. Remove from oven & set aside.

In a cast iron skillet sprayed with olive oil, brown the sliced turkey sausage for around 5 minutes over medium high heat. Remove the sausage from the pan and set aside. Spray pan, and add the peppers and onions to the skillet and season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for 4 minutes, or until softened, stirring occasionally. Add sliced mushrooms and stir for another minute or so. Last, add the cooked sweet potatoes and turkey sausage to the skillet with the onions/peppers/mushrooms and mix everything together. Serve nice and hot!

Original recipe found here.

"Fried" Zoodles and Veggies

Once the prep for this dish was done, I had it cooked in less than 10 minutes! During the school year, it would be easy to prep all the veggies on Sunday, then make the stir-fry Mon. or Tues. This is so low calorie, healthy, and delicious! If you haven't bought a spiralizer yet, you need one!! (I have this one from AmazonPrime!)

4 c zucchini peels (spiralized, mandolin, peeled, etc.) (I had 3 medium zucchini & used my spiralizer)
1/2 c diced white onion
1 1/2 c broccoli florets
1 bell pepper, chopped
6-8 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp minced garlic
2-3 tbsp light soy sauce
2 eggs
salt/pepper
olive oil cooking spray


Coat medium sized skillet with cooking spray and under medium heat scramble the eggs and set aside.

Spray a large pan with cooking spray, heat over medium-high heat, and add garlic. Cook for about 30 seconds, and add the onion and broccoli. Stir and continuing cooking for a few minutes. Add bell pepper and mushrooms, cooking 2-3 more minutes. Add in soy sauce, stir all veggies together. Add zucchini noodles, stir. Last, add in the scrambled egg. Give it a big stir, season with salt/pepper, and serve! YUM!!!

Original recipe found here.

Asian Beef & Vegetable Stir-Fry

This was the best! A favorite out of all the Asian stir-fry dishes I've made. (Click here for other Asian stir-fry recipes!) I found this super thin flat sliced sirloin at HEB. Side note - HEB is the best. Anyway, all I had to do was slice the thin, flat pieces into strips. The beef in takeout is always so thin, and that's one of the things I love. Most of the time I'm not able to get mine that thin, but thanks to HEB this was perfect!

The original recipe just included mushrooms and snow peas. I went ahead and added additional vegetables like bell peppers, broccoli, and then squash & green beans from my mom's garden! Steak delicious, sauce delicious, veggies delicious. Thumbs up big time!

Oh also - the original recipe called for serving over rice, which would be delicious. But trying not to cook with as many carbs right now. The extra veggies made it perfect and filling!

Homemade Asian Sauce:
1/2 cup light soy sauce (or low-sodium soy sauce)
5 tbsp brown sugar
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp ginger (I use the tube kind)
2 tap rice vinegar

Beef:
10 oz snow peas
4 tablespoons olive oil
10 oz mushrooms, sliced thinly
* Add whatever veggies - I added squash, green beans, broccoli, and bell peppers
1 lb beef, thinly sliced (sirloin steak strips, flank steak, or any other steak)


Combine all the sauce ingredients in a bowl - whisk to combine. Set aside.

Heat a large skillet until hot, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, let it sizzle. Immediately add thinly sliced meat. You might want to do this in 2 batches, because you will want each slice of meat to touch the bottom of the skillet and for meat slices not to be crowded - I was able to do all of mine in a really large pan. This will ensure that meat will brown on high heat. Cook meat on one side until it browns nicely. Turn over all meat slices to the opposite side, and cook more, on high heat, until all slices brown nicely. Remove this batch to a bowl. Add a second batch of meat, and repeat (if needed).

With meat sitting aside, add a little oil to the pan. Add in garlic and let cook for about 30 seconds. Then add your veggies you have - first I added the broccoli and green beans, cooked those for about 2 min. Next I added in the squash and snow peas, cooked those for maybe another 2 minutes. Last I put the mushrooms in, continued stir-frying for about 1 minute.

Return all of the cooked meat back to the skillet. Add in your prepared Asian sauce. On high heat - stir everything to combine, for about 1 minute. Turn off heat. Cover the skillet with a lid.
Serve over rice (if you want to!),

Original recipe found here.

Summer Veggie & Shrimp Stir-Fry

I can't think of a much better way to use all these amazing summer veggies! My mom is kind of notorious for making meals out of stir-frying a ton of different veggies together... except she usually likes her stir-fry with pasta! So this reminds me of her, I just wish I had the veggies from her garden to use! No pasta for us though - trying to reduce those unnecessary carbs. ;) This yummy recipe idea comes to you from The Pioneer Woman.

2 tbsp light butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp garlic, minced
12 whole jumbo shrimp, peeled/deveined (I just buy these frozen and thaw)
2 whole zucchini, sliced
2 ears corn, kernels sliced off (can also use frozen or canned)
1/2 c grape/cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
salt/pepper, to taste
chopped fresh herbs, if desired

After I thawed my frozen shrimp, I sprinkled salt, pepper, & garlic powder on them before cooking.

Heat 1 tbsp light butter and 1 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add minced garlic. When oil/butter is hot, add shrimp and cook for 3 minutes. Remove to a plate. Do not clean skillet.
Add the rest of the butter and oil and heat over medium heat. Add zucchini slices in a single layer and cook for one minute, tossing once. Scoot the zucchini to the edges of the pan, then add corn kernels to the middle of the pan. Cook for one minute. Add grape tomatoes, salt, and pepper, and toss around, then add shrimp. Cook for an additional 30 seconds, then remove from heat. Serve on a big platter.

Original recipe found here.

Ginger Beef, Mushroom, & Kale Stir-Fry

I wish Will would write about how much he loved this dish, because I can't describe it. It was amazing! Very easy too. MUST MAKE!

Marinade:

• 1/3 c light soy sauce
• 1/2 c vegetable broth
• 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Stir-Fry:

• 1 lb thinly sliced flank steak or sirloin, cut diagonally across the grain into thin strips
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 12 oz baby portobello or button mushrooms, halved
• 3 c chopped kale
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced

To make marinade: Add all marinade ingredients to a bowl and whisk to combine. Pour marinade into a large bowl or ziplock bag, then add in the steak and gently toss to combine. Cover/seal and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

To make the stir-fry: 

Once steak has marinated, heat 1 tbsp oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Remove steak from marinade with a slotted spoon, reserving the marinade, and add to saute pan with garlic. Saute for about 2-3 minutes until browned, stirring occasionally. Remove steak with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add mushrooms, kale, and reserved marinade to saute pan, and stir to combine. Cook for 3-4 minutes, until the kale is wilted, the sauce has thickened, and the mushrooms have cooked, stirring regularly so that sauce does not burn. Add in the steak, and toss to combine.

Serve immediately over rice or quinoa, garnished with chopped green onions.

Original recipe found here.

I made this with brown rice, honey roasted carrots, and roasted Parm asparagus. 

Stir-Fried Chinese Egg Noodles

Cooking Light posted a recipe for Stir-Fried Chinese Egg Noodles. I love anything Chinese and anything noodles, so I knew I couldn't go wrong! Delicious!! You could easily add meat to this and I think broccoli would be yummy too. 

• 8 oz Chinese egg noodles,
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 1 c sliced cremini mushrooms (I used baby bellas)
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 bundle green onions, sliced
• 1/4 c lower-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 1 tbsp dark sesame oil
• 1 tbsp ketchup
• 1 tbsp chili paste
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups spinach, trimmed

First, combine your sauce ingredients in a bowl: soy sauce, brown sugar, lime juice, sesame oil, ketchup, and chili paste. Set aside.

Go ahead and scramble your eggs in a small skillet, and set aside as well.

1. Boil water for the egg noodles. Cook according to package directions.
2. About the time you put the noodles in to cook (mine only needed 3 min), heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add canola oil to pan, and swirl to coat. Add mushrooms; sauté 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and green onions; sauté for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir soy sauce mixture into mushroom mixture; bring to a boil.
3. Add noodles to pan; toss to coat. Add eggs;  Remove from heat; stir in spinach. Enjoy!
   
   Original recipe found here.

Moo Shu Chicken

WOW. I do love Hungry Girl - and this is one of her awesome recipes. This is actually a moo shu pork recipe, but we made it with chicken!

1 1/2 tbsp reduced-sodium/lite soy sauce 
1 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar 
2 tsp granulated white sugar 
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
 
1/2 tsp chopped ginger 
1/4 tsp cornstarch 
6 oz boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced thin
Dash each salt and black pepper 
2 c bagged cole slaw mix 
1 c thinly sliced shiitake mushroom caps 
1 c bean sprouts
 
1/2 c canned bamboo shoots, drained 
1/4 c thinly sliced scallions 
1 1/2 tbsp hoisin sauce 
1 tsp sesame oil 
8 six-inch high-fiber flour tortillas with about 50 calories each

To make the moo shu sauce, in a medium bowl, combine soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, garlic, ginger, and cornstarch. Mix until cornstarch dissolves. 

Bring a wok (or large skillet) sprayed with nonstick spray to medium-high heat. Add sliced pork, and season with salt and pepper. Add slaw mix and mushrooms, and cook and stir until veggies have slightly softened, about 3 minutes. 

Add bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, and moo shu sauce. Cook and stir until sauce has thickened and pork is cooked through, about 2 more minutes. 

Remove from heat, and mix in scallions, hoisin sauce, and sesame oil. 

Once ready to serve, warm tortillas in the microwave. Divide 1/4th of the mixture (about 3/4 cup) between two tortillas. 

Wrap 'em up, repeat, and enjoy! 

Original recipe found here.

Honey Orange Shrimp Stir-Fry

This was amazing!! I am trying to cook with shrimp more - and this is a recipe I could make over and over again. The sauce was just amazing.

Sauce
1/2 c honey
1/3 c soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp orange rind, grated

Stir-fry
1 tbsp vegetable oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 sweet red pepper, seeded and diced
2 c broccoli
1 c snow peas
1 -1 1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 green onions, chopped
cooked rice or noodles

Combine all the sauce ingredients. Mix until smooth. Set aside. Heat oil in wok or large fry pan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and ginger. Sauté for 1 minute. Add the diced peppe, broccoli, and snow peas. Stir-fry for 1 minute or until tender-crisp. Add the shrimp; stir-fry just until shrimp turns pink (about 1 minute). Add the sauce. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Stir in the green onions. Serve over cooked rice or noodles.

Original recipe found here.

Szechuan Chicken & Veggies Stir-Fry with Pasta

This recipe calls for YOSHIDA sauce!! I love Yoshida sauce, but you can't get it at Kroger. My mom usually gets it for me at Sam's. It makes this stir-fry awesome! I loved the veggies in this too.

2 chicken breasts, diced into 1 inch pieces

1 c 'Yoshidas' Original Gourmet Marinade

1 tbsp light butter

1 tbsp olive oil

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 c broccoli, steamed/cooked

1 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp paprika 

1/2 lb linguine

Start by boiling a large pot of water for your linguine. Boil according to package directions while you make the other ingredients.

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt the 1 tbsp butter. Add your diced chicken and cook until chicken turns white and is no longer pink on the inside. (About 10 minutes) Meanwhile, in a small skillet, add 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add the onion and bell pepper and saute until soft. Once softened add to the cooked chicken. Then add the gourmet sauce, minced garlic, and paprika. Stir well. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to cook for 5-8 more minutes or until marinade is thoroughly heated. Add in cooked broccoli last.

When linguine is done cooking. Drain and then throw noodles into the chicken/marinade mixture. Stir well to combine all, and then serve!

This is without the pasta, and it'd be great on its own too!

Original recipe found here.

Cashew Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Uh oh! It's summer and I have all the time in the world to cook! Tried out this lettuce wraps recipe today and they taste like something you'd get at a restaurant for sure. Mmm.

For the stir-fry sauce:
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp sesame oil

For the cashew chicken:
About 3/4 lb chicken breasts, diced
About 8 leaves of lettuce
3 tbsp canola oil
1 c onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 c cashews, chopped
1/4 c chopped green onions

First, whisk all ingredients for the stir-fry sauce together, making sure to dissolve brown sugar, and set aside. Heat canola oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add diced chicken and brown (about 4-5 min). Remove chicken brown the oil, then add onions, garlic, and 1 tsp of soy sauce to pan. When the onions and garlic are brown and tender, add the stir-fry sauce, browned chicken, and cashews. Saute mixture for a few more minutes and remove from heat. Sprinkle green onions into pan and stir. Spoon chicken mixture into lettuce leaves and enjoy!

Original recipe found here.