Stir Fry Eggs with Onion

The camp I work at this summer is unique in that it hires many people from outside of the country. This particular weekend I've been lucky enough to have some of the international staff stay at my house for their time off. We've got Tony from Mexico, Michael from England, and Yang from China residing all on the same dog-hair-ridden couch. Yang, as a token of appreciation for the free housing, decided to cook some of his favorite dishes from home to share with us. Of course in China most people eat meat, so the first dish Yang decided to make was Chicken Wings. Lucky for me, he was kind enough to make some additional vegetarian egg dishes that I could eat too!
Here's my favorite of the two that he translated the best he could as "Stir Fry Eggs with Onion".

This dish was so great because it didn't taste like eggs. It tasted like China. Or at least what I would want China to taste like. Soy saucey, gingery, garlicy, and of course, oniony.

Here are Yang's instructions for making this dish.
1. Heat vegetable oil in a wok.
2. Add in chopped garlic, onion, ginger and green onions. Cook for a few minutes.
3. Add in the eggs and cook until about 80% done.
4. Add more oil, ginger and garlic.
5. Cook another minute until done. Add soy sauce and salt.

Fun fact: Apparently the term "wok" means nothing in Mandarin. We silly Americans basically just attached a "Chinese-sounding-word" to a fancy, deep-rimmed pot.

This is a great recipe. I've never eaten a dish that transformed the flavor of an egg so much. I highly recommend giving it a go.

Make sure to thank Yang with your thoughts for his delicious and authentic cuisine.

Stuffed Shells with Mushroom, Spinach and Shallots

This recipe is great because it makes SO much! I made these for dinner one cold, rainy school night and shared it with several of my roommates and friends, then continued to stick 3 in tupperware every day for a week to eat at school for lunch...and was disappointed when they were gone. This is one of those recipes where having a lot of a good thing is so not bad. Even better to share with your family or at a potluck! 

I will admit this recipe is relatively putzy. (Putzy. Can't believe I've inherited that word from my mom!) The prep works takes a solid hour, but none of the work is difficult or easy to mess up. Definitely a keeper. 

Serves: a bunch!

Ingredients

1 box jumbo pasta shells

1 (15 ou.) container ricotta cheese

2 shallots, diced

8 button mushrooms, diced

3 cups fresh spinach
~1 tablespoon butter

1 (28 ou) jar tomato spaghetti sauce
1 bag of pre-shredded mozzarella cheese


Procedure
1. Cook your shells according to the instructions on the box. Meanwhile heat the butter in a pan. Once its melted, add in the shallots and mushrooms, cook for 5 minutes, then add the spinach. Heat until the spinach is totally wilted.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 
3. Mix the mushroom mixture into the ricotta cheese. 
4. Spoon about 1/4 of the jar of spaghetti sauce into the bottom of the 12 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish and spread it around to cover the base of the dish.
5. Now grab your shells and start stuffing a couple of tablespoons of the mushroom-ricotta mixture into each of the shells. As you go, place the shells into the baking dish on top of the spaghetti sauce. 
6. Once the dish is full (you'll probably have extra leftover pasta shells) cover the shells with as much pasta sauce as you'd like and finish it by sprinkling the mozzarella cheese on top. Make sure not to skimp on the mozzarella! 
7. Place the dish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and starting to brown. 




Do you have a favorite go-to potluck dish? How about a favorite dish to eat as leftovers? 

Shallot, Sausage, Basil Pizza

So this is definitely best pizza I've ever made. How many pizza's have I made, you ask? Well that's not the point. The point is that this pizza has mouth-watering caramelized shallot, fresh basil, and veggie sausage chunks lightly coated with Sriracha-the goddess of all condiments. 

Not to mention that its still got the basics: bread and cheese. Oh yeah, that makes you happy doesn't it? Me too. For the bread part I used this recipe and I highly recommend it. Alternatively, if you're feeling not-so-ambitious just grab a ball of dough from Whole Foods! Or even Boboli! Don't worry, I won't tell! :P 

As for the cheese, I used mozzarella, but am tempted to ask...does it really matter? I mean of course I wouldn't go with gorgonzola or brie...but if you want to throw on some cheddar or parmesan or asiago or goat (yummm) in addition to the mozz, I would say you are a wise individual. Couldn't you just talk about cheese forever? No? Ok fine, then I suppose I'll mention the sauce. It was not thrilling, but definitely did its job. A jarred pasta sauce will be what I use next time instead, I think. 

This pizza. It's seriously yummy. Go make it. It's a real crowd pleaser...and I'll actually be able to say that with some authority after I make it tonight for the boyfriend and his housemates! Austin and I have a deal going that while I'm cooking, he has to work on the enormous stack of dishes festering in the sink. Little does he know how long caramelized onions take to make themselves delicious ;) Booya! Maybe we'll actually have a mildly clean kitchen in this house full of 5 guys and me...it could happen...right?? 

Makes 1 pizza (about 8 slices)

Ingredients

1 cup freshly chopped basil

~2 1/2 cups grated mozzarella

1 large shallot, sliced

1 tbsp butter

4 Morningstar vegetarian sausage links

~1 1/2 tsp Sriracha chili sauce

1 (8 ou.) can tomato sauce
1 pizza crust

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 
2. Toss your sliced shallots into a pan with 1 tbsp butter at medium heat and let them caramelize for at least 15 minutes, agitating them every couple of minutes. You want them to get nice and brown.
3. Cook the sausage links according to package instructions (I just nuked them).While they're still hot, break them up into either little sausage chunks or slices. Then toss them in a bowl with the Sriracha chili sauce.
4. Assemble! First spread out the tomato sauce on the pie, then add the cheese, shallot, sausage, and basil on top. 
5. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese and crust are golden brown. 


Enjoy!

Vegetable Burrito Bowl

Is this a Chipotle knock-off? Yes. Is it better than the original? I think so. Bold claim, I know, but this spin on Chipotle's Mexican-style burrito bowl is just so good!! It has kind of a bunch of steps, but the result is so worth it. Trust me.

First step: toss a can of black beans, a can of Amy's Spicy Vegetarian Chili in the Crock Pot, and almost an entire diced onion for an hour and a half. Then toss in two bell peppers, fresh jalapeno, garlic and spices in the pot. Let it hang out for  another hour and a half on low.

When it gets nearer to dinner time cook your brown rice (isn't it cool that Chipotle does brown rice now!?) and toss it with fresh cilantro and lime juice. This rice is awesome. I used its leftovers the next day in another Crock Pot dish, Mexican Stew (will be posted and linked soon!).

 Next grab a fork and squash up your avocado. Proceed to mix it with diced tomato, salt, and a tad more onion. Then lick that fork. Yummy, right? 

Finally, pile your bowl high: rice on the bottom, bean mixture, lettuce, cheese, guac, and salsa on top. What is that? 6 layers? You know you want it.


Serves 4 (at least) 
Ingredients 

1 15 oz can black beans 

1 15 oz can spicy veggie chili (Amy's Brand)

Almost all of an onion (save a little for the guac)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and sliced
1 jalapeno, sliced
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp chili powder 
1 tsp cumin
1 bunch cilantro
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 lime, juice of
1 avocado
1/2 tomato, diced
lettuce (I used plain old red-tip leaf lettuce, chopped into ribbons) 
pre-grated Mexican cheese blend

1/4 cup hot! salsa (I used Rita's brand-a thin bright red salsa from a little restaurant in town) 
salt

Procedure

1. Put the can of beans, chili, and onion in the Crock-Pot. Heat on low for 90 minutes. Then add bell peppers, jalapeno, garlic, chili powder, cumin and 1 tsp salt. Let cook for another 90 minutes. 
2. About half an hour before dinner cook your rice according to the package instructions. Once its finished gently mix in your cilantro leaves and lime juice. You most likely will not need the whole bunch of cilantro. I only used about a quarter of the bunch; just eyeball it as you're mixing the rice and use however much suits you. 
3. Make the avocado mixture just before serving by smashing the avocado with a fork, then mixing it with the diced tomato, leftover diced onion, and about 1/8 tsp salt. 
4. Serve ingredients in a bowl with rice on the bottom, then bean mixture, lettuce, cheese, guac, and salsa on top. 
5. Fiesta!