Domestic Education: Healthy Chinese Night

I love Chinese food. My family also loves Chinese food. There is a little Chinese restaurant in Minneapolis that we've been going to since I was in Elementary school, and we go there so often that our waiter knows all of our names and what we order. It's called the Great Wall.

Every year when we celebrate Christmas with our immediate family the weekend before Christmas (before the bigger celebration with our extended family on Christmas Eve) we get the Great Wall for dinner. Just like in A Christmas Story, which we also watch that night. Joe had never had Chinese food until the first time he went to our "small family Christmas" because he thought he wouldn't like it. However, like I suspect he will be with most things I want him to try, he loved it when he tried it. That's because the Great Wall is amazing :)

I do want to say though, what we Americans think is Chinese food is nothing like what they eat in China (as is the way with most ethnic food they serve in America). Having been to China twice, I didn't find any chicken fried rice, spicy chicken, or won ton soup which is what I always order at the Great Wall. Not saying what they eat in China is bad, it's just different. In fact, the Peking Duck and the dumplings I had in Xi'an were delicious. The duck feet I also tried there, not so much.

Tonight for dinner I made healthy versions of chicken fried rice and crab rangoons. The crab rangoons were the healthy version because they were baked instead of fried, and I used brown rice and low sodium soy sauce on the chicken fried rice. Both rival what you would find at any take out Chinese place. Besides the Great Wall. Nothing beats the Great Wall.

Healthy Chicken Fried Rice
Adapted from Rachel Schultz

4 cups cooked brown rice
1/2 bound boneless chicken breasts, cut into small pieces and cooked
1 cup frozen peas
1 small white onion
2 cloves minced garlic
2 eggs
3 Tbs sesame oil
1/4 cup soy sauce

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Saute the garlic, onion and peas (no need to defrost the peas beforehand). Once the vegetables are tender, crack the eggs into the pan and scramble them with the mixture.

Add the rice, chicken and soy sauce into the skillet. Mix them all together and then take the skillet of the heat.

Baked Crab Rangoons
From The Sparkle Queen

1/8 tsp. garlic salt
1/8 worchestershire sauce
won ton wrappers (about 12-14)
1 small green onion, chopped
4 oz. surimi imitation crab
3 oz. cream cheese

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Mix the cream cheese, worchestershire sauce, and garlic salt, and then add the imitation crab and green onion. Put about a spoonful of the mixture into the center of a won ton wrapper, mosten the edges with water, and then fold the corners together, pressing the edges so that they seal.