Numplings or Doodles?

I was inspired by a fabulous wide noodle dish I ate in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China this past summer, to try making my own noodles. Lately, someone commented on one of my posts, which included ramen noodles, that I should try making my own noodles. Tonight, I did.

First, I will share four photos from our trip to China. The photos are of my favorite wide noodle dish, our favorite Chinese diner, and Anthony and I with our favorite Chinese diner owner.

The rest of  these pics are my first attempts at homemade noodles. They turned out to resemble a kind of morph between a noodle and a dumpling. Not quite sure what to call them. Anthony said maybe we could call my creations numplings or doodles. What do you think? We tremendously enjoyed our dinner tonight. Anthony said it reminded him of China.

The Weekend Pizza Story

I decided on a whim, after seeing some of my brave soul'd friends on Facebook had tried 2 ingredient pizza dough, that it was time I tried it too. While I was at Walmart today I picked up ingredient #1- self-rising flour. I'm so cheap I just couldn't pick up ingredient #2- Greek yogurt. I didn't see the point in spending extra for Greek yogurt when why not give regular yogurt a chance? But I didn't just downgrade to regular yogurt. I went with nonfat store brand yogurt. After returning home from shopping, I looked online and compared some random 2 ingredient pizza dough recipes- yep, they were all the same: 1 cup of this, and 1 cup of that. I double and triple checked just because in my old pizza dough recipes,  the dry to wet ingredient ratio was usually approximately 3 to 1 not 1 on 1. I mixed my cheap yogurt and flour together. Not cool. "Oh no," I thought, "this is terrible. This is not working out. This glue-like consistency is never going to turn out pizza." I was getting frustrated because it wasn't working out, I was hungry, I love pizza, I hadn't made it in awhile, and now this. I was freaking out but finally decided that I would just make it work. I added an extra cup of flour. Still gloppy, not unlike biscuit dough. "Great," I vented aloud, "this is not pizza dough, we are going to be having pizza biscuits." Anthony remained calm. He said that probably once I put all the toppings on, it would still probably taste like pizza. I was sure not. The dough still has to have a flavor of it's own, and be the right consistency, among other things. My hands had yogurt/flour grime all over them so I asked Anthony if he could get me the cornmeal. He obliged. Oh, by the way, initially, once I mixed the 1 cup with 1 cup and saw it was just goop, I set the mess on the stove to see if it would rise while the oven heated. Of course it didn't so I then added the second cup of flour I mentioned earlier. I had already sprayed my pan with olive oil, and now Anthony dusted the pan with cornmeal at my request. He also put cornmeal on both sides of my dough so I could flatten it out as much as possible. I was still not happy, the dough was still a little wet and ripped incessantly. There was never going to be a full size pizza from this batch of dough. I layered my ingredients, and stuck the pizza in the oven. Later, I heard sizzling and my cheese was running off the pizza and onto the floor of the oven. Oh my, not my pizza night. I tucked the cheese into the side of the pizza so that it would stop overflowing. When the pizza was ready, I was astounded! Not only did my favorite cheese and sauce pay off, the dough was amazing . . . I really liked the smoked ham topping as well. It was like artisan pizza- crunchy, soft, chewy, and with a nice sourdough sort of flavor.

Broccoli Baklava

I was wondering what I'd make for supper as I looked through my food supply. In the freezer I found an item of note that had been with us for awhile, since before our move to Clemson in May. It was leftover from some random shopping trip when I bought ingredients to make Beef Wellington and had substituted phyllo for pie pastry. I had only used half of the phyllo, and the other half was still wrapped in plastic. Indeed phyllo pastry can keep for quite some time. I thought, "hmm . . . I wonder what I can make out of that." My husband says I make stuff out of nothing. He loves that I do that, and I think doing so is a lot of fun. I was just trying to think of something good to make. I will also mention that in my investigation of the freezer, I perused the backs of the food packages, scanning them for ideas. I had turned up nothing so far. When I read the back of the phyllo box, I thought, "hmm, I can work with that."

After I made a few grand component substitutions and a change in layout design . . . this is what my recipe looked like:

Olive Oil Spray

20 Sheets of Phyllo Pastry

1/2 Bag Frozen Stir-Fry Vegetables

1 Gourmet Cucumber

2 Carrots

1 Vidalia Onion

Grated Parmesan Cheese

Mayonnaise

Salt & Pepper

2 Eggs

Allow me to recommend Broccoli Baklava to you.

Brunch Burrito

I woke up a little late and thought I'd make a breakfast sandwich with a french bun, egg, chicken, and cheese. That seemed like a huge sandwich though, and I didn't know if I could really get my mouth around it. I then remembered that we have some soft shell tortillas in the freezer and decided to make a breakfast burrito instead.

All you need to make one chicken breakfast burrito is:

1 Frozen Soft-shell Tortilla
1 Egg
1 Yellow American Cheese Slice
1 Frozen Chicken Patty

I thawed my soft-shell tortilla on a paper towel on a plate in the microwave. I then started cooking my egg on the stove while thawing my chicken patty in the microwave for 2 minutes. I tore the cheese over the egg, added the chicken, and then chopped it all up together before rolling it all up in the burrito. One nice, fast, breakfast and lunch for me.

A Mug Full of Chocolate Cake

I was on Facebook checking out a giveaway on a friend's jewelry business page Purabellezza of Etsy when I ran across a recipe my friend shared on her page from someone else's blog. I immediately began following that second person's blog- livelovepasta.com, and I just made my first recipe off of it! Here is a link to the recipe I tried: http://livelovepasta.com/2011/05/nutella-mug-cake/. I altered a few ingredients to ones I had on hand:

4 Tb Aunt Jemima's Buttermilk Pancake Mix
4 Tb Granulated Sugar
3 Tb Cocoa
3 Tb Jiff Mocha Cappuccino Hazelnut Spread
3 Tb Entenmann's Hazelnut Coffee
3 Tb Oil
1 Egg

I stirred these all together in my mug with a fork and them zapped my cake batter for 3 minutes in the microwave. So fast. So good. So fresh & hot. It would be even more amazing with ice cream.

Creative Mac & Cheese Plus Salad Equals Lunch

Yes, I actually did open another packet of ramen noodles and put them in a bowl of water which I then put in the microwave on high for five minutes. I drained my noodles, and ripped up a couple of slices of american cheese into them. I stirred the cheese and noodles until all the cheese was melted. I made a carrot, cucumber, and lettuce salad to balance our lunch.

Southern Fried Apples & Pancakes Breakfast

I made fried apples this morning. May have been the first time. They were really good. I just sprayed my pan, sliced up four paula red apples into it, covered them with cinnamon, sugar, and drizzled oil over them. I made Aunt Jemima's thick buttermilk pancakes again, and we put the fried apples on top. I could eat that again.

My Husband Made Dinner For Me!

My dear husband noticed that I was not feeling well and offered to go on an ice cream sandwich run for his pregnant wife! Aww. I napped and then took a phone call from my sister while my husband was out. When he returned, he brought with him Klondike bars, pizza, hot dogs, yellow American cheese slices, and hot dog buns! Then he proceeded to make cheese dogs for us:) I asked if he minded if I ate an ice cream sandwich and had dessert first while he was cooking. He didn't mind, and even helped me eat the ice cream sandwich. I pulled a jar of pickled beets from the cupboard to eat as a side. I think they about grossed Anthony out but he put up with me eating the pickled beets with the delicious dinner he prepared for us. I think his dinner and dessert did the trick. I'm feeling a little better already.

Poor Man's Pasta Alfredo & Chicken Cutlet

So I was on my own for lunch today after packing my husband a bag lunch to take to grad school. I was in the mood for some good ole' comfort food. I resorted to, I know, the terribly unhealthy ramen noodles. I heated them in a bowl with water in the microwave for five minutes. I tossed the wrapper and seasoning packet in the trash. When the noodles were ready, I put butter and parmesan cheese on them. I heated a chicken patty in the microwave for two minutes. When it was done, I put it on top of my buttered noodles and dusted it with salt, pepper, and oregano. This pregnant girl enjoyed her lunch.

 

Healthy Spaghetti O's and Dinner Trivia

Tonight after perusing the food supply I pulled a large can of whole tomatoes and a packet of ramen noodles. I opened the can and drained the tomato juice into a medium saucepan. I broke up the ramen noodles into the juice, emptied the beef seasonings packet on top of them, and filled half a tomato can with water before pouring the water too into the pot. I quartered the whole tomatoes on a cutting board then put them in the pot and let it all boil five minutes. We loved the outcome! Over dinner my husband popped a trivia question which he said he and his siblings did often around the dinner table growing up. He asked what type of gas the bubbles were at the bottom of the tomato soup. I asked him to list off for me what the possible answers were for his multiple choice question. He laughed, us both knowing that I was presuming it to be multiple choice. He said the answer was simple, and would not tell me what it was. Finally, he succumbed to my repeated interrogations and said that the gas bubbles at the bottom of the pot are water vapor/steam.

Chicken Fried Brown Rice For Lunch

-half bag frozen stir-fry veggies
-small can of corn
-fresh carrot
-egg
-4 small chicken tenders diced
-Teriyaki
-Worcestershire
-chopped garlic
-salt & pepper


-1 cup uncooked rice
-2 cups water
-1/2 Tb salt
-1 Tb oil

Yeah, we thought it was pretty amazing:)

Late Night Snack Requested By The Husband

Was I ever surprised when a salad was requested as a late night snack at 11:30 p.m. by my dear Anthony. I was surprised and impressed. He was just sitting there grading papers when he came up with the idea. I prepared the salad, and then we ate it together. Let me tell you, a salad late at night is very refreshing. You should try it some time, instead of ice cream or a donut or whatever.

 

Breakfast for Dinner

I looked in the cabinets for inspiration for something to make for dinner. All I saw was more of what we've been having: Asian noodles, Italian, chicken, salad etc. I told Anthony what I saw, and asked what he wanted. He said maybe pancakes. We still have a leftover pancake in the fridge and I just didn't know if it was time for those again yet. I asked what he thought of waffles. He said that sounded good, with eggs. So that is what we had. I sliced up some bananas for a side.

I made the recipe for waffles off the Aunt Jemima's box, and added a couple of the recommended add-ins: 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and 2 Tb brown sugar.

I put a little salt, cayenne pepper, and onion powder in the eggs.

 Leftovers

Shari's Orange Chicken & Brown Rice

First, I started my 1 cup of brown rice in a little pot with 2 cups of water, 1 Tb of oil, and salt to taste. I brought it to a boil and then let it cook on low for thirty minutes. I loaded 12 chicken tenders onto a baking sheet and stuck them in the oven to cook at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

Next, I cut up a vidalia onion and threw it in a thoroughly sprayed skillet. I sprinkled some red pepper flakes over the onion, doused the onion with clover honey, and grated some orange zest into the conglomeration.

I chopped up a whole orange including the peel and added it to the skillet.

I put the mixture on high, added water, added more red pepper flakes and honey, and salt.

I combined the chicken and sauce when they were both done cooking separately. I served the orange chicken over the brown rice. So fresh and nutritious.