Chinese Food Inspiration

Yesterday's post about bean sprouts raised a couple of questions so I thought I'd tackle them today.

Penny has a great blog, Penniless Parenting, that has all kinds of frugal tips.  I read it every day.  Anyway, Penny mentioned that whenever she has sprouted beans in the past they haven't been as fat and straight as the kind in the grocery store.  Also, she found them to be bitter and wondered if I found them to be bitter as well.

First of all, the sprouts I make at home are not as fat as they are in the grocery store.  I don't really know why that is.  Maybe they use fertilizer on their beans or use a hybrid or something.  These are guesses because I honestly have no idea why that is.  It doesn't bother me that they're skinnier sprouts, though.  As far as the taste goes, I haven't noticed them being bitter at all.  Granted, I don't eat them raw.  I don't know if that would make a difference or not.  So basically, I don't really have any solid answers to Penny's questions. LOL.  Hopefully this helps a little, though.

Jessie is my real life dearest friend and has a wonderfully inspiring blog, Overflow of a Forgiven Soul.  She's the whole reason I started a blog.  :0)

Jessie said she has never made Chinese food at home and is looking for some inspiration complete with meal plan and recipes.

Usually, I make a main dish and rice.  I usually just make regular old rice (Basmati or Jasmine), but occasionally I'll make it fried.  In my pre-gluten-free days I'd make egg rolls, too, if I was really feeling froggy.

I thought the best thing to do is to link to some of our favorite recipes.  So here goes...

Sides:  These are not gluten-free, but they're really good. :0)
Won Ton Soup
Egg Rolls

Main Dishes:
Garlic Chicken - This is a fabulous crock pot meal!
P.F. Chang style Lettuce Wraps - Very yummy!
Chow Mein - This is our favorite.  Oh, the flavors are wonderful!  This is also a crock pot meal.
General Tso's Chicken - I haven't actually tried this one, but have it bookmarked for the future.

If you're not gluten-free recipes aren't an issue.  A few things that I've found to change a regular recipe to g-free is to use g-free soy sauce (I use San-J), and to use g-free all-purpose flour to coat meat that needs to be fried first instead of regular flour.  Also, the chow mein recipe calls for noodles.  I used g-free noodles the first time I made it, but they didn't swell hardly at all like regular pasta does when I boiled it. It seemed like two boxes of pasta would be more appropriate, but that could be very expensive since g-free is known to carry a pretty hefty price tag.  So, I've switched from using noodles for our chow mein to making it with rice.  I know it isn't authentic, but it's still delicious. :0)

So, there you have it.  A few links to Chinese food faves.  I'm sure there are a ton more out there since I've barely scratched the surface.  If you have a favorite Chinese fake-out recipe, feel free to share it or leave a link in the comments.  Now go, be inspired to get your Asian on!