Lo Mein

Quick & Easy Vegetable Lo Mein

/ Jodi / 36 Comments

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What do you make when you have A LOT of leftover spaghetti?

I made this super quick and easy vegetable lo mein last night while baking cookies for an upcoming cookie exchange.

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Are you like me and have a hard time judging how much spaghetti to cook?

Our youngest son came over Sunday, so I made one of his favorite chicken dishes, Pepperoni Chicken.  I wanted to make sure to make enough extra so he could take a meal or two home with him, so I got a teensy bit carried away and made two pounds of whole wheat spaghetti.

After I filled a gallon Ziploc bag about 2/3 full and he started calling “halt” to any more, I realized I still had half of what I made left.

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Since I had some leftover cut up veggies, tossing them together and making a quick sauce, made this dinner come together in about 10 minutes!  Can’t beat that – right?

You could really use any vegetables you have on hand.  Here is how I made mine.  Use it as a base recipe to flex to your taste!  I imagine mushroom lovers would totally enjoy them thrown in.  Want a protein?  Add some leftover chicken, pork, beef, or shrimp.  I’ll bet some steamed broccoli or fresh green beans and/or sliced sweet peppers would be great too!  You could even toss in some water chestnuts or peanuts, walnuts, or sliced almonds.

Quick & Easy Vegetable Lo Mein

Ingredients:

  • 1/2-1 lb spaghetti (I used whole wheat)
  • 2 Tbsp oil (olive, sesame, canola or vegetable)
  • 1/2 sweet onion chopped
  • 1 cup shredded or chopped carrots
  • 1 cup chopped celery
  • 1 cup green peas
  • Sauce – Whisk together:
    • 3 Tbsp soy sauce
    • 2 Tbsp teriyaki sauce
    • 2 Tbsp honey
    • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
    • Dash Sriracha hot sauce

Directions:

Heat oil in stir fry skillet.  Add vegetables and cook 3-5 minutes until crisp-tender.  Add spaghetti and sauce.  Cook until heated through 1-2 minutes.

That’s it!  Enjoy!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Easy Homemade Chicken & Vegetable Lo Mein

/ Jodi / 25 Comments

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I love chicken and all the versatile ways you can prepare it.  I try a new chicken recipe almost every week.  I also love Asian-inspired dishes, so I really enjoyed trying a take on Chicken and Vegetable Lo-Mein.

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Like most recipes I make, almost everything can be substituted with any ingredients of your choice.  And though I provide measurements, I rarely measure anything exact myself.  In this recipe, you could use shrimp or pork or even beef if you prefer  instead of chicken.  You could also substitute any vegetables you prefer.  And if you don’t have lo mein noodles on hand, thin spaghetti will work too!

chicken and vegetable lo mein

I really believe the ingredient that seals the deal with this recipe is the addition of a lot of fresh spinach in the end that you cook only long enough to wilt.  It adds such great texture, color, taste, and nutritional value.  I also very highly recommend using low-sodium soy sauce.  I am a salt lover, and it has taken me a long time to realize this, but most soy sauce is way too salty.  The low-sodium version gives you just enough saltiness, but the full soy sauce flavor.  And the sesame oil is a must.  This cannot be substituted with corn or vegetable or canola or olive oil.  To get that great Asian lo mein flavor, the sesame oil is key.

Hope you will give this yet another winner winner of a chicken dinner a try.

Enjoy!

Easy Chicken & Vegetable Lo Mein

Ingredients:chicken and vegetable lo mein 3

  • 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced thinly
  • 10 ounces lo mein egg noodles*
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 cup red, yellow, orange bell pepper, julienned
  • 1 large carrot, julienned or 1/2 cup matchstick carrots
  • 1 cup sliced celery stalks
  • ½ cup green onions, sliced
  • 2 cups baby spinach

Sauce:

  • 2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce, or more, to taste
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon Sriracha, or more, to taste

Directions:

In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, ginger and Sriracha; set aside.

In a large pot of boiling water, cook noodles according to package instructions; drain well.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet or wok over medium high heat. Add chicken, and cook thorough for several minutes.  Add garlic, bell pepper, celery, carrots, and onion. Cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in spinach until wilted, about 2-3 minutes.

Stir in noodles and soy sauce mixture, and gently toss to combine.

Serve immediately.

*If lo mein egg noodles cannot be found, spaghetti can be substituted.

 

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

*Recipe slightly adapted from DamnDelicious

Shrimp & Vegetable Lo Mein

/ Jodi / 27 Comments

Lo Mein

Anyone who has followed along here at LifeinBetween.me for any length of time might be wondering what an ole’ Hunky Polish chick that loves baking cookies and cakes and breads and makes halupkis and haluski and pierogies is doing trying her hand at Chinese comfort food….

Well – why not?!

And oh YUMMMM!

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Who knew how easy and healthy it could be without buying it from the local Chinese take-out?

And is there anything more versatile?!

The sky is seriously the limit with all the things you can mix into this!

Change up the protein from shrimp to chicken or pork or even beef.

Almost any vegetable works too!

Can’t find Lo Mein Noodles at your local grocery?  Spaghetti noodles work just fine!

lo mein prep

I used inspiration from the real experts like the gang at The Woks of Life and  Chungha at Damn Delicious.

Here’s my version.

Homemade Lo Mein

  • Servings: Enough for a Hungry Family
  • Print

 Ingredients:

1 – 1.5 lbs Thin Spaghetti (or Lo Mein noodles) – cooked al dente
1 lb Cooked, Deveined Shrimp, Tails removed (or chicken or pork or beef)
5 cups spinach leaves
1 cup shredded julienne carrots
1 cup diced celery
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup thin asparagus tops
1 cup green onions, cut into 2 inch lengths
1 cup sugar snap peas
2 red peppers, cut into strips
2-3 cloves minced garlic
3 tsp. Olive Oil
Sauce:
5 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp. Sesame Oil
2 Tbsp Sugar dissolved in 2 Tbsp hot water
1 tsp Salt-Free Asian Spice Seasoning
1 Tbsp freshly minced ginger
1 tsp Siracha Sauce

Directions:

Heat olive oil in large wok or skillet. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add rest of vegetables, except spinach (any of the above or any that you like) and cook for 4-5 minutes. Stir frequently. Add cooked shrimp (or protein of your choice or simply keep vegetarian). Cook 2-3 more minutes. Add spinach and cook 1-2 more minutes. Stir in noodles and sauce mixture. Gently toss.

Serve and enjoy!

Need to see it again?

Lo Mein 2

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi