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Friday, August 21, 2009

Screw You, Stir-Fry Sauce

We’ve been house hunting a few nights a week in the evening. By the time we’re done it is dinner time, and we want to eat. Immediately. Yesterday I thought stir-fry would be good, and in the past, the easiest way for me to do this was with stir-fry sauce.


I don’t know if I missed it on the brand I used to buy, but my husband picked one up and said it had fish in it. Okay fine. I picked up another one that seemed okay, bought some tofu and off we went.


We got home and marinated the tofu, and then started stir-fryin it up. What made me look at the label again I’m not sure. But there it was, glaring at me: oyster sauce. Oyster sauce. I should have known. I should have been more thorough. I should have been less lazy and made my own sauce.


Out went the sauce, and the tofu that had been marinating in it. Out went my mood too. Waste of money, waste of food, and...where was dinner?


Alright, the peppers and onions were still good to go, and there was some garlic in there too. Broccoli was already cooking up in the microwave. We could keep it just veggie, but we had two hungry people to feed. In went a can of chickpeas. While those warmed, we cut up a mango, and thought about the sauce.


My new favorite thing is Thai Chili Sauce. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve used this stuff in the past week. I’ve been using it as a dip for spring rolls, dipping sauce for our dumplings, and now a stir fry sauce. We poured in about 6 Tbsp of the Thai Chili Sauce, added 2-3 Tbsp tamari, and 1/4 cup of pineapple juice. I might have thrown in some extra crushed red pepper too.


Success. Really really good success. I mean, after that I would have been happy with something just edible, but this was really good.

The corn was good too!


So maybe I should be thanking the stir-fry sauce, and not cursing it, but it still wasted all that food. I guess its a draw!


And...now I need to go buy some more Thai Chili Sauce, I think that stuff is going to start flowing through my veins.

11 comments:

  1. I freakin love the title of this post! I hate when I buy something that has ingredients I can't eat! Good thing I have 6 other mouths in the house that will eat it!

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  2. are you guys buying a house!? or just looking for a new place to live?

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  3. Aww what a bummer!! I hate it when stuff like that happens. MAybe not the same scenerio (I'm not a vegan) but I know I've had to throw out entire containers of food before, due to other things. I'm glad it all worked out in the end! Your final product looks delicious.

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  4. Oh man, the same thing happened to me the first time i tried to make my Hamburger Pancakes and had to throw the batter out since Worchester (sp?) sauce has anchovies in it. Totes - not - cool. Anyhoo, im glad you enjoyed the Corn Dog Cakes: recipe is...
    For one
    .5c cornmeal
    1/4 c WW flour
    1 Tbsp baking powder
    2/3 c plain soymilk/water
    tsp garlic powder
    tsp dry mustard
    pinch of salt
    ~tsp chipotle chili pepper (i like mine spice)
    1 Smart dog (or other vegan friendly hot dog)
    -Mix together the dry indredients and the wet ingredients seperate from each other. then pour the wet into the dry and mix for about 10 seconds (your gonna have some lumps but its gonna be ok.)
    -Heat the pan to medium and wait for it to come to temp
    -Slice the dog and fry/microwave (whatever suits your fancy)
    -Put the batter in the hot pan 1 ladel at a time and place the cooked bits of dog into the cake.
    -Flip and enjoy with Ketchup and Mustard.

    *Keep in mind alot of this was thought up on the fly and is still being perfected. Would love to hear how they work for you!

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  5. I eat Thai Sweet Chilli sauce on EVERYTHING. I marinate my tofu in it although I'm not entirely sure it makes a difference. Regardless, tofu dipped in that stuff is just amazing. I'm glad you share the love.

    That really sucks about the oyster sauce and the wasted food. I hate that.

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  6. Awwww. .....I totally feel your pain! Way to be creative and make a totally creative yummy replacement supper. I would have probably sulked and just eaten a bowl of cereal for dinner. :-)

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  7. Aw, I'm sorry! That sucks. That once happened to me with cheese in TJ's marinara sauce :( No fun

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  8. Argh, those sauces are evil. I've made the same mistake before and had to resort to cereal for dinner...not that I minded too much on that basis ; ) The waste of money was a bummer though.

    Thanks for the comment! I'm glad to hear that you & your Dad enjoyed your race, no matter what the speed/pace. I need to remember that it's primarily about the fun and atmostphere of racing, and your reminder couldn't have been more timely.

    Love the blog, particularly the name. Yes indeedy, vegans are the strongest people on the planet : )

    xoxoxo

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  9. oooh, stuff like that makes me sooooo mad :-( My biggest was when I bought my husband a vitamin that had partially hydrogenated oil in it. Why the heck does a VITAMIN need trans fat???

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  10. Hmmm, don't you think you should have eaten the food anyway rather than wasting it? Your money was already spent on something non vegan - so forget the voting with your dollar approach. And in light of how many people suffer from huger in this world wasn't it a tad callous and irresponsible to just toss perfectly good food? BTW, I'm a raw vegan, a very hardcore vegan at that. But there are times when one has to weigh the consequences of our actions against our beliefs and choose wiser. Just sayin'.

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  11. Point taken, anonymous. Although I would appreciate it if you could reveal yourself next time since I could have a better idea who I am addressing.

    Yes, I could have still eaten it, but neither myself or my husband wanted to. Is that selfish, when there are starving people in the world? Yes, perhaps it is. But the idea of eating something with fish in it, at this point, grosses me out. It was unfortunate, but I ended up having a dinner that I thoroughly enjoyed instead of one that made me feel disgusted. Again, I see how that could be seen as selfish, but I never claimed to be selfless.

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