Shrimp Lo Mein

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I am always in the mood for Chinese food. Their cuisine is so rich in savory flavors with vegetables and carbs. Lo mein is one of my favorite easy Chinese recipes. The only thing you will need is fish oil and oyster sauce, then you can make any kind of lo mein there is! For this recipe, I used zucchini as my green vegetable. You could also use a spinach, a bok choy, or some broccoli, to name a few. I also added about 2 teaspoons of red pepper flakes for a subtle hint of heat to the dish. I would recommend adding some for more depth of flavor, or more if you’d like some extra spice in your dish! This recipe makes 5-6 adult sized servings.

What You Will Need

  • Wok/Large Dutch Oven
  • 1/3 Cup Oil
  • 1 Medium Onion, sliced
  • 1 Green Vegetable
  • 12 Oz Frozen shrimp
  • 12 Oz Vermicelli/spaghetti
  • 2 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp Fish Oil
  • 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
  • 1/2 Tbsp Garlic powder
  • 1/2 Tbsp Ground Ginger
  • (Optional) 1/4+ tsp Red Pepper Flakes

Directions

  1. Add your oil to your pan and heat over medium heat until hot. Also begin boiling your spaghetti, cook until al dente, then strain.

2. Add your onion and green vegetable to the oil and cook until onion is translucent. Add your oyster sauce, fish oil, soy sauce, and spices. Stir until combined.

3. Place frozen shrimp into luke warm water. Let sit for 2-3 minutes. Remove tails if applicable. Add shrimp and pasta to wok/dutch oven, stir over medium heat until thoroughly mixed.

4. Remove from heat. Let cool 5 minutes and serve.

Kielbasa Curry Fried Rice

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As the weather begins to cool down, nothing is more comforting than a warm meal. Fried rice is a great way to use leftover rice and there are so many ways to make it, that there is no reason to get tired of the flavor! For this recipe I used up what I had left of a green pepper, then added just under 1/2 a bag of chopped and frozen peppers and onion. I also used 1/3 of a very large zucchini and I can say I now enjoy the flavor and consistency a lot more than before. I also sliced my kielbasa without removing the casing. If you are serving someone who may have a hard time chewing, you will want to remove the casing, if not, the kielbasa is only harder to chew and the flavor is no different. This recipe made many servings! It made 5-6 Adult sized servings.

What You Will Need

  • 3 Tbsp Oil
  • 1 13 Oz Package of Kielbasa, Sliced (opt. remove casing)
  • 1 cup sliced peppers
  • 1 cup diced onion
  • 1 cup diced Zucchini
  • 3-4 cups cooked rice
  • 1 cup beef broth
  • 1 Tbsp Curry Powder
  • 1/2 Tbsp Turmeric powder
  • 2 tsp Garlic powder
  • 2 tsp paprika
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
  • Wok/Large Dutch Oven

Directions

  1. Prepare your ingredients. Heat wok/dutch oven over medium heat. Add oil.
  2. Once hot, add zucchini, peppers, and onion, and cook until heated through. Add kielbasa and spices. Coat everything with seasoning and cook Kielbasa until heated through, 3-4 minutes.
  3. Add rice and broth. Cook for another 4-5 minutes until everything is incorporated and heated through. Let cook 5 minutes before serving.

Pork and Summer Squash Curry

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Now is the time of the year for summer squash. Zucchini and yellow squash so abundant that some friends may even be giving it away. We are no exception to that. Receiving a few zucchini and squash every couple weeks from the in-laws, our curry has become more varied as a result. I really do love curry and how easy it is to make. Serving it with rice makes an easy meal and so filling. You can make curry as spicy as you like, and curry can easily be frozen to enjoy later. Like ratatouille, this curry cooked the squash and zucchini perfectly, and the flavors made them so enjoyable! The pork was added for a bit of extra flavor, but you can easily make this dish vegetarian by excluding the pork and substituting in vegetable broth in instead of beef.

What You Will Need
  • 2 Pork Chops, diced
  • 1 small onion diced, 1/2 cup
  • 1-2 medium tomatoes, diced
  • 3 cups water
  • 2 beef bouillon
  • 1 medium/large zucchini, 1 1/2-2 cups
  • 2 medium/small yellow squash, 1 1/2-2 cups
  • 2 Tbsp Curry Powder
  • 2 Tbsp Chili Powder
  • 2 tsp Cayenne pepper powder
  • 1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
  • 2 tsp Cumin Powder
  • 1 tsp Paprika
  • Dicer
  • Cutting board and knife
  • Dutch oven
  • Wooden spoon and ladle
  • White rice to serve
Directions
  1. Add diced pork to dicer. Pulse until pork is fully ground. Add to dutch oven with 1 Tbsp oil. Once fully browned, add diced onion and tomatoes. Cook until onion is translucent.
  2. Add water, and bouillons, return to a boil before adding zucchini and squash. Add spices and stir. Cook for 10 minutes uncovered, stirring occasionally. Ready to serve once thick and squash is fully cooked.
  3. Fill bowl 1/2 way with rice before topping with curry and serving.
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Cucumber Salsa

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Salsa in a great snack. It’s healthy and goes with so many different types of food. I made this salsa with what I got from the garden and a bit of lemon and spices. This salsa is refreshing and original. The cucumber flavor brings a light and fresh flavor to any dish. You can alter the amount of chili powder to suit your heat preference, the recipe below is for a very mild salsa. The mixture did very very watery, so if you’d like, you could core the cucumbers to get less juice, or you could just decant some of the liquid from the mixture before adding your spices. This went great with tacos and chips, but be creative and try this with something new!

What You Will Need
  • 3 medium cucumbers (small if store bought), diced
  • 2 small vine tomatoes, diced
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 2 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 Tbsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp onion salt (or 1 tsp normal salt)
  • 2 Tbsp chili powder
  • Blender
  • Storage/Serving bowl
Instructions
  1. Prepare all your veggies. Add to a blender. Add lemon juice and cover.
  2. Using the dice setting, hold for 5 seconds. Scoop mixture into your bowl. Add the remaining ingredients to your taste.
  3. Chill 2-3 hours before serving for better taste, or serve right away.
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Canning Thousand Island Pickles

I’ve been sitting on this post for a couple days now. This is at least my great-grandmother’s recipe, however it may be older, and I was feeling a bit iffy about sharing. Because this is a family recipe, it may not be approved my canning regulations, however my family has been canning these pickles for several generations and no one has gotten botulism. Before you can, make sure you are familiar with the process of canning. You have to make sure you get every step otherwise the jar may not seal and you’ll have lots of pickles to eat in such a short time. But when you do follow the steps, most jars do seal. To tell if a jar sealed, you check to see if the lid pops when you push the center of it.

These are sweet pickles due to the sugar in the mixture. When canning, I recommend using 2 of one color pepper and 1 of the other color bell pepper. The red and yellow add more color to the mixture and they don’t taste any different then the green. When you are heating the mixture, it can be helpful to use a fork to try the cucumbers. This will help in being able to identify when the pickles are done and need to be remove from the heat. You don’t want the pickles too crisp or too soggy. I did a double batch and ended up getting 16 1/2 jars, with 15 jars sealed. One jar was dropped when being removed from the canner and the top broke off when it hit the counter. The counter was clean so we could salvage the pickles, but you can’t re-can, so they joined the 1/2 can in the fridge.

  1. Quarter and slice 8 medium cucumbers. Core and dice 3 red/yellow bell peppers. Dice 4 medium onions. Add all diced veggies into a large stockpot.
  2. In the stockpot, add 1 tsp ground mustard, 2 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp turmeric, 4 tsp salt, 3 cups sugar, and 2 cups apple cider vinegar.
  3. Place over medium high heat. Stir often and heat to a boil, but do not boil. Fill a large water bath canner 1/2 with water and heat over high heat. In a small saucepan, add your lids and place over medium high heat.
  4. Place mixture into heated and sterile jars. Leave 1/2 inch heat space. remove bubbles by running a metal knife around the outer edge. Wipe off the lip and threads of the jar. Add warmed lid on lip, then hand tighten jar rings.
  5. Place filled and sealed jars into your water bath canner. Drop into boiling water, cover with lid, and let can for 10 minutes.
  6. Lift jars out of hot water. Remove hot jars and place on 2 kitchen towels. Let cool until room temperature. Remove rings, label jars, check to make sure jars are sealed, and store sealed jar in cellar or cool dark area. If jar didn’t seal, place in fridge and eat within a week.

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