Dinner: Quick & Easy Chinese Food at Home

A few weeks back we needed dinner, but had nothing truly planned.  I knew we had things in the freezer which were quick and easy to throw together, so after going through a few of the options my boyfriend and I decided on having “Chinese food “.  Dinner literally took 15 minutes to make, so this just goes to show if you have foods in the freezer, or even your cabinet, there’s no reason dinner cannot be thrown together quickly – even in a pinch, and be served faster than it would be to run out to get fast-food.  Granted, it just takes a bit more “effort” but not a terrible amount.

This particular dinner we decided to make the Fusia brand of chicken chow mein, which I had purchased at our local Aldi grocery store.  It comes with the noodles, the veggies, the chicken pieces and the flavored sauce packet.  I added a bit of Pam to the bottom of a skillet, along with a tablespoon of olive oil, emptied the contents of the bag into the frying pan (minus the sauce packet) and let its do its thing – stirring it occasionally since it was frozen it wasn’t sticking, etc.  I then submerged the sauce packet in a bowl of warm/hot tap water.  As the veggies, chicken and noodles start to defrost I stir it continuously and when everything is softened and hot I empty in the sauce packet, stir and let it simmer for a second or two before turning off the flame.

For a side of protein I made the Trader Joe’s BBQ Teriyaki Chicken – which is quite simply the easiest thing to make in a pinch.  The chicken is fully cooked, so you add it into a microwave safe bowl, which you cover with plastic wrap.  You microwave it for – I believe 5 minutes.  While the chicken is steaming/cooking in the microwave, you set the sauce packages in some warm water to aid in defrosting them.  When the cook time is up, you simply add in the sauce packet, stir and put back into the microwave for a minute or two and wah-lah, like magic it’s done! 

When the chicken was done I tossed in a bag of Trader Joe’s steam bag fresh green beans.  3 minutes later they were done.  Seriously, these are some of the best steamer green beans I have tried – my local super market sells a different brand but I find they are not nearly as crisp as the Trader Joe’s brand is.

The entire meal was 10 points plus – 1 of those points plus going towards the olive oil used to cook the lo mein.

QUESTION:

Do you have quick “throw together” meals on hand for days where you haven’t quite planned dinner?