thoughtful consumption

Lo mein is my current favorite “clean out the fridge” meal. (When you’re doing your meal planning, always leave room for at least one of these meals. Chef salads, vegetable soup, fried rice, and meaty or cheesy casseroles also work.)

This last minute lo mein was inspired by a forgotten zucchini at the bottom of my crisper.

Starring pac choi, eggs, radishes, garlic, frozen lemongrass stems, and one aging zucchini

Here’s how it went down.

I started the pasta and then chopped and divided the veggies.

In the bowl are the longest cooking veggies: radishes, pac choi stems, and zucchini. The lemongrass and garlic are for flavor. The pac choi leaves are kept separate so they can be added later.

Protein first. I scrambled the eggs until they were almost done and then removed them. Then I cooked the bowl of veggies and the lemongrass in some peanut oil on medium-high for several minutes until they were a little brown. I added in the pac choi leaves during the last minute or so. Then the veggies came out of the pan to join the eggs.

Now comes the store-bought part. I dumped roughly a cup of bottled stir-fry sauce into the pan along with a tablespoon of soy sauce, dashes of sesame oil and rice vinegar, and the garlic. This all cooked for a minute, and then I added the drained pasta and let it cook in the sauce a couple of minutes. (It helps if you slightly undercook the pasta in the first place.)

Then I returned the other ingredients to the pan, tossed everything together, and removed the lemon grass stems. The last ingredient was roasted peanuts courtesy of Delta Airlines. I never have a taste for these on the plane, but they’re just the right amount to chop and add to a dish like lo mein.

Makes for a tasty meal that uses up lots of great stuff.