A new recipe...

 Years back, when I was an apartment dweller with less kitchen space (and less money, when I was an undergrad), I used to buy a small amount of some kind of meat and then vegetables and cook them up with rice or noodles and vaguely Asian seasonings. I never really used a recipe; sometimes it was good, mostly it was not.

I've since learned that your chances of success are better if you have a recipe as a guide, at least for what seasonings to put in the sauce. 

When I was in Sherman this weekend I picked up a small package of chicken breasts, and a thing of shredded cabbage* and a can of bean sprouts (and I had "ramen" type noodles, and also green onions, and a variety of Asian condiments). So I decided to do a stir fry sort of thing. I thought about looking in my cookbooks but frankly these days online can be faster, and you can search using the names of the ingredients you have. So that's what I did, and found this recipe at a site called "gimme delicious"

I didn't put the carrots in - I can't digest carrots, it turns out. It might be better with another bright vegetable in there (before you ask: no, I don't care for bell pepper, but for some of you, that might be a good addition. Or little bits of pre-cooked broccoli added at the end might be good). 

I also didn't have oyster sauce but substituted hoisin which is not TOO different and I probably like it better anyway.

The nice thing about these dishes is exactly why I made them as a frugal college student: relatively little meat, lots of veggies, and you can use whatever is in season and comparatively cheap. (You could sub in shredded zucchini, I think, for the cabbage). 

(*and yes, I know some folks roll their eyes at the pre-prepared vegetables but for me they're a Godsend because I might not be motivated to cook with things like that otherwise. And I know people with disabilities who say that having already-cut-up vegetables means it saves them enough energy that they CAN cook for themselves. So I'm happy to pay the premium these days for pre shredded cabbage). 

I don't own a wok but my big frypan worked just as well. (The recipe is a little unclear in places: I think you're intended to add the cornstarch to the water or chicken broth - one thing I know from experience is that dumping cornstarch straight into a mixture sometimes makes it lump up. And also, I don't know if the sesame oil goes into the pan to cook the chicken in, or goes in the sauce. I put it in the sauce but then used a tiny bit of corn oil for the pan.) Also, I think the broth would be better - I didn't want to open a container just for 2 tablespoons so I used water, and the sauce was just a little flat. (There's also no salt called for, but then soy sauce and hoisin are both pretty salty). Or maybe a few red pepper flakes if you like those, or a dash of chili oil. 

It was good, though. Not pretty, but good

It also makes A LOT. It would be enough to feed a family of four, maybe even of six, especially if you had some other dishes with it. I'll be eating on this for the rest of the week (which is fine; it makes dinners easy, especially for after my shot on Friday if I feel tired out)

I haven't cooked much recently so it makes me feel proud of myself for making this effort. Especially for a new recipe - I did have chili last week but I make that so often I can make it almost in my sleep.

I also got the last of this set of bags sorted (though, lol, I go collect the next set Thursday) and I wrapped and mailed my niece's birthday present (it should get there, they say, on Thursday, which is nearly a week before her birthday, so that's good.)

Last night I wound off the yarn for the shawlette/scarf I was talking about (it's Orchard and Vine by Jovi Geraci. I liked it because it's just all garter stitch BUT you do alternating stripes of different colors in some sections. And yes, the fact that it was modeled on a Timothee Chalamet-esque male model may have caught my attention too.) I started it last night but am not very far yet of course.