Chinese Chicken Stir Fry

A few days ago I made my dad this cheesecake because cheesecake is in the top 3 of my dad's favorite desserts and he saw the 3 blocks of cream cheese in the fridge and brought up the subject. I think next time I might try to make a mini cheesecake for me using tofutti's better than cream cheese since I've heard really good reviews saying you can't tell the difference between it and dairy cream cheese. 

I did make a few changes from the recipe above: 

1) I made the filling in a food processor which was faster.

2) I used little chocolate cookies (teddy grahams) to make the crust instead of graham crackers 

3) I added another 1/4 cup of sugar into the batter because I almost made a marble cheesecake, but later changed my mind.

4) I didn't do the chocolate layer at the bottom which I only did once because I didn't realize at the time the chocolate could become completely solid again and once it was chilled it was too hard.

Light Sesame Chicken for 2

  One of my favorite chinese dishes is sesame chicken and this recipe is great since you probably have all of the ingredients in your kitchen. The flavor is simple- great for kids to adults who may not be real big on chinese food and it can be halved (what I did) or multiplied to serve a crowd. Even my dad, who generally will try, but not love the chinese-themed dishes I make said he liked it and finished his bowl.

 It's easy to make take-out at home and you can experiment with different ingredients and flavors. You could leave out the vegetables, add in other veggies, double the sauce portion if your prefer more sauce, and/or add some nuts like cashews or peanuts to add some crunch on top.

Vegetable & Beef Stir Fry

  During the weekend, I made carrot cake muffins with a cream cheese filling for church. The recipe can be found here. They were good, but my favorite carrot cake recipe has to be these whoopie pies.

Orange bell pepper & Bok Choy strips.

  I've been hungry for a stir fry recently and I decided that I would experiment to make another recipe since we don't have any take-out near us. I've already made a Baby Bok Choy & Pork Stir Fry and a simple Beef Stir Fry so I wanted something a little different.I like the idea of making Chinese meals (& other meals) at home since you can keep track of the amount of oil, salt, and the quality of products that are going into your dinner. Most places that serve Chinese food that I've been to usually give you a big plate of thick, salty sauce and very little of the actual meat & veggies.

Baby Bok Choy & Pork Stir Fry

Hunger is a great motivator.
Its how a few simple ingredients get transformed into wonderful awe inspiring dishes.
Its when you have a spark of inspiration. Its when you don't settle for a plain sandwich.
And that is exactly what happened a few days ago.
    I wasn't sure what I was going to make, but I had an idea. So I open the fridge and started grabbing an assortment of different ingredents. I grabbed some baby bok choy, fresh ginger, soy sauce, and a boneless pork chop and I was ready. I made the stir fry again today, but this time I actually kept track of the what  I added. My dad even ate some...(well only 4 bites). He is more of a steak and potato guy-not a homemade chinese takeout sort of guy. I actually don't know if he has ever eaten chinese take out. And seeing as we don't get takeout around here then I don't think he ever will. And I think that is fine by him.
    Cooking your own chinese at home gives you the opportunity to add the ingredients you prefer, keep track of the sodium levels, and gives you the chance to "wow" others when you say that you made your own chinese food, even though you know how easy it really was.
   One thing I like about this recipe is the sauce. Its thick enough to coat the noodles and veg, but its not that sticky goopy stuff that more and more chinese places serve nowadays. We had a chinese place open here in our town and what do you think we got when our plates arrived? A plate a thick sticky sauce,a little veggies, and even less meat. Needless to say that was the first and last time we ate there.

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Am I the only one who starts randomly writing out recipes when I get an idea?

Maybe.

Sometime, its not even a recipe, but a list of ingredients that I think would make a good meal.

Anyway....back to the food.