Almost-Take-Out Chow Mein

I made vegetable chow mein for dinner tonight. I've never tried to dry the noodles out like they must do at Chinese restaurants, but it worked and it tasted delish! Here's what I did.

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Cook a quantity of egg noodles (I did 3 dried 'nests' of Sharwood's Medium Egg Noodles for two people) as it says to on the package. Drain and tip into a cake dish, pie plate, or casserole dish and spray with some non-stick cooking spray.

2. Cook noodles for 10 minutes. While this is happening, chop up all your vegetables (I used peppers, onions, broccoli, and mushrooms).

3. Take the noodles out of the oven, flip them over - or give them a good mix if you can't easily flip them - and put back in for a further 10 minutes.

4. If you are using meat, cook it in a frying pan, then add your vegetables and cook 3-4 minutes until they are crisp-tender (this is such a contradictory phrase, but you know what I mean).

5. Mix together:
1/2 cup chicken broth (I used half an oxo cube with boiling water)
2 tablespoons soy sauce (reduced salt if you have it)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 1/4 tsp corn flour or corn starch
Whisk until the corn flour/starch is dissolved.
Add this sauce to your vegetables and simmer for two minutes until it has thickened a bit.

6. Serve the vegetables and sauce over your dried-out egg noodles. Sprinkle with green onions and some sesame seeds.

Ta da! Almost as good as your local takeaway (take out, if you're Canadian like me), with less calories, less plastic cartons, and more of the stuff you actually want to eat and enjoy!

I do wish I'd taken a picture, but you know what Chow Mein looks like, I'm sure! This one, unlike my Lentil Meatloaf actually was a hit with my boyfriend too!

Vegetarian 'Meat'loaf

I made this recipe last week, with several of my own modifications, and I thought it was delicious! I took the leftovers cold for a filling lunch two days in a row! My boyfriend, who doesn't like lentils, was not particularly pleased but that just meant there was more for me!

The original recipe is linked above. The version below is how I cooked it.

Packed up and ready to be taken for lunch!

Vegetarian Meatloaf (serves 4-6, or 2 people with leftovers)
2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup lentils
1 small onion, diced
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 clove of garlic
1 3/4 cups quick-cooking oat
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon fresh parsley
salt and pepper
2 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp spicy woodsmoke BBQ sauce

Add the water, salt, and lentils to a pot and simmer 25-30 minutes until soft. Drain away any excess water.

At this point, I used a hand blender to blend the lentils instead of mash them.

Preheat oven to 175C/350F.

Scrape lentils into a mixing bowl and allow to cool. Add all ingredients except the last two and mix well - if your mixture isn't as wet as mine was, you will need less oats. Blending the lentils and adding the carrot meant I did not have to add the egg to help it stick together - it was plenty sticky on its own!

Spoon mixture into a greased loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake.

Mix together the ketchup and the BBQ sauce (or one or the other if you don't have both) and spread over the top of the meatloaf after it has been in the oven for 20 minutes. Bake for a further 15-20 minutes.

Per Serving (4): 249 calories, 8.8g of fat, 46.8g of carbs, 13.2g fibre, 18.2g protein.
This was calculated using MyFitnessPal and all counts will vary depending on ingredients used.

Alternatively you could... Skip the cheese (it wasn't that noticeable in such a small quantity), add a pepper, use a courgette/zucchini instead of a carrot, choose different herbs or add spices or a chilli for extra heat!