Making budget chinese food?

[figaromeetsmarie]

DD wants chinese food for dinner, but wants it homemade I have no idea where to start and budget ideas. I was thinking veggie lo mein and

Help!

 

[jsmith]

Fried Rice is easy-cheap and yummy. Some leftover meat, cold rice couple of eggs, what ever veggies you want to put in, soy sauce and presto. Its filling and my family loves it-i dont have a real reciepe to share-i just do it-but you can google it.

 

[sk!mom]

Good Luck! I'll be watching this thread for recipes. I find many cuisines easy to recreate at home (italian, mexican) but chinese has thus far eluded me. Any recipe I've tried is never even close to restaurant quality.

 

[Mellie2162]

I do a chicken stir fry with napa cabbage, bean sprouts, celery, onions, and of course chicken. We love it.

 

[Gigi22]

Does she like wonton soup? You can buy frozen stuffed wontons at the grocery. Heat up chicken broth, add wontons and finely sliced celery and heat until celery cooks and wontons are heated through (meat inside must be cooked), add pieces of cooked ham, garnish with thinly sliced green onions.

You can do a stir-fry that will qualify as 'Chinese food'. Just cut up all your meat and veggies first, so that you can add them quickly. Be ready to stay with the pot and stir ingredients so that they cook evenly. Oil in pan, add in sliced garlic and some sliced ginger, add sliced meat and cook until meat is seared--then remove meat, add a small amount of water so that the veggies don't burn and the sliced veggies--onions, carrots, celery, sweet peppers, mushrooms, add beansprouts towards the end, add the meat to the pot again--heat everything through, remove ginger slices and the largest slices of garlic (depends on your taste) before serving. You can add soy sauce to taste. Serve on white rice.

 

[Cindy B]

I've made my own crab rangoons, egg rolls, General Tso chicken (time consuming but good) as well as the PF Chang style lettuce wraps.

I've also made dumplings...

The crab rangoons are very easy to do.

I've been meaning to learn native Chinese food (not Americanized) but I'm a little afraid of what I'll get myself into. I work near Chinatown and some of the foods there allude me!

 

[reagan75]

We grill marinated chicken and do fried rice with veggies. For the fried rice I just use a tad of olive oil and let the rice simmer in it then add my frozen veggies, water and soy/teriyaki mix. When done, I sprinkle with sesmae seeds. Realy yummy, cheap, easy and filling. Good as leftovers too!

 

[java]

I make Sandra lee's

BBQ Beef

Ingredients
1 (1 1/2-pound) beef chuck steak, sliced into thin strips
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 carrots, sliced about 1/4-inch thick
2 stalks celery, sliced about 1/4-inch thick
1/2 medium yellow onion, sliced
8 ounces white button mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon freshly minced ginger root
1 tablespoon freshly minced garlic
1 head broccoli, cut into florets
1 (16-ounce) package lo mein noodles, cooked according to package directions
Hoisin Sauce:
1/4 soy sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Directions
Stir-Fry: In a wok or large skillet over high heat add the canola oil. Add the beef and cook until browned, about 3 minutes. Set aside on a plate.

To the same pan the beef was cooked in, add the carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms, ginger, garlic, and broccoli and stir-fry until slightly tender but not soft, about 3 minutes. Remove half the vegetables and reserve for the online round 2 recipe: Cold Noodle Salad. Add the beef back to the skillet along with half of the hoisin sauce, and toss to coat the beef. Reserve half of the lo mein noodles for the round 2 recipe: Cold Noodle Salad. Arrange the remaining half of the lo mein noodles on a serving platter and top with the beef stir-fry.

Hoisin Sauce: In a medium bowl, whisk all the sauce ingredients until well blended. Add half to the stir-fry and save the remaining half for the next time you make a stir-fry. The extra hoisin sauce will last up to 2 weeks in a sealed container stored in the refrigerator.

Use the leftovers from this recipe to make Cold Noodle Salad.

 

[CTdiznymom]

There's no way! My DH would be making it himself!!! I'd be heading over to BJ's and picking up a box of orange chicken in their frozen food isle, and serving it over some "home made" white rice. I think they even have a terryaki chicken too. The orange is really good, and there's 2 meals for 2 in the box.

 

[java]

Oh and wanted to add that you can find stir fry seasoning mix in packets like the salad dressing packs.

 

[hambirg]

My kids really like this. . .

Restaurant-style Chinese Chicken

6Tbs soy sauce
6Tbs dry sherry(optional)
3 cloves garlic, pressed
3tsps ginger root, grated
1lb chicken breast, cubed
3tsps vegetable oil
4oz unsalted roasted peanuts
1 red bell pepper, sliced in strips
1/4 cup green onions, sliced diagonally
3/4 cup chicken broth
3tsps cornstarch

In a large zipper bag combine soy sauce, sherry, garlic and ginger root. Blend well and add chicken to marinate for at least 30mins.

In a skillet, heat oil over med-high heat. add peanuts and cook stirring frequently until they are lightly browned, about 1 min. Remove and set aside.

Now cook chicken in skillet (reserve the marinade). Cook till brown. . .2-3 mins. And set aside with peanuts.

Add bell peppers and onions to skillet and cook till crisp tender. . .1-2 mins. Mix broth, cornstarch and marinade and add to skillet. Use a wisk to dissolve cornstarch and then add chicken and peanuts. Cook stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil and thickens.

I serve it over white sticky rice, throw in some store bought egg rolls (we like the Trader Joe's ones) and we're good.

 

[figaromeetsmarie]

Thank you all!


reagan75-- Just wanted to say that I LOVE your daughters name!

 

[abcboys]

I made this and it was super yummy
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Crispy-Orange-Beef/Detail.aspx
Of course I didn't follow the recipe exactly (who does on that site) but I changed it slightly using some of the suggestions in the reviews.

 

[MEM]

Fried Rice is easy-cheap and yummy. Some leftover meat, cold rice couple of eggs, what ever veggies you want to put in, soy sauce and presto. Its filling and my family loves it-i dont have a real reciepe to share-i just do it-but you can google it.

I was going to suggest the same thing. I even add dried cranberries and sliced almonds at the very last minute and use cold, cooked brown rice instead of the more traditional white rice. I use a non-stick wok and just a teaspoon or two of olive oil.

 

[magik]

This is the easiest "fried rice" recipe I've ever seen: fast fried rice bowl. It's technically not fried, but it's so easy, and I think it tastes pretty good. I don't use the egg because I don't like egg, and I use instant brown rice instead of white.

If you like spicy food, I really love this kung pao spaghetti recipe (and you can just make the sauce if you don't want the spaghetti part). I have only ever made it vegetarian (veggie broth instead of chicken broth and either tofu chunks or vegetarian "chicken" pieces instead of chicken), but the sauce is spicy and delicious.

 

[pixiewings71]

I do a stir fry, just use whatever veggies the kids will eat, add some noodles and some teriyaki sauce and we are good to go, just fry it up in the wok and dinner is done. I always have some edamame to add as well, the girls like it a lot. If you want meat just do strips of beef or chicken or some shrimp and mmmmmm. I pre-cook my meat and add it at the very end of the cooking cycle.

 

[bettymae1121]

If you have a Trader Joe's near your they sell bottles of "Soyaki" (combo of soy and teriyaki sauces), it's pre-seasoned and ready to add to any stir fry. I'll marinade some chicken in it, then fry it up, remove, and then fry up some fresh veggies (I found fozen veggies just turned to mush, if you like crispy veggies, use fresh) and once the veggies are cooked to your likeing, add the chicken back in and add some more of the sauce. I find the Soyaki to be too sweet for my personal tasts so I'll put some straight soy sauce in there too. I'll serve it over whole wheat spagetti noodles, but you can serve over rice too. Not at good at the local chinesse place, but pretty tastey all the same!

 

[redlawyer]

I went to our library looking for a Chinese cookbook. I found one I liked and checked it out. It was really terrific, written by someone who gave cooking lessons. She had a shopping guide and very well written instructions.

I went to a local Asian grocery store, and with some looking found all of my ingredients. The prices were great!! It seemed like everything was under $2 which was good because there were a lot of ingredients.

So far I've made mu shu pork, General Tso's chicken, fried rice and stir fried bok choy. They were all delicious and after you've purchased the spices, making the dish again is actually very cheap! The recipes generally use cheaper cuts of meat, like chicken thighs.

I ended up buying the book I used from Amazon. If you're interested, its Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.

Good Luck!