The Hunts - DAY 30!!!

Well, we did it! We (almost) made it straight through our 30 days. Our last challenge dinner was beef chow mein and sort of this seafood soup.

Chow Mein - it was okay. Well, it was good. David enjoyed it a lot. The thing is, I had this idea in my head that it would taste exactly like the stuff you get at a Chinese restaurant. I bought the noodles that are used when you order Hong Kong style crispy noodles, but I don't really know what all goes in those dishes to make it taste so much like crack. My noodles weren't even crispy, regardless of how long I tried to keep them in the hot pan. The package had a little recipe, but it only called for soy sauce, and I swear the stuff you get in the restaurant has more than just soy sauce for the flavoring. The sauce at restaurants are more of a gravy, too. There's gotta be tons of MSG in that stuff. If there is someone who knows how to make a good Hong Kong style crsipy noodle dish, please tell me how.

"Seafood" soup - not really. I used dashi powder to make a broth and the "seafood" was actually some extra fish cakes, unused from the hot pot. I added some baby bok choy, tofu, and shitaki mushrooms. A really light, brothy soup. It seemed to be liked enough.

I didn't go out with a bang on this challenge, I know. I did miss two days. But, I had good reasons for missing, and I would have to say that I did get something out of these last 32 days. I learned to be a better meal planner, grocery list writer, grocery shopper, ingredients user, meal prepper, juggler of busy toddler while trying to make dinner, and most of all a better home cooker. I will continue to cook at home, with the goal of doing it every night, but knowing that some nights it just won't happen.

Stay tuned for what we had on our first dinner night out post challenge...