Being a Nurse

My beloved husband had an accident this weekend. While snowboarding in Iowa (yes, in I said in Iowa) on a small ski hill he fell and broke his arm, a clean snap all the way through. The poor dude is in a full arm splint and in quite a bit of pain. This is where you realize marriage is quite wonderful even when things are looking a little down. I've enjoyed playing nurse; wrapping his splint, bathing him (we laughed for about 10 minutes straight during this), buying him the first two seasons of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and cooking him a yummy meal. He visits an othapaedic surgeon on Tuesday where he will get a cast (which I heard goes quite well with suits).

For dinner this evening I wanted to use bok choy so I made a stir-fry that was inspired by this recipe on Cuisine Nie. Lots of bok choy, mushrooms, red peppers, and tofu served over brown rice. HEALTHY, HEALTHY, HEALTHY!

I really enjoyed this meal except that I suck at cooking tofu. I've yet to master frying it and this time was no different. In the pic below things aren't looking too bad...yet.

However, once added to the veggies my tofu fell apart into tiny little pieces and made the stir-fry a little mushy. I think I'm gonna stick to baking tofu unless one of you as some good advice for me.

Turkey Teriyaki Meatballs with Edamame and Rice

I found the inspiration for the recipe in Real Simple magazine. The original recipe called for ground chicken and a few ingredients I didn't have sitting around the house (fresh ginger and green onions) and since I was too lazy to run to the store, I cooked up turkey meatballs with garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, and brown sugar. The results of this recipe were SUPER DELICIOUS.

Turkey Teriyaki Meatballs with Edamame and Rice:
1 lb. ground turkey
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
A few generous splashes of soy sauce
1 tablespoon vegetable oil for cooking up the meatballs

1 cup rice

1 cup edamame, shelled

Combine turkey, garlic, brown sugar, sesame oil, and soy suace in mixing bowl. Shape mixture in to meatballs. Heat oil over medium high heat. Add meatballs and cook throughly.

Serve over rice and steamd edamame. YUM!

Asian Noodle Salad and Pot Stickers

WOW! I just got done with supper and it was sooooo good I couldn't wait to sit down and blog about it.

I made the Asian Noodle Salad off of the famous Pioneers Woman's blog. I've drooled over her recipes for awhile but had never made one of them up until tonight. It was amazing. The flavor, the texture, the color, the presentation, all of it! The only bummer thing about the salad was the fact that I had no bean sprouts ( I wasn't about to use nasty canned ones) and I was too lazy to run to the Asian market on the other side of the city.

The pot stickers were flavorful but something went wrong in the cooking part of it. They were a bit gooey. I had made pot stickers once before these and I really enjoyed them--I don't know what I did differently this time. I don't think I browned them enough before adding the water.

Asian Noodle Salad:
1 packages linguine noodles, cooked, rinsed, and cooled -- I used 1/2 package

1/2 to 1 head sliced Napa cabbage -- I used half

1/2 to 1 head sliced purple cabbage -- I used half

1/2 to 1 bag baby spinach -- I used half

1 red bell pepper, sliced thin

1 yellow bell pepper, sliced thin

1 orange bell pepper, sliced thin -- I omitted this

1 small bag bean sprouts (also called “mung bean sprouts”) --- I omitted this

3 sliced scallions

LOTS of chopped cilantro—up to one bunch

1 can whole cashews, lightly toasted in skillet -- didn't have any so I used almonds instead

DRESSING:--THIS IS AMAZING!!!
Juice of 1 lime

8 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons sesame oil

6 tablespoons soy sauce

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons fresh ginger, chopped

2 cloves chopped

2 hot peppers or jalapenos, chopped

More chopped cilantro—LOTS

Mix together salad ingredients. Whisk together dressing ingredients and pour over salad. Mix with tongs or hands and serve on platter.

Pot Stickers:

1/2 lb. ground pork

1 cup napa cabbage, chopped

3 scallion, chopped

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

Freshly grated ginger

1 tablespoon seasame oil

1/2 teaspoon sugar

Soy sauce

Salt

15-20 wonton wrappers

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

3/4 cup water

Mix pork, cabbage, scallions, cilantro, ginger, seasame oil, sugar, salt, and soy sauce together. Lay out wonton wrapper and place 1 tablespoon (or a bit less) in the middle of the wrapper. Fold wrap in half over mixture and seal together with water; repeat until meat mixture is done.

Heat vegetable oil in deep fry pan. Place pot stickers into heated oil and brown both sides (approximately 30-45 seconds per side) Add water and bring to gentle boil for 8 minutes. Remove from water and serve.