Karl’s Noom Friendly Orange Chicken Stir Fry

Wife Jan is on the Noom program and is constantly scanning for recipes I can make that fit both Noom’s parameters and our personal tastes. Her most recent request was for orange chicken. I did not think much of the recipe she sent me, so I went looking for something better. Many of the recipes I found were “healthy” only in the sense that they replaced white sugar with honey or brown sugar— both of which are very much Noom “red foods.” I finally found a recipe that was close to what I wanted and adapted it to be more Noom-y.

Karl’s Noom Friendly Orange Chicken Stir Fry

Karl’s Fish Stir-Fry

Wife Jan is just getting over the flu and she wanted “real” food, but was concerned about moving too fast off of a bland diet. Stir-fries are infinitely variable—What do you have? What do you need? What blend of sauces would go with these decisions. Today’s answers were cod, Shanghai bok choy, napa cabbage, and shiitake mushrooms, and a few green onion tops—flavorful, but easy to digest. For the sauce, I decided on a base of oyster sauce with soy sauce, and a bit of ginger —avoiding my usual addition of chili garlic sauce.

Karl’s Fish Stir-Fry

Karl’s Oyster Mushroom Chicken with Bok Choy

Stir-fries are a popular weekday meal at my house. I try to keep things interesting by mixing up my sauces. From the basic Chinese sauces, you can blend new combinations every time you make a dish.

Karl’s Oyster Mushroom Chicken with Bok Choy

Karl’s Japanese Salmon Rice

Another of my leftovers lunch recipes for one. I had about an ounce of teriyaki salmon left over from the night before, as well as some cold Japanese rice. This is a common Japanese leftovers dish, but I did not look any of them up. I just threw together what seemed reasonable to me. To go with my rice, I decided to make some teriyaki chicken wings and I threw in some Japanese pickled cucumber as my salad.

 

Karl’s Japanese Salmon Rice

Karl’s Tofu and Chinese Broccoli Stir-fry

It is a constant struggle to keep week day meals interesting. My mother, Claudia, was a strict budgeter; with 5 kids to feed she had to be.  However, the result of this budgeting was that frequently you could tell what day it was by what was on the table. I had the same problem when I worked off shore, “If it is Tuesday it must be T-bone steaks.” No matter how good the food is, it gets boring if it is predictable.

Karl’s Tofu and Chinese Broccoli Stir-fry

Karl’s Lamb, Oyster Mushroom, and Romaine Stir-fry

Jan and Eilene are still in England So I am still cooking for one. I got tired of tongue so I froze the last of it. If you ever make tongue make sure there are enough people to eat three pounds of meat in a meal or two.

Karl’s Lamb, Oyster Mushroom,
and Romaine Stir-fry

Karl’s Keto Asian Pork or Chicken Lettuce Cups

Lettuce cups are very much in keeping with a Ketogenic diet, high protein and leafy greens. The problem with the original recipe is the Hoisin and sweet chili sauces, both of which have added sugar. Hoisin sauce is mostly bean paste with sugar and Chinese Five Spice added. I will make a keto hoisin sauce by leaving the sugar out. I will replace the sweetened chili sauce with a sugar free chili garlic sauce.

Karl’s Keto Asian Pork Lettuce Cups

Karl’s Spicy Chive Stem and Giant Bamboo Stir-fry

Tonight’s dinner was jiaozi (gee-aw-za, dumplings). This was a weekday meal so I did not make them myself. Jiapzi making is a major operation. The rolling out of dozens of little bits of dough becomes a social activity for a gathering (it is not really possible to make just a few jiaozi). To the Chinese, it is very similar to Mexicans and Christmas tamales, an activity that brings people together. For an everyday meal the Chinese cook will run down to the corner, where a jiaozi seller has parked their bicycles truck, and pick up enough for their meal.

Karl’s Spicy Chive Stem and Giant Bamboo Stir-fry

Karl’s Fried Tofu and Baby Bok Choy with Pan Fried Noodles

Jan has put up with my meat eating for 35 years now (30 of them in the married state as of this month). She considers herself a born again carnivore, but she still misses being a vegetarian. Since she let me have lamb on Easter, I planned on a tofu stir fry for dinner tonight. Eilene, however, had some friend over and so I had to add some things to what I was planning to make to have enough for two adults and three hungry teen-aged girls. They must have liked it because they cleaned it down to the last noodle and scrap of vegetable.

[no picture, it disappeared too fast]

Karl’s Spicy Giant Bamboo and Daikon Stir-fry

I needed a vegetable side dish to go with my twice-cooked pork. I wanted something with spice, color and crunch. I had some daikon radish, red bell pepper and green onions left over from another meal that would add the color. I only needed some chili garlic sauce to add the spice and some giant bamboo for the crunch.

Stir-fry on the right