Free Range Friday part Dos

The blood drive was a big success...maybe too much of a success, if some afternoon "waited so long I knitted a sweater to stay warm" type stories are any indication. But absolutely fantastic! Hopefully we can do this once every few months until we all get the hang of it. A great turn out for blood donation and for love of Nydia. Joanna wanted me to mention that after the amount Nydia needed is filled, the extra is a credit for anyone who donated if need arises .

*****APPLAUSE*****

On the way to town I stopped at the veggie stand, naturally. Lots of buyers and lots of goodies, but even a little early, I'd already missed out on the asparagus, the last one held firmly by a woman next to me. I didn't bite her arm or anything. I did come away with some jewels of my own though. Later in the day I picked up some shrimp a friend had gotten for me on a Sam's run (ends up being quite a deal that way - four servings minimum at a little over 2 bucks a serving...yeah, let them eat shrimp!) So the meal was falling together...stir fry, but with lo mein noodles instead of rice.



MJ's shrimp stir fry with lo mein noodles

Two 'bundles' lo mein noodles (a handful)
Mushrooms
Snow peas
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 small scallions, sliced
1/2 small shallot, finely chopped
1 small bunch parsley, minced (cilantro would work here too, or both)
1/3 t. grated ginger (dry if that is what you have)
2 T. sesame oil (or a good vegetable oil - I personally am not a fan of olive oil in stir fry's)
1 T. soy sauce

Prep your veggies and shrimp (I'd take the tails off completely, sorry this doesn't show that!). Fill a pan with water for the noodles.


Way back in this blog somewhere, I encourage playing with your food. Well, a stir fry is the best place to play! All the ingredients are up for debate, in the sense that, if you want to add or delete here, it's not a big deal. Want carrots in there? Do it! Want regular peas, broccoli, Chinese cabbage? Fine. Stir fry should only limited by your available ingredients and your budget in my opinion. The one thing to remember is that in a stir fry the whole idea is to cook the food quickly and have it all done at the same time, and that means slower cooking things like fresh garlic and onions (and carrots) need to be very finely cut/chopped/sliced to keep up with the rest of the food cooking.

In between stirring, turn on the noodle water and bring to a boil. Lo mein noodles cook really quickly, like a couple of minutes, so you have plenty of time to do this while your main dish is cooking. When the noodles are done, drain, rinse with cold water and set aside. No photo because apparently I steamed up the lens while trying to shoot the noodles boiling, but...hey, you can do this!

Stir it up, little darlin'

Some people cook the onions and garlic and then set it aside, adding the other ingredients. I'm not one of those people. I like the oil super hot when I put in the garlic, onions, and then slowly add the rest of the ingredients, EXCEPT the shrimp. If I was using beef or pork though, I'd toss it in along with everything else.

The veggies will make a little liquid of their own and once that is happening, I take it as the buzzer going off to toss in the shrimp. When the shrimp is nice and pink (keep stirring / fluffing, they don't call it stir fry for nothing!), the meal is done cooking and almost ready to eat!


Pour on the soy sauce and mix, put the noodles on a plate and dish up the fry! You've now got a quick, easy, balanced, inexpensive and delicious dinner. I'm figuring this meal cost me about 4 dollars max, and it's not chicken!


Buen provecho!