Teriyaki Mei Fun with Asparagus Stir Fry

I used:

1 8oz box of Annie Chan's Mei Fun
4 Tbs of San-J Gluten Free Teriyaki Marinade and Sauce
1 8oz bag of Archer Farms (Target) Asparagus Stir Fry Mix (Steam and Eat)

Start with the stir fry mix. Put it in the microwave for 7 minutes.
Start your water and bring it to a boil.
About the same time the water begins to boil, the microwave is beckoning.  Take out the stir fry bag and open it into a sautee pan over medium heat.
Go back to the water boiling and add your 8 ozs of mei fun. Stay here as it only needs 2 minutes but keep an eye on that stir fry.
After your two minutes is up, drain well and add to your stir fry pan. Now add your 4 Tbs of  Teriyaki and mix thoroughly.

Guess what? Time to eat!

Quinoa Rotelle with Pepper and Mushroom Medley in a Portabello and Chicken Marinara

The Quinoa was the hard thing to navigate. And when I say hard, I mean it. In the water this noodle behaves just like his brother wheat, but after a drain, forget it. Rigor sets in after three minutes and now you have chewy, gummy pasta. Luckily our guests didn't mind and the copious amounts of sauce helped us to avoid starvation. Next time I will mix it with the sauce instead of keeping it separate.

Items used:
1 8oz box of Quinoa Rotelle pasta
1 16oz jar of HEB Portabello and Onion Marinara Sauce
1 red bell pepper (julienned)
1 green bell pepper (julienned)
1 8oz package of button mushrooms (sliced)
1 8 oz chicken breast (cubed)

Sautee chicken in pan until 170 degrees throughout. While  doing this, bring 4 qts  of water to a boil.
After chicken is ready, remove to a plate and cover to retain moisture.
Add vegetables to sautee pan and cook until peppers are just before limp.
Your water should be boiling now. Add pasta and let return to a boil for 6-9 minutes.Should be limp.Trust me you are going to want the extra moisture later.
Your vegetables should be nearing completion in about 3 minutes. Pour yourself a glass of iced tea, wipe your hands and get that jar of marinara open.
Pour this into the pan with the vegetables. Bring it to a simmer and then add the chicken. Cover the pan and go drain the pasta. It should be done now. I drained it and let it sit in its own pot. Big mistake! After you drain it (NO COLD WATER), add it to the simmer pan of goodness. Toss joyfully and get out the plates. It's time to eat!

Chicken a la Chicken with Vegetable Medley and Rice

What I used:

20 oz of chicken breast strips, fresh, not frozen
4 oz of Pacific Foods Free Range Organic Chicken Broth
8 oz of water
2 tbs of EVOO
8 oz of White Minute Rice
2 yellow squash
1 medium white onion
8 oz sliced fresh mushrooms
sea salt and dried cilantro to taste

OK, you know the drill. Start the 8 oz of water boiling. Put the oil in the sautee pan after it reaches a medium heat. About the time you add the oil, the water is boiling. Add the rice, remove from heat and cover. That part is done. Easy, right? Now the oil is ready. Put all your chicken in the sautee pan and season with cilantro and sea salt. Cook for 4 minutes on each side or until the middle of the thickest strip is 170 degrees. That's Fahrenheit. Celsius would be a bit ridiculous. While you are waiting on the chicken to cook, rough chop your veggies and wait for the chicken to be done. As soon as that happens, put all the veggies in with the chicken. Cook for two minutes and then the magic happens. Add the chicken stock, a little more sea salt, reduce to a low heat and cover for 10 minutes. After the time has elapsed, everything is ready. Take off the lids, give one final stir and serve chicken and vegetables on top of the rice and don't forget to ladle some of the extra goodness in to the bowl to soak into the rice.

Seafood Portabella Pasta in Butter Lemon Sauce

What I used:
12.5 oz mei fun rice noodles
8 tbs unsalted butter
12 oz presliced, prewashed portabella mushrooms
16 oz of shelled, deveined raw shrimp (frozen)
1 bundle of small stalk asparagus
2 large lemons

A note on the asparagus: I always try to choose smaller stalk asparagus. I think it cooks more evenly and has a less barky finish. Spell check says barky isn't a word but spell check isn't a cook so I will continue. I don't cut the stems; I break them. Let the spear tell you where it needs to be separated. If you put thumb and forefinger from one hand near the spear and the same from your opposite hand near the end and try to bring your thumbs together, it will break at the proper place. You may have known this but you would be surprised how many people don't know how to hull an avocado too. Just my two cents.
On to the food.

You need to start two pots of water boiling. 4 quarts in each should be plenty. While these are heating up, start melting 4 tbs of butter in each of two large saute pans. Medium heat should be fine for both. After half of the butter is melted in pan number one, add the shrimp and keep it on medium heat. Your water should be boiling now. Add the asparagus to one pot and the mei fun to the other. Keep an eye on the mei fun. Quickly add the mushrooms to pan number two. After two minutes the mei fun is done so drain, rinse and set aside for later. Slice one of the lemons in half and strain out the seeds while squeezing both halves over the shrimp in pan one.
The asparagus is properly blanched by this time and needs some love. Pluck it out of the water and add it to the mushrooms. Give pan two a toss with your tongs and repeat the lemon process over this pan. Allow both pans to cook an additional six minutes and check for tenderness. Bendy but not floppy asparagus and juicy portabellas tell you they are done. Pour the ENTIRE contents of this pan into the shrimp pan and toss again. Go rescue the mei fun. It's begging to get into the game. Put it into the now empty pan two over high heat and allow the noodles to warm. This will start the absorption process again. Once the noodles are sizzling well (30 seconds to a minute depending on how well you drained them), add the entire contents of pan one to pan two and toss for the third and final time. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste and voila!
(On another side note, if serving more than two people, I will cut the asparagus in half before it goes into the pan. It will distribute more evenly that way.) As always, this dish is, you guessed it, Gluten Free!

Alaskan Medley with Aromatic Rice

To start this post, let me do a Public Service Announcement for rice cookers. If you don't have one, get one!

After you have a rice cooker, we can begin. (Ok, you can do it the old fashioned way but the recipe won't read that way.

What you will need:

1lb of fresh asparagus, small stalks

8 oz of sliced fresh mushrooms, buttons are fine

1 lb peeled, deveined shrimp, tails removed

1 tb finely chopped garlic

4  6oz salmon fillets

1 tb oregano

1 tb chopped basil

2 cups basmati rice

2 cups water

1/4 stick unsalted butter

2 tb extra virgin olive oil

And yes, this is, as always, Gluten Free!

For the easy part, pour your water, rice, oregano and basil into the rice cooker and start it. The rice will be done when everything else finishes (About 15-20 minutes) Wasn't that easy!

Ok next you need to stem the asparagus. Use the forefinger-thumb pull down method I explained a couple of recipes back. Usually I will blanch the asparagus but with the addition of the butter and mushrooms I feel it isn't needed with the smaller stemmed asparagus for this application. Put a pan over medium heat and add the butter, mushrooms, asparagus, garlic and shrimp. Stir until the butter is melted and then reduce to medium low (3 out of 10) and cover for ten minutes. 

Start another pan for your salmon over medium heat. As the pan gets hot, add the oil and wait thirty seconds. DO NOT put it over high heat. EVOO has a low smoke point and high heat will blacken it quickly. Add the salmon and season with lemon pepper or sea salt and fresh cracked black peppercorns. Your choice. You will need 5 minutes on each side. As soon as you reach this point, everything is just about done. Give the veggies and rice one final stir and plate it to harvest some smiles.