Oriental Salad and Lettuce Wraps

The salad recipe was adapted from 2 sources:
1. thepionerwoman.com and 2.www.meals.com

I made WAY too much salad so I will post the adjusted amounts that I would use

1 package oriental flavor ramen noodle soup
1/3 cup sunflower seed kernels
1/3 cup slivered almonds
2 green onions, chopped
1 bag of pre cut salad - romaine-radicchio blend

Break raw noodles into small pieces. Add the sunflower seed kernels, almonds, green onions, and salad.  Mix.

Dressing:
1/3 cup evaporated fat free milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1.5 Tablespoons white vinegar
1.5 Tablespoons white sugar
Flavor packet from the Ramen noodles
Mix well.  Add just before serving. Toss to coat.


Lettuce Wraps - as adapted from a recipe from my friend Amy

1 head iceburg lettuce
130g chow mein noodles (or egg noodles, chinese style)
2 T vegetable oil
1 package ground chicken
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
1/2 yellow pepper, finely chopped
1/2 red pepper, finely chopped
200g water chesnuts, sliced/slivered
1 cup shiitake mushrooms, slivered/matchstick
2 T soy sauce
1/2 tsp brown sugar
5T hoisin sauce, use more if desired
5T Thick teriyaki sauce
1 T chili sauce, adjust to taste
2 scallions, finely chopped
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp ginger
1/4 cup peanuts, whole

Unwrap lettuce into cups and wash thoroughly.  Heat vegetable oil on med-high heat and after a minute, add noodles.  Cook for 5-10 min depending on level of crispiness desired.  Remove and set aside.  If desired, pour 1 tsp oil in the wok and saute garlic. Add chicken - stir fry until no longer pink.  Add onion, peppers, chestnuts and mushrooms.  Fry for about a minute. 

Combine soy sauce and sugar.  Mix until sugar is dissolved.  Add soy sauce mixture to pan.  Fry for about 2 min.  Add hoisin sauce, teriyaki and chili paste. Add the scallions, coriander, ginger and peanuts.  Serve over  the noodles that were set aside.   Spoon into lettuce cups.  Wrap and enjoy.

We served these with green onion cakes and some Oriental Appetizers from M&M Meatshops. I made a lot of extras because we had my parents over for supper and I wanted to have backup food in case my experiments failed.  It's not that I didn't trust the recipes - I didn't trust my cooking!  Hee hee...

Neither Mr.Picky or Miss Almost Vegetarian ate any of the salad or the lettuce wraps.  They ate a lot of rice (my other back up food) instead.  However the 4 adults at the table enjoyed the salad and the wraps.  I would make both of these again.