Pork Lo Mein

Pork Lo Mein

Watching Sandra Lee's Semi Homemade show on TV taught me to simplify some of my cooking by using store-bought foods instead of making everything from scratch. 

Frozen Vegetable Chow Mein

Ajinomoto makes a frozen Vegetable Chow Mein that is always available at the membership club store I frequent. It's fully cooked with an assortment of Chinese vegetables so all I have to do is take it up a few notches with the addition of baby spinach or baby kale leaves along with meat or seafood. I take one package of chow mein out of the freezer an hour before cooking and allow it to thaw on the kitchen counter at room temperature. The box contains 6 packages, each of which easily feeds two people. To make your own noodles from scratch, I found this recipe on the world wide web that looks delicious!

For Thanksgiving this year I made a sausage stuffing with onions, carrots and celery, so I saved a portion of each of these ingredients for this lo mein. I used sweet Italian sausage meat and also added a 16 oz. package of baby kale leaves. The sausage meat had enough flavour and fat that required no more oil or sauces to be added to the pork lo mein.

Ingredients:

1 (9 oz.) pkg. Ajinomoto Vegetable Chow Mein or make your own

1/2 lb. (8 oz.) sweet Italian sausage

1 (16 oz.) tub triple-washed baby spinach or kale leaves

2-3 stalks celery, diced

2 carrots, peeled and shredded

1 medium onion, sliced thinly

2 Tbsp. sriracha chili sauce or to taste

3 stalks green onions, diced

Directions:

1. Thaw frozen noodles for 1 hour on the kitchen counter and cut noodle disc into 4 pieces, if necessary.
2. Stir-fry sausage meat in a skillet over medium-high heat until browned and crumbly.
3. Add spinach/kale, celery, carrots, onions and stir-fry until spinach is wilted and vegetables are cooked but still crisp.
4. Add sriracha sauce and thawed noodles and stir until well combined.
5. Garnish with green onions and serve.