Chinese Chicken Recipes for Busy People

I saw the bitter melon in the Chinese grocery store the other day, and that reminded me that I haven’t made bitter melon for ages. I have almost forgotten about it.  Dishes like Stir Fried Bitter Melon with Beef/Chicken, Stir Fried Bitter Melon with Eggs are very common home made dishes.  Unfortunately, you can’t find it from most Chinese restaurants in US.  I have a like and hate thing for bitter melon.  It tastes yummy and yet I don’t like it to be too bitter.  LOL.  A little bit bitter taste is OK.  My mom pre-cooked the bitter melon in a pot of water to get rid of some bitterness first before she stir-fried it, which turned out to be perfect for me.  I could taste a little bit bitterness, and not too much.  But some people can tolerate more bitterness like my sister or my landlady back in my college days.  My sister would add bitter melon with a pear and juice them together. It is a very healthy drink since bitter melon has tons of calcium, potassium, beta-carotene, vitamins etc.  I tried her invention once.  I almost puked.  Hehehehehhehe…  I couldn’t take the bitterness of the raw bitter melon.  My landlady from Laos would just eat the bitter melon raw like an apple. It was amazing how others can tolerate a wider range of taste.

Bitter Melon

Cut bitter melon in halves

Optionally blanch bitter melon to get rid of some bitterness

Cut bitter melon into thin slices

Cook meat first, then add bitter melon and seasoning

Stir fried bitter melon

Note if you skip the meat, this can be a yummy vegetarian dish by itself.

Ingredients:

• Bitter melon, 1 (the one I bought was about 12-14 inches long)
• Meat, 1/3 pound (you can use chicken or beef.  I probably used less than 1/3 of ground beef)
• Black bean sauce, ½ tsp
• Oyster sauce, 1 tsp
• Garlic, 1 clove
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 tsp
• Cornstarch, 1 tsp
• Water, 5 Tbsp
• Sugar, ½ tsp

Steps:

1. Cut bitter melon in halves.  Get rid of the seeds and the white pith with a spoon.  The white pith has stronger bitterness.  In my case, I cleaned it so well. LOL.
2. Optional: Do this if you like mild bitterness like me.  Boil a small pot of water.  When the water boils, put the cleaned bitter melon in the pot. Use high heat. Let it cook for 2 or 3 minutes.  Drain it well.
3. Cut bitter melon into thin slices.  Put it aside.
4. Finely chop garlic.  Put it aside.
5. Cut meat into thin slices or you can use ground meat like I did. Either one is fine.  Put it aside.
6. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch with water.  Mix it well. Put it aside.
7. Spray cooking oil in a frying pan.  Use high heat.  Add chopped garlic, bean sauce to the pan.  Mix it well and let cook for 10 seconds or so.
8. Add meat to the pot.  Stir fry it for a few minutes till it is cooked.
9. Add bitter melon to the pot.  Mix it well.  Add Chinese cooking wine, sugar, and oyster sauce. Mix it well.
10. Add cornstarch mixture to the pot.  Let it cook for a minute or so or until the sauce thickens.  Serve hot.

What a week! Busy, busy.  People were sending me email late at night and telling me that this and that was urgent.  I am also struggling with finishing the school assignment.  It was really crazy.  I got about 35 minutes for lunch today.  I usually would make ramen noodles when I was in a rush.  Today I made Pan Fried Tofu with some veggie instead.  I was trying cut back on the starch.  Tofu with veggie is probably the most simple and bland food ever.  Tofu itself doesn’t have much taste.  But a bland dish like this is good for complementing a meat or a spicy dish.  I am eating this to be healthier and cut down the amount of meat and starch.  Ya, I’m trying to lose weight.  Since the dish is so simple, and the ingredients are pretty cheap, I don’t usually order it at a restaurant because I would feel that I got ripped off or something.  LOL.  But one time I did order this dish when I had dinner with my vegetarian friend.  I ordered some meat dishes for myself and couple veggie dishes for her.  I forgot the exact name of the dish on the menu.  It could be just called something like Steamed Tofu and Chinese Vegetable.  When the dish came, it had a few pieces of tofu, and couple of veggie, and some soy sauce poured over the dish.  That was it.  And they charged like $15 for a simple, inexpensive dish like this just because we ate at a fancy Chinese restaurant!  Really, what a rip off!  I could have made the same dish at home for less than $2.  My vegetarian friend felt bad since it was my treat.  It was alright, I did enjoy the dish. The tofu was silken. The veggie was yummy, and soy sauce was nice with a slight sweetness.  Plus the company, priceless!  I kind of made the same dish today except I pan fried it instead of steamed it.

Cut tofu and pat dry each piece

Pan fry tofu for 5 mins each side

Pan Fried Tofu with Bok Choy

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Tofu, 1 pack medium or soft firm. Don’t get the silken, it will be too soft to pan fry.  (I only made half of the tofu just for myself at lunch)
• Chinese vegetable, a small bunch (You can use any leafy veggie like Choy Sum.  I used baby Bok Choy)
• Garlic Powder, a dash
• Salt, a dash
• Soy sauce, 1 tsp
• Oyster sauce, 1 tsp
• Sugar, ¼ tsp
• Cornstarch, 5 Tbsp

Steps:

1. Wash the veggie for couple of times.  Drain and put it aside.
2. Prepare the sauce:  Put soy sauce, oyster sauce and sugar in a bowl. Mix it well. Put it aside.
3. Cut tofu into thick pieces less than an inch thick.  Use a paper towel to pat dry the tofu.
4. Put the cornstarch on a plate.  Coat tofu with the cornstarch.
5. In a non-stick frying pan, spray cooking oil on it.  Use medium heat. Add tofu to the pan. Make sure they don’t touch each other.  Let it cook on one side for 5 to 7 minutes or until it is golden in color.  Flip it over to the other side, and cook it for another 5-7 mins.  Remove it from the pan.  Put it on a serving plate.
6. Add a little bit oil in the pan.  Put the baby Bok Choy (or other leafy veggie) and stir fry it.  Add a dash of salt and garlic powder. Mix it well.  Cook it for 2 or 3 minutes or until it is cooked.  Remove the veggie from the pan.  Put it on the side of the tofu on the serving plate.
7. Add some sauce to the tofu.  Serve hot.

I have been grilling a lot.  It’s a summer thing.  I usually grilled a lot meat like steak, chicken, wings, hamburgers, hot dog stuff.  Today I grilled some veggie for a change. Hehehehe.  I want to eat healthy and exercise more.  Tonight, I grilled some shrimp and zucchini.  I like zucchini.  It has a subtle sweetness and it is very juicy.   Zucchini is not a Chinese veggie.  I thought it may taste like a cucumber until a friend introduced it to me back when I was in college.  A Chinese coworker of mine grows zucchini in his garden.  But he doesn’t like it at all.  He gave it away.  Why does he bother to grow it if he and his family don’t like it?  What a weird guy! :p  I usually stir fry it with some garlic and oyster sauce.  Tonight, I decided to put it on the grill together with the shrimp even though I have never grilled any veggie before.  It was easier. I didn’t have to cook two things in two places.  LOL.  That was the lazy me’s logic.  I made an oyster sauce dressing.  It was YUMMY.  This will sure be one of my regular meals.  It only took me like 20 mins or so for fixing the dinner.  Awesome!

Peel and slice zucchini

Put zucchini on a grill

Drizzle sauce to the zucchini when it is cooked

Grilled Zucchini with an Oyster Sauce Dressing

Ingredients (serves 2):

• Zucchini, 2
• Oyster sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Soy Sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Olive oil, 1 Tbsp
• Sesame oil, a few drops

 Steps:

1. Prepare the dressing first.  Add oyster sauce, soy sauce, olive oil and a few drops of sesame oil into a small bowl.  Mix it well.  Put it aside.
2. Peel zucchini.  This is optional.  I prefer it peeled. But just be careful because it is very slippery when it is peeled.
3. Cut zucchini into big slices, about 1 cm or less in thickness. 
4. Start the grill.  Put the zucchini slices on the grill.  Let it cook for 5-6 minutes.  Flip it over and cook the other side for another 5-6 minutes or until it softens.  Remove the zucchini from the grill.
5. Drizzle or mix the sauce with zucchini.  Serve hot.

I came across a video that showed the fancy Wolf Integrated Steamer in the kitchen.  I wish I could afford a Wolf stove. But you know what? As fancy as this steaming device is built into the kitchen, it somehow looks complicated to me.  Steaming doesn’t need to be this complicated.  I’m not a gadget queen.  I stick with very basic pots and pans.  That reminded me that I owe my friend Sally a Steamed Water Egg recipe.  She asked me a few months ago when I just started this blog.  I made this dish last night.  It was a good timing for me to make more steamed dishes cos now I decided to exercise again and get healthy.  I literally translated the name of the Cantonese dish into English.  You can guess that it is a very basic dish – steam the water and egg mixture, that’s pretty much it.  But it is a very authentic and comforting Cantonese dish.  If you add sugar instead of salt to the dish, it’s like the egg custard, which could be a dessert.  I only learned how to make this dish a few years back from my mom.  She was fuzzy about the look of the dish, making sure that there were no bubbles when pouring the egg mixture to the serving plate for steaming….  Mom, I don’t care about these!  LOL.  I made this dish like a dozen of times now.  But I didn’t write down any recipe, so the results were inconsistent.  Sometimes the eggs get too overcooked, sometimes I added too much water,  sometimes the surface got too many bubbles, sometimes the dish was no taste,… So I made the dish again last night and it turned out very good, and I got to write down what I did.  I modified mom’s recipe.  I skipped the “getting rid of the bubbles” step. LOL.  I added some diced scallion on the surface.  The weight of the scallion killed the bubbles.  Pretty smart, right? ;p  The texture was very good too. It was like silken tofu.

Put eggs in a container. Use the eggshell as measuring unit.

Pour egg mixture in a serving bowl

Put egg mixture in a pot for steaming

Add soy sauce when it is done

Steamed Water Eggs

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Large eggs, 3
• Hon Dashi or chicken powder, 1 tsp (I used Hon Dashi last night. Hon Dashi is a Japanese Fish Stock powder)
• Scallion, 1 or 2 stalks (optional, it’s perfectly fine if you skip this)
• Water, 9 units (each unit is a half eggshell)
• Salt, a dash
• Cornstarch, ¼ tsp
• Soy sauce, 1 tsp

Steps:

1. Chop scallion into small dices, put them aside.
2. We’ll be steaming the dish. You need to prepare a big pot with a lid, and a serving bowl that will fit into the pot.  If you have a fancy steamer, then you’ll all set.  Add sufficient water in the pot.  Boil the water first.
3. While waiting for the steamer to get reader, prepare the egg mixture.  Use a large bowl or container, break 3 eggs and add them in it.  Save a half eggshell and use it as measuring unit.  For each egg, add 3 half eggshell of water to the container.  So we have 3 eggs here, total of 9 half eggshell of water.
4. Add Hon Dashi or chicken powder, cornstarch and a very small pinch of salt to the mixture.  Mix it well.  Yes, you’ll see bubbles while mixing it.
5. Get a shallow serving bowl.  Pour egg mixture to the bowl.  If you are fuzzy about the bubbles of the mixture, you can get rid of them with a spoon.  I didn’t do that cos it didn’t bother me.
6. Sprinkle scallion dices to the surface of the mixture.  Put it aside.
7. When the water boils, BE CAREFUL of the heat, put the bowl into the pot.  Cover it with a lid (or a piece of aluminum foil if you don’t find a lid that fits).  Let it steamed for 15 minutes on medium heat.  After 15 minutes is due, turn off the heat.  Let the dish sit in the pot with the lid on for another 5 mins before taking it out.
8. To check if the dish is cooked or not, run a small knife through the mixture and pull the knife out.   The knife should not have any egg stick to it.
9. Add a teaspoon of soy sauce to the surface of the dish.  Serve hot.

Sometimes I debate if I should share dishes that are too Chinese. LOL.  A lot of my daily dishes are nothing like General Tso’s chicken or whatever Chop Suey.  Lately I really missed some basic dishes that I grew up with.  I sautéed some mustard greens tonight.  I love mustard greens, so does my cat. LOL.  When I opened a can of tuna, he would care less. But if I got some mustard greens, he would be right in my face.  One time I left a bag of mustard greens on the counter.  He jumped up and put his head in the bag and started chewing. LOL.  He may be attracted by the unique taste of mustard greens. It has a little bit bitter taste and it certainly smells like mustard.  I love Mustard Greens with Salted Egg Soup, Sautee Mustard Greens or even pickled Mustard Greens.  They are all yummy.  I saw a tray of mustard greens at a Chinese Buffet place one day, and I was surprised.  I was like, “they serve this to Americans?”  LOL.  I didn’t know non-Chinese people would like this veggie cos it has a very unique flavor.

Mustard Greens

Cut greens into 3 or 4 inches pieces, wash and drain it.

Mustard Greens with Garlic Sauce

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Mustard Greens, 1/3 pound (There are two kinds of mustard greens: one with a thicker stems, and another one with skinner stems.  I used the one with the skinnier stems.  See picture.  Both are good)
• Garlic, 2 cloves
• Giinger, 2 slices
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 tsp
• Chicken powder, ½ tsp
• Fish Sauce, 1 tsp
• Cornstarch, 1 tsp
• Water, 6 Tbsp

Steps: 

1. Cut mustard greens into about 3 or 4 inches long pieces. 
2. Must wash the veggie!  Unlike broccoli, or lettuce, leafy veggies like mustard greens may have a lot of soil on the leaves.  Fill a big pot of cold water, and put the mustard greens into the pot and wash it for two times. Drain well.
3. Finely chop garlic.  Put it aside.
4. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and cold water in a bowl.  Put it aside.
5. In a large frying pan, spray a little bit of oil.  Use high heat. Add garlic and ginger slices.  Let it cook for 30 seconds to release some flavor.
6. Add mustard greens to the pan.  Mix it well.  Let it cook for a minute. Add chicken powder, fish sauce, and Chinese cooking wine.  Let it cook for couple of  minutes.
7. Add cornstarch and water mixture to the pot. Mix it well.  Let it cook for a minute until the sauce thickens a bit.  Taste it, add a pinch of salt if needed.

It was a great Friday yesterday. Nothing was urgent at work.  I didn’t screw up anything. LOL.  I made new friend, my cat is recovering, … a lot of things to celebrate.  I stopped by Trader Joe’s and I came across some interesting food.  They have frozen artichokes.  Artichokes are one of those weird looking things that don’t look too edible in my opinion.  It looks like a hybrid between a flower and a veggie.  It shapes like a flower, but green in color!  Very bizarre and intimidating.  A few years ago, my sister bought one artichoke and she wanted to experiment cooking it.  Artichokes are not Chinese vegetables.  We both had no clue.  We could have searched the web to find instructions but we didn’t.  Someone told her to steam it.  She peeled off the rough edges, then trimmed off the tips of each leave.  After steaming it, that thing looked worse. The green color turned brownish.  It was totally not appealing at all. But we had to eat our consequence, literally!  We each peeled off a leave.  I put it in my mouth.  The leave had so much unchewable fiber.  I just kind of sucked the juice a little bit, and discarded it.  It didn’t have much taste either.  I had a few leaves.  She had a few leaves. We tried this experiment, and it sucked.  We threw out the rest.  Guess what?  The next day her Brazilian friend told her that we threw out the most edible part called Artichoke Heart!!  WHAT???  I felt so stupid.  LOL… Now that I found out Trader Joe’s have this, I couldn’t help putting a bag in my basket.  I was debating if I should make it taste more like Chinese or not.  Then I remember I had seen some pasta dishes have artichokes in it. Bingo!  Italian!  Here comes my new experiment: Artichokes hearts with pasta sauce.  It was very yummy. It made a great side dish. 

Frozen artichoke hearts

Add artichoke, garlic and cooking wine

Add pasta sauce to the artichokes

Stir fried Artichoke Hearts

Ingredients:

• Artichoke hearts, 1 bag
• Garlic, 1 clove (you can use more if you prefer)
• Pasta sauce, 4 Tbsp
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 Tbsp (I’m sure you can use any white wine)
• Salt, a dash

 Steps:

1. Finely chop garlic.  Put it aside.
2. In a frying pan, spray cooking oil.  Use medium heat.  Put artichokes in the pan.  Let it cook for 2 mins.  Stir occasionally.  No need to defrost the artichokes ahead of time.
3. Add garlic to the pan and cooking wine.  Stir fry it for couple of minutes until the artichokes look totally defrosted.
4. Add pasta sauce.  Mix it well.  Let it cook for another 3 or 4 minutes until the sauce thickens and sticks to the artichokes.  Taste it. You can add more pasta sauce according to your liking.  Add a pinch of salt if needed. 

I really like this idea of doing some detox for now.  I am really thinking that I should stick with my idea of having no meat for breakfast and lunch for couple of weeks and see if I feel lighter. LOL… I love meat and it is difficult for me to go without meat for a whole day, but I can try having meat once a day.  My coworker has followed some detox diet for 3 weeks or a month, and she lost some weight.  I asked her how many pounds she lost, and she didn’t know.  She said she can tell her clothes were loose.  I wish my clothes were loose.  I gained so much weight (plus didn’t exercise for so long) that last year’s clothes are getting tight :(  It would be nice if I could lose a few pounds. Hehehhehe.  I made a no meat version of Shanghai Fried Noodles today. Shanghai Fried Noodles that I tried at some Shanghai restaurants usually have meat in it like pork or chicken.  They were tasty. The only thing that I didn’t like was the amount of oil they used. It felt like they put a cup of oil or so.  These days, I cook everything with spray oil.  You know, every little bit counts :)  and I’m desperate to lose weight.  Shanghai style noodles are fresh noodles.  You can get them from the refrigerated section of a Chinese grocery store.  They look like Japanese Udon noodles.   I just added whatever I had at home.  Like fried rice, you can be creative and add whatever ingredients you prefer.  I added some fresh shiitaki mushrooms and chives.  It was pretty yummy

Shanghai noodles. They look like Japanese Udon noodles

Add mushroom, onion and garlic first

Add shanghai noddles

Add seasoning and chives

A no meat version of Shanghai Noodles

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Shanghai Noodles, 1 pack about 16 oz
• Fresh Shiitaki mushrooms, about 10-15 pieces
• Chives, a handful (sorry, I didn’t measure)
• Scallion, 2 stalks
• Onion, 1
• Garlic, 2 cloves
• Dark soy sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Light soy sauce, 1 tsp
• Water, 1 Tbsp
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 Tbsp
• Sugar, 1 tbsp
• Sesame oil, 1 tsp
• Salt, a dash

Steps:

1. Cut onion into strips, put it aside.
2. Finely chop the garlic, put it aside
3. Cut chives into 3-inch length long pieces.
4. Cut shiitaki mushrooms into strips. Put it aside.
5. In a large frying pan, spray cooking oil.  Use high heat. Add mushrooms, onion, and garlic. Stir fry it for 2 or 3 minutes.  Add light soy sauce.  Mix it well and fry it for another 2 minutes or so.
6. Spray a little bit more oil to the pan.  Add noodles.  Fry it for 3 minutes.  Add cooking wine, water, soy sauce and sugar.  Mix it well.  Turn the heat down to medium.  Let it cook for 3 more minutes or cook until the noodles look soft.
7. Add chives.  Mix it well for 1 minute. Turn off the heat.  Add scallion and sesame oil.  Mix it well.  Serve hot.

I feel a little bit better today that my cat survives his surgery. I hope he stays strong and will recover soon. I was in a much happier mood to try something new knowing that he is getting a bit better.  I searched on google for scallion pancake recipes. I made this once when I was in a cookery class in high school.  I remember this is one of those things that require a lot of work, and take a lot of skills too.  What was I thinking?  Why would I want to do all these work just for a piece of scallion pancake?  I don’t know.  Once in a while, I do weird things that I can’t explain myself.  Or may be I just needed something to take my mind off worrying about my cat.  I followed Ming Tsai’s recipe except it was too late when I realized I put in cold water instead of hot water.  I thought it can’t be that bad, it was just a small screw up.  Oh well… other than that, it was messy to make it too.  Plus, I wasn’t skillful enough.  It turned out more like a scallion nann bread than a thin scallion pancake.  LOL. Ya, I screwed up sometimes but it’s ok.  I’ll eat my consequence literally hahahha….I should have flatten it out more to make it thinner.  It is not a complete failure, but I certainly need more practice and need to follow the instruction 100% next time.

Roll the dough out, add scallion

Roll it in a long swiss roll, then curl it like a spiral

Flatten it out to make a 5 or 6 inches pancake

Pan fry the scallion pancakes

Scallion Pancakes

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour, 2 cups
• HOT water, 1 cup
• Sesame oil, 1 Tbsp
• Scallion, 5 or 6 stalks
• Salt, a dash

Dipping sauce:

• Soy sauce, ¼ cup
• Chinese vinegar, ¼ cup
• Ginger, minced, 1 tsp
• Red pepper flakes, 1 tsp
• Sugar, 1 tsp

Steps:

1. Mix the dipping sauce in a small bowl.  Put it aside.
2. Add a tablespoon of sesame oil in a bowl.  Put it aside.
3. Cut scallions into small dices.  Add a pinch of salt.  Put it aside.
4. Sieve flour in a large bowl.  Pour a little bit HOT water at a time to the flour and mix it with a spoon.  Continue to add water until the flour becomes a ball of dough.  You may not need the whole cup of water.
5. Cover the dough with a piece of damp cloth and let it rest for 30 mins.
6. Cut dough into 4 pieces. 
7. Roll a piece of dough into a flat, thin pancake.  Brush some sesame oil on the pancake.  Add about a tablespoonful of scallion to the pancake, spread it out evenly.
8. Then roll the pancake starting from one end of the dough to form like a swiss roll.  Then curl the roll to form like a spiral.  Then flatten it out with a rolling pin to form a 5 or 6 inches pancake.
9. Use a non-stick frying pan. Spray some oil in it.  Use medium high heat.  Cook the pancake for about 2 minutes on one side.  Add a tablespoon of water to the pan. Then cover it for a minute. This will create some steam and help to cook the dough.  Flip the pancake over, and let it cook for another two or 3 minutes until it is golden brown or look crispy on the outside.  Serve it hot with the dipping sauce.

The weather is getting warm.  I lost a bit of appetite.  Maybe if I keep losing appetite for a while, it could be a good way to lose a few pounds. LOL.  The weirdest thing ever was that I wanted a salad!!!  I am not a salad kind of gal.  This was a very unusual thing.  My coworker used to tell me that if I didn’t find anything I would like to eat in the cafeteria, there was always salad.  So salad isn’t on top of my list if I have other options.  But today, I somehow wanted a salad.  I was also in a mood for some grilled shrimps.  Grilled Shrimp salad sounds refreshing for a hot humid day.  I also added some soybeans to the salad to make it more Chinese. LOL.  Soybeans are packed with tons of protein. They would be great for salad or fried rice.  The salad turned out to be pretty good.  I may put this as my regular meals.

Put shrimp on a stick first

Frozen soybeans

Stir fry mushrooms and soybeans

Grilled shrimp salad with soybeans

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Shrimp, a pound
• 2 or 3 bamboo sticks.
• Mushrooms, sliced, 1 pack
• Soybeans, 1 cup
• Lettuce, 1 bag (about 9 oz)
• Baby carrots, a big handful
• Sweetcorn , 1/2 cup (optional)
• Extra virgin olive oil, 1 Tbsp
• Soy sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Honey, 1 Tbsp
• Vinegar, 1 Tbsp
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 tsp
• Sesame oil, a few drops
• Sugar, ½ tsp

Steps:

1. Cut baby carrots into small pieces.  I cut each carrot into 4 pieces.  Put it aside.
2. Spray a little bit of oil in a frying pan.  Put mushrooms and soybeans in the pan. Use high heat. Let it cook for 4 or 5 minutes.  Turn off the heat.  Put them on a plate and let it cool a little bit.
3. Make the dressing: Add olive oil, soy sauce, honey, vinegar, sugar, Chinese cooking wine, and sesame oil in a bowl.  Mix it well.  Add a dash of salt if desired.  Put it aside.
4. Soak bamboo sticks in water for a few minutes. Shell and clean shrimp.  Put them on a stick.  Then start the grill.  Spray a little bit of oil on the shrimp first before you cook it.  Cook the shrimp for 4 or 5 mins on each side or until it is fully cooked.  When the shrimp is done, remove it from the stick. Add a little bit of salad dressing to the shrimp. Mix it well.
5. To assemble the salad, put some lettuce on the bottom of a serving plate.  Then add some carrots, mushrooms, soybeans, and sweetcorn.  Add shrimp on top.  Drizzle some dressing over the lettuce.

My little source of evil

My cat tried so hard to wake me up between 6 am and 7am this morning.  Damn it, it’s Sunday.  I really wish that my cat knows it’s Sunday, not Monday, and I don’t need to get up so early.  Besides, my body didn’t want to get up.  I played golf yesterday.  I haven’t moved that much for a long time.  My body is really sore.  I finally woke up at 7am.  I gave my cat his food and water.  I made Chicken Congee for breakfast, did a load of laundry, cleaned the bathroom, and I talked to a friend on the phone.  Actually, not a bad thing to get up early.   I got a lot done before noon.  My friend was telling me that her nutritionist told her that she needs to lose weight.  Her nutritionist said her ideal weight is 111 pounds. I’m like WHAT???  She’s 5’4″.  I don’t know how much I weigh since I got too scared to step on the scale.  But my clothes don’t lie, they are getting tight.  Some people may let themselves buy bigger size clothes.  I refuse to do that.  I usually go to McDonald for my Sunday lunch, and ordered a grilled chicken sandwich combo with supersize fries!  But today, I stayed at home and made a very simple lunch.  I had Choy Sum with Oyster Sauce, and some noodles.  Choy Sum is a very common Chinese vegetable.   I like it a lot.  You can stir fry it with some garlic sauce and salt, and it would be very yummy.  Or you can cook it in boiling water, drain, and add oyster sauce to it.  I choice the latter to cut down the oil.  I cooked some noodles to go along with it.  The noodles was about 200 calories.  So I think my whole lunch was probably like 300-350 calories or so.  I can deal with that.

Choy Sum

Cook Choy Sum in boiling water

1 pack of dried egg noodle

Cook noodles

Choy Sum with Oyster Sauce and Egg Noodles

Ingredients (serves 2):

• Choy Sum, two small bunches (like two handfuls, or 4-5 stalks per person)
• Dried noodle, 2 packs (1 per person for small serving portion)
• Oyster Sauce, 2 Tbsp
• Soy sauce, 2 tsp
• Sesame oil, a few drops (Optional, I didn’t use it)

Steps:

1. We need to wash the vegetable first. It’s important. You don’t want to have Choy Sum and Dirt Sauce… hehhehe…  Fill up a pot of container with cold water, soak the Choy Sum in the water.  Shake it a little bit.  Disgard the water.  Repeat it for one more time.  Drain the vegetable. Put it aside.
2. Boil a big pot of water.  Use high heat.  When the water boils, put the vegetable in the pot.  Let it cook for 2 or 3 mins. You can put a teaspoon of oil in the water. I skipped this to cut back the fat.   Turn off the heat.  Remove the vegetable and put it on a serving plate.  Drain a little bit to get rid of any excess water in the vegetable.
3. Use a pair of scissors, cut the vegetables into halves length-wise.
4. Now cook the noodles. I don’t mind putting the noodles in the same pot of water since it is only veggie.  You can boil a separate pot of water if you prefer.  Turn the heat to high.  When the water boils, put the dried noodles in the pot.  Use a fork to separate the noodles in the pot.  Let it cook for 3 minutes or so.  Turn off the heat.  Disgard the water.  Put noodles in a drainer.  Run the noodles under cold tap water to get rid of the starchy taste.  Drain well.
5. Put the noodles in a serving plate.  Put it in the microwave for 1 minute to heat it up a bit.
6. In a small bowl, mix the oyster sauce with soy sauce.  Pour it over the vegetable and noodles. 
7. Optionally, add a few drops of sesame oil to the noodles. I skipped this too since I am totally cutting back on any oil for this lunch.