Stir Fry

You know your mom likes ginger when...you look in the vegetable drawer, and every other veggie is--you guessed it--a bag of ginger. 

Last week's dinner was stir fry.

All the vegetables chopped up and ready to stir fry

It was fairly easy to put together after coming home from work...lots of chopping and prep work of course, but that just meant I was reunited with my favorite Cutco knife again.  I was shooting for something fun and different to cook...when mom tells me to menu-plan for the week, I usually revert to the same old dishes.  Bad habit.

I pulled this recipe from an older (but much beloved) Fine Cooking Magazine--issue #58.  Here's the link for the recipe.  It's basically a "create your own" recipe, so you can pick and choose your veggies and meat. 

I chose shrimp for my protein, and veggies I used bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, broccoli, scallions, and ginger (hence the comment at the beginning of my post).  The author also said to choose a sauce; I used the sesame soy one. 

I've never cooked a stir fry before.  They're definitely fast-paced!  This one came together very nicely though.  I did find I needed to cook my shrimp a little longer than the recommended 20-ish seconds before removing them from heat.  Other than that, everything was smooth sailing.  With just a pot of cooked rice, this was definitely a dinner I'd do again.  I think it'd also be a good one to keep in mind for college life.  Obviously I don't have to use shrimp (since that can be a little spendy on my wallet) but chicken would be a yummy (cough, cough: cheap...) substitute, too. 

I've never cooked with bok choy before, either.  An interesting vegetable...it's like it's half spinach, and half celery or something.  According to Wikipedia (bad resource I know...), it's of the same species as the turnip, and can also be called Chinese cabbage, but this name also includes Napa cabbage. 

Hello again!

Dear readers (although I think you are few and far between),

Boy, has it been a year!  You might have guessed that I was college-bound these past 12 months, and you would've guessed correctly.  Home for the summer, and working full-time (lemme just say, 40 hours a week takes some adjustment) but trying to cook nonetheless. That's one thing I discovered I missed a lot in college--cooking. Not just the art of creating a meal or dessert, but making it a family affair by involving everyone. I also discovered that cooking is very much my own little 'niche', my way of both relaxing and focusing on a task at the same time.

This coming school year I have a better opportunity to cook and blog, as I will have my own kitchen.  I'm very excited about this, because it's a brand-spanking new kitchen.  I think this will also add an interesting twist to my blog approach--how to cook on a budget, while maintaining my high-standards (or so I consider them) tastebuds. 

Anyway, so moving on to the real subject--food!  If you have any suggestions on how to eat well--while on a budget--let me know!