Whether it is crab, jalapeno or pork I usually always have some frozen wontons waiting to be plucked from my freezer and tossed into the fryer on a moments notice. I say usually because to my utter dismay, when I opened my freezer to grab some for dinner last week, I realized I was out. Apparently I had been a little too busy (or was it lazy) lately to replenish my stock. But this was a problem that was quickly and quite easily remedied by these wontons filled with bay shrimp, vegetables, garlic and a little Chinese 5 spice.
Is it just me or is there a lot that goes into returning from vacation? Its almost like I need another one. Between unpacking, laundry, grocery shopping, decorating for fall and returning to the gym and work, I have been one busy girl. But alas, I still need to eat. I just need to do it quickly. This super easy yet deliciously nutty sesame shrimp and spinach noodle dish helped me do just that.
Football season is upon us and in my household that means Game Day Snacks. Game Day Snacks have kind of become our little tradition. It all started last year with these little devils, Jalapeno Cream Cheese Wontons. Since then it has taken on a life of its own and has actually made me, who is not really a fan of the game, excited for football season. Last Sunday was our first game day snack event and for the occasion I made these scrumptious Chicken Egg Rolls.
A week before Ryan and I were planning to leave for Italy I was sitting down planning our menu and writing the grocery list. As I started to think of pasta dishes, where my mind always tends to go, I decided that it would probably be best if we stayed away from Italian inspired dishes and enjoy some of the flavors that we might miss while we’re away. So next my mind immediately went to Asian cuisine. I began thinking of various kinds of stir fries when I finally decided that Kung Pao Chicken would be a great choice.
From time to time I ask friends of mine what kind of recipes they would like me to share on the blog. I have one friend who suggests sweets each time I ask her because frankly, I think she’s obsessed. So imagine my shock when I asked her a couple of weeks ago if she had anything in particular she’d like me to make. I fully expected her to say “Chocolate chocolate cake with sugar filling and sugar frosting topped with sugar” but instead she said, “You know, lettuce wraps would be nice.” And I agreed.
Everyone has one of those days. You know, the day you’re too busy to spend much time thinking about what you’re going to make for dinner. Then before you know it, your home, starving and standing in front of your almost empty refrigerator asking yourself, “what on earth am I going to make?”. When this happens to me, like it did last week, I could let the hunger overwhelm me, cry like a baby and rush to my borderline obsessive collection of take out menus. Or I can use what I have, in this case it ground chicken, zucchini, onions and a few staple spices, cross my fingers and hope for the best. This time around it turned out to be a mighty good decision on my part.
This dish is a little sentimental for me. You see, when Ryan and I had our first date a little over a decade ago, we went to a Mongolian BBQ. If you’ve never been, its an all you can eat restaurant concept where you pick and choose your meat and veggies and then they cook it on a big grill in front of you. Now most 15 year old girls would be horrified for this to be their first date. I mean all the slurping of pasta, the aroma of garlic, peppers and onions and the high probability that after the date you would smell like you spent a couple days there, would probably have a few girls begging to be taken somewhere to get a salad. But not me, I was actually quite thrilled.
If there were a list of my all-time favorite appetizers, potstickers would be near the top with wontons, eggrolls, chips and salsa and calamari. Like wontons and eggrolls, you can get just about any mixture of flavors inside potstickers. I have had them with shrimp, beef, chicken and veggies only. For this recipe, I wanted to keep it pretty traditional and easy so I used ground pork, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, garlic and celery.
