Egg Roll in a Bowl

Egg Roll in a Bowl

This is a very low carb dinner. the carbs are in the vegetables. Which to me means, no carb, since those are some of the best carbs to eat. :) As I'm trying to keep my blood sugars under control and find foods that are low in carbs and healthy and filling, I am looking on Pinterest for ideas. This recipe I found on Pinterest and it made enough to feed our family of 5. I had a full plate, my other family members had a slightly smaller portion as they are not huge fans of cabbage. They still ate it all and said it was delicious. That is saying a lot. The original recipe I found called for ground ginger or fresh ginger... I had neither so I made mine without. It might be even better if you like the flavor of ginger... I think it's more of an acquired taste. Each to his own. So, Here is the original recipe. Mine is listed below :)

Egg roll in a bowl

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp sesame oil
1 lb ground beef or ground pork (NOT sausage)
6 cups sliced/chopped cabbage (I used regular green cabbage, but napa or red would be good too)
2 cups shredded carrots (4g carbs per 1/4 c serving)
1 med onion, diced
2 tsp minced garlic (I used refrigerated pre minced)
1/4 c Braggs Amino Acid (less than 2g of carbs per meal)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Brown ground beef in a large skillet or wok, season with salt and pepper. Turn heat to med-high add onion and sesame oil, heat until onions are translucent. Add garlic and amino's to the pan and stir. Next add the cabbage and stir. Cook for a few minutes stirring and mixing to help the cabbage soften and wilt. The cabbage will reduce in size. Add the carrots and heat through, stirring to incorporate together. Once carrots are incorporated and warmed, and cabbage is softened. It is done... Serve :)

Serve warm.

Serves 4-6

Notes:
This recipe is quick. The longest part will be the chopping and shredding. Best to chop cabbage and shred carrots before starting this recipe. This recipe would be good with ground pork as well.

Sausage Egg Rolls

Fried Sausage Egg Rolls

Baked Sausage Egg Rolls

Sausage Egg Rolls

These egg rolls are super yummy whether fried or baked. Someone from our church gave me this recipe and I have loved it ever since. I have made this recipe so frequently that I no longer need the recipe. I have made these egg rolls with salad shrimp as well, just exchanging the sausage for salad shrimp. This recipe is doubled. I feed 3 Huge boys, myself and husband. We love these so much I freeze some and cook later. The freezer ones are better baked. As the outer wrapper gets soggy and won't fry well. If you can tell me how to freeze them where the outer coating doesn't get soggy when thawed... I would love you forever! well, maybe not forever but would definitely give a shout out!  Anyways, I just love these. They fry up nicely and bake nicely. As you can tell from the pictures. This is another of my loves for cheap takeout at home. I love asian cuisine but don't have the money to go out to eat much. These are so perfect! 

Ingredients:

1-2 onions diced (depending on size)

1 head of cabbage diced/sliced

6-9 carrots grated, or finely jullianed (the more carrots the better)

1 bag Mung Bean sprouts, drained (Sam Sung brand)

2 Tbsp Black pepper

2 lbs ground sausage/pork (raw), or salad shrimp (thawed and drained)

2 pkg egg roll wrappers (Wei-chuan spring roll shells)

Vegetable Oil for frying or Non-stick PAM for baking

Directions:

Mix onions, cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, black pepper, and protein (sausage or shrimp) in a large bowl. (might need to get your hands dirty) Make sure ingredients are dry ingredients. (well except for the sausage). If ingredients are wet dry in towels or in oven. When rolling these follow directions on the wrapper. Usually 2 Tbsp of filling is enough per roll. Don't over fill. Once you have wrappers filled, and ready to go...

Frying:
Heat oil to 450F, fry until golden brown on both sides. I use an electric skillet to fry and only use about 1 inch of oil. you don't want them floating, they need to rest on the bottom and oil needs to come to about half way up the side of the egg roll.  So you can easily flip them and they stay put.

Baking:
Preheat oven 450F, spray bottom or cookie sheet/jelly roll pan with non-stick spray (PAM). Place egg rolls on cookie sheet about 1 inch apart. Then once egg rolls are placed on cookie sheet, spray egg rolls with cooking spray. Then place in oven for 15-20 min until brown. (check center of largest roll to make sure sausage is completely cooked.)

Enjoy! These are tasty with some Sweet chili sauce! I also find that at my International Grocer (Food Maxx)...

My family loves these and eat them all up! I've tried freezing them so I can stretch them out. I have frozen them all put together, but in the future I may just bag the filling and then thaw when ready to use with the wrappers. But either way, these are a HIT! I hope you enjoy them. We LOVE Them!!! :)

Bourbon Sesame Chicken Crock Pot

Picture taken from Pinterest

Tonights dinner I found on tablefortwoblog.com but it called for honey and red pepper flakes. I didn't have either.  I also didn't want to cut an onion. I also changed the oil to sesame oil instead of regular veg oil. This should give it a nice nutty flavor. I have adjusted the recipe with my changes. I also doubled the recipe to feed my crew of growing boys. So these measurements can be cut in half to feed less people, or have smaller portions. With less chicken, you will also need to cut the cooking time in half. This dish smells delicious. Tonight I will take a picture and add it, since it's cooking right now. I also changed the name of this dish since I don't have any honey in it.  I'll write the verdict at the end of the recipe after dinner tonight. I hope you like this. I am looking forward to dinner tonight :)

Bourbon Sesame Chicken

Serves: 5-8 depending on appetite

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

salt and pepper

1 1/2 cup corn syrup

1 cup white sugar

1 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup ketchup

4 Tbsp sesame oil

2 Tbsp minced garlic

1/2 cup dry minced onion or 1 cup minced fresh onion

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper powder

Cornstarch

toasted sesame seeds

Directions:

Place chicken breasts in slow cooker, sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides. In a medium bowl, combine rest of the ingredients except the cornstarch and toasted sesame seeds. Stir to combine well. Pour over the chicken in the crockpot.

Cook on low for high for 4-6 hours.

When done remove chicken from slow cooker, slice/cut up. while chicken is out of slow cooker, add cornstarch mixed with cold water to crockpot to thicken sauce a bit. Add cut up chicken back into the slow cooker stir around to coat chicken with sauce. Serve hot/warm over rice, or eat in a lettuce/cabbage wrap. 

Sprinkle sesame seeds on top of dished up chicken.

Orange Beef and Fried Rice

Tonights dinner started this morning before I left for work. It felt good to come home and be half way done with dinner. It was so easy. You can do this even if your not an experienced chef/cook. Just make sure you have a skillet, a wooden spoon, a slow cooker and the ingredients. That simple, that easy. The best thing about this dinner is most of the ingredients can be kept in the freezer and pulled out when ready to use it. you can even freeze your leftover rice in a ziploc bag for later use if you don't want to use it right away. This is great for those "gotta get dinner quick" nights. In the time it would take to order takeout and have it delivered you could have this done. Easy. Peasy :)

Orange Beef
Ingredients:
1 flank/skirt steak semi-frozen cut in to 4 strips across the grain
1 1/2 cup of Panda Express Orange chicken sauce

Directions:
Add ingredients to the slow cooker on low 6-8 hours. Then shred with forks. Should be fork tender. Then add back into the orange sauce. keep warm til ready to serve.

Fried Rice
Ingredients:
2-3 cups leftover white or brown pre cooked rice
1 bag frozen mixed veggies (mine had corn, peas, carrots, and green beans)
1/4 cup frozen green bell peppers
1/2 cup frozen diced onions
2 eggs
1/4 cup fresh bacon bits
sesame oil
soy sauce
oyster sauce

Directions:
Open frozen veggie bags, measure out the bell peppers, and onions. set aside. In a small bowl whisk the eggs (just like for scrambled eggs) set aside. If using raw bacon for bacon bits, brown the bacon in the bottom of the skillet, once the bacon is cooked, remove cool and crush bacon. In the hot bacon grease with the skillet still on scramble the eggs. remove from pan and set aside. In the same pan add all the frozen veggies with about 2 tbsp sesame oil. toss to coat and cook. about 3-4 min (the onions will start turning translucent). Remember you want crisp veggies so don't over cook.  Once the veggies are cooked if any residual liquid is in the pan, remove with paper towel. Then add the rice, eggs and bacon to the veggie mixture. gently toss. drizzle in about 2 tbsp sesame oil, soy sauce and 1 -2 tsp of oyster sauce and toss to coat. Keep tossing until the rice and eggs are heated through then serve approx 1-3 minutes. (depending on pan). All of this is done in a HOT pan. I used my WOK. you can use that too but a 10' skillet is perfect too.

This rice is SO yummy! My family just loved it with the orange beef. It was a fun "chinese eat in" night instead of takeout/delivery. All were fed before they had to rush off to their many activities tonight. They all ate all of the veggies and that is an accomplishment! I hope you enjoy this as much as we did. :)

Beef Egg Rolls

I decided to try my hand at homemade egg rolls. I have never made egg rolls before... Nor have I ever seen them made. So I really had no idea what I was doing. But I had a recipe that I used from the back of the egg roll wrapper bag, they were Nasoya egg roll wrappers. I figured it would be a good recipe. So here is my trial into homemade beef egg rolls.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef, pork, chicken or firm tofu, drained and crumbled

1 tsp minced ginger

2 cups finely chopped cabbage

1/4 lb been sprouts

1/2 cup shredded carrot

3 green onions, finely chopped

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 pkg egg roll wrappers

vegetable oil for deep frying

mustard and catsup or sweet and sour sauce

Directions

Stir-fry meat or tofu and ginger in wide skillet over high heat until lightly browned, 2-3 minutes.

Add cabbage, bean sprouts, carrot and green onion; cook 2 min.

Stir in oyster sauce. :t mixture cool.

Use 2 tbsp filling for each egg roll.

Follow folding directions.

Deep Fry at 350F, a few at a time, turning occasionally, until golden, 2-3 min. Drain on paper towels.

Serve warm with mustard and catsup, or serve with sweet and sour sauce.

makes approx 20 rolls.

Verdict... I think i either added too much oyster sauce, or should omit that all together. I am not a fan of oyster sauce, so I am not sure what to do with all these egg rolls. I ate one and I'm hoping my kids like them when they get home. :) I also think that I will add more cabbage next time, I didn't taste much of it, and that is one of my favorite parts. I hope you try it and let me know what you think. Thanks, Enjoy!