Quick and Easy Ginger Stir Fry

My husband always enjoys what I make for dinner and, especially in the first month of cooking for the two of us, I usually try to make something that will really impress him. This meal, which was not planned at all and thrown together in about ten minutes, was probably the one he has been the most excited about yet. I call it my Quick and Easy Ginger Stir Fry.

I had planned a meal for the night, but Derek ended up having a meeting so I decided I would just throw something easy together. Of course, when I went to the local market across the street, i got inspired to create something a little bit more interesting than I was originally planning (it was so boring that I can't even remember what it was!). The main inspiration for the dish was the bag of dry noodles I found. I have never cooked them before and love trying new things, so I grabbed them along with a broccoli cole slaw mix and a package of mixed mushrooms and I headed home. 

These are the ingredients I used for the sauce, which I made over the meal. It's just soy sauce (I use lite in order to cut out some of the sodium), ground ginger, curry powder, chili powder, onion powder (of course fresh onion would be great in this!), and some lemon juice.

What's great about this dish is that, aside from cooking the noodles, everything can be done in one pot. 

I also found a lot of recipes for making your own noodles from scratch. I think I'm definitely going to try that next time!

What you need:

1/2 package of egg noodles (I cooked the whole package but left some out because it would have been too much for the amount of vegetables and sauce I had. Just play with it to see what works for you.)

1 package broccoli cole slaw mix

1 package mixed mushrooms (Throw in whatever veggies you want- anything would work! I highly recommend the mushroom, though.)

garlic

onion powder (or fresh onion)

lite soy sauce

ground ginger

cumin

chili powder 

lemon juice

How to do it:

Cook your egg noodles (I just threw mine in some boiling water for a couple of minutes just to soften them up, but they cook in the pan.)

In a large frying pan or sauce pan, sauté some garlic in about a tablespoon of vegetable oil (I love garlic, so the more the better for me. I used probably a couple spoonfuls of chopped garlic, but adjust to your liking.). 

After about a minute add the mushrooms and the broccoli mix. You'll want this mixture to sauté for a bit, until the mushrooms start to get tender but not floppy. 

While this is cooking, you can add in the spices. I'm generous with the onion powder. If it were a fresh onion I'd put a whole small one in or half of a large one, so I use between 5-8 strong shakes of the powder. For the other spices, you really want to play with what you like. I use plenty more cumin than chili powder and, while I want the ginger flavor to come through strongly, the spice is much more potent than some other spices, so I can use less and still get a great flavor. I usually cover the top of the food with spices and then mix it all in. 

After that, mix the noodles in. 

Now it's time to add the sauce sauce. Make sure you have enough to create a light sauce. You can really play with what you like here. I like a more subtle soy sauce flavor than Derek does, so he adds some more on after I serve it. 

The last thing you want to add is just a hint of lemon. 

Mix it up and taste it, then modify whatever you think needs modification. More ginger? More onion? Whatever works for you. 

This meal really only takes about 10 minutes, if that, so it is a great option for a quick dinner or lunch. Next time, I definitely want to add a protein. Beef or shrimp would probably be good, but really any meat would work. Have fun! Oh and enjoy with a glass of wine, of course :)