ginger | Champagne taste on a beer budget

My 8 year old son Rayne asked for “asian noodles” the other night for dinner so I whipped out my wok and made a budget friendly, enough for leftovers, easy noodle stir fry.

This recipe is perfect for those of you who are new to asian cooking or cooking in general. It’s a budget friendly meal for the whole family that can easily be tailored to your likes or dietary needs (vegetarian or gluten free).

Here’s my recipe.

You’ll need…

2 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbp. fresh ginger, minced
1 red bell pepper, sliced
6 large button mushrooms, sliced
1 leek, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1 small pkg of organic wide egg noodles
1/2 pd. shrimp, filleted in half
3 tbsp. fish sauce
2 tbsp. soy sauce
2 tbsp. peanut butter
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. crushed red pepper flakes
3 tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper

After you’ve chopped, sliced, minced and filleted everything, start boiling a pot of water for your noodles. Heat 1 tbsp. of olive oil in your wok. Saute your garlic and ginger for a couple of minutes and then add in your leeks. The leeks will take a few minutes longer than your other veggies so give those a head start. After a few minutes, toss in the rest of your veggies with the crushed red pepper flakes and salt and pepper to taste; add in more oil as needed.

When your veggies are just about done, throw in your shrimp and cook through.

Make your sauce by mixing in the rest of your olive oil, soy and fish sauces and melt in the peanut butter and sugar.

Right before serving, mix in your cooked noodles and stir fry that all together to make sure your sauce is coating everything!

There you have it! A healthy, quick and delicious meal for the family!

I usually use organic asian buckwheat noodles, but we didn’t have any on hand and egg noodles do just the trick. This meal is a great way to use up all those veggies sitting in the frig and you can use anything! If you’re not a seafood fan, pick a different protein or leave it out for a vegetarian option. You can even use gluten free noodles if need be!

Try it out, it’s seriously delicious and easy. You’ll soon master the stir-fry!

This recipe is genius! You don’t associate gingerbread as a summer treat, but now the two will forever be linked. How can you add a winter treat to your summer menu? Turn it into an ice cream sandwich!

I originally got the recipe from fellow blogger Tara on her cookie talk blog.

Ingredients

1/2 cup melted butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups all purpose
2/3 cup boiling water
1 1/2 qt vanilla ice cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a half sheet pan (cookie sheet) and then line with parchment.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the butter, brown sugar, molasses, and egg. Then add the ginger, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and flour. Mix until combined. It will be a bit thick at this point. Add your boiling water and stir. It will thin to a nice cake batter.

3. Evenly spread onto your lined sheet pan.

4. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

5. Let your ice cream sit out and soften, so it’ll be spreadable.

6. Once your cake is completely cooled down, cut it right in half; one will be the top of your sandwich, one will be the bottom. Spread a good thick layer of ice cream on one half, and top with the other.

7. Place that into the freezer until the ice cream sets back up. Then you can cut. Slice into good old fashioned ice cream sandwich rectangles, or use cookie cutters for fun shapes! If you’re wanting to do that though, I recommend cutting the shapes into your cake before layering and stacking with ice cream, it’ll probably be too thick and hard to cut shapes into once frozen.

These are a unique treat. I added extra ginger to mine to get more of a spice kick. My husband love them! So cool and refreshing, with a surprising and different take on a summer staple.

Try them out and let me know what you think!