Pork Lo Mein

I made the Pork Lo Mein recipe from the Comfort Foods Makeover book since I had some pork loin in the freezer that I wanted eaten.  I was surprised by how tender the pork was.  Mike didn't like the dish because he doesn't like pork.

The dish was a little salty, but that's probably because I didn't use mushrooms.  Mike hates mushrooms so I don't buy any, and I didn't put any in the dish since I thought he might like this dish.  He didn't like the dish, because he doesn't like pork.  I was under the impression that he didn't like pork because it's often overcooked and dry.  This pork was definitely not overcooked or dry.

The recipe called for spaghetti, but I used some chow mien that I had bought to make chow mien and never did.  I also used spinach instead of napa cabbage.

Tuna Cakes

Here is dinner!

Here are the Tuna cakes after they were finished cooking.

I have a can of tuna in the cupboard that I wanted to use up.  I saw a recipe for "Tuna cakes" and knew that I had to try to make it.  It's supposed to be similar to crab cakes, which I love, but using Tuna!

I didn't have any Worcestershire sauce, so I used soy sauce.  Michele said that I could use soy sauce instead.  I also didn't have any Old Bay Seasoning, so I used Grizzly Joe instead.

This tasted mainly like Tuna and soy sauce to me.  I think that part of the problem is that the recipe says to use the Tuna undrained.  I'm not sure why.  The Tuna cakes came out rather watery.  If I made this again, I would definitely drain the tuna before using it.

Broccoli Beef

For dinner the other night, I was instructed to make the Broccoli (Little Trees) Beef from the "Comfort Food Makers". It actually turned out pretty amazing, which is rather surprising because I made it. I am not exactly known for making excellent asian cuisine, but this came out exceptionally well. I had to substitute Extra Virgin Olive Oil instead of Sesame Seed Oil, since we didn't have the later, but it still came out marvelous. Suggest you give it a whirl!

-Mike

Thai Chicken With Basil

Mom gave me a basil plant since I mentioned that I was using a lot of it in many of my recipes.  I was trying to use up my heavy whipping cream at the time, so I was making many Italian cream sauces.  Now that I have used up the heavy whipping cream, I don't need as much basil.  Since I still have the plant, I am now looking for recipes which will use it.

I searched for recipes with chicken and basil in them, and the picture in this Thai Chicken with Basil recipe looked good.  I had all the ingredients, so I thought why not?

In general the dish was tasty, but it tasted like soy sauce chicken.  This could have been due to the fact that I put a little too much soy sauce  in it.  I halved the recipe since I only had two boneless skinless chicken thighs instead of the four chicken breasts listed in the recipe.  I ended up putting a whole tablespoon of soy sauce instead of 3/4 of a tablespoon of soy sauce.  I don't think it should have made that much of a difference though, especially since it was in the marinade anyway.

Chinese Chicken Broccoli

I love eating chicken, and broccoli is healthy.  I found this Chinese Chicken and Broccoli dish that I thought would be similar to Beef and Broccoli, but would be slightly healthier because it has chicken instead of beef.

Although the dish is quite good, it is quite salty and is a bit sweet.  I would definitely use less soy sauce next time, and maybe cut down on the sugar to make it a little healthier.

Here is the finished product again from another angle.  It was just that good!