Szechuan Shrimp

I love Chinese food. And not the good-for-you, light white sauce on the side Chinese food. I love the brown sauce-drenched deep fried Chinese food like General Tso's chicken. Yum. But, of course, those aren't very friendly to the old Points calculator, now are they? So I found this recipe on Stephanie Cooks, a blog by a girl after my own heart who follows Weight Watchers but uses real food to do it.

I added lots of veggies (a package of Steamfresh that just cook right in the microwave - love these!) and brown rice to this recipe, and just doubled the sauce from Stephanie's original so I had enough to cover all of the extras.

1 pound cooked large shrimp
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup ketchup
1/8 cup soy sauce
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. honey
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 green onions, diced
4 cloves minced or crushed garlic (I used my ever-present garlic press)
1 bag Steamfresh Asian vegetables (no sauce)

Combine water, ketchup, soy sauce, cornstarch, honey, crushed red pepper flakes and ginger in a small bowl. Prepare vegetables in microwave according to package directions.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add green onions and garlic and stir fry for ab about 30 seconds. Add shrimp and vegetables and toss to coat with oil. Stir in sauce. Heat until sauce is thick and bubbly.

Makes 4 servings.

WW Info
4 Points for 1/4 of recipe (not including rice)

Adapted from Stephanie Cooks, originally from Blog Chef.

Shrimp Pad Thai

This was my first attempt at Thai (cooking or eating), and let me just say that I am hooked. This had a light peanut sauce with just enough kick that I liked it, but it wasn't too hot for my spice-averse husband.

Since I was a Thai newbie, I made very few changes to the original recipe, which you can find here from Cooking Light. (After seeing Cooking Light come after other bloggers, since I didn't make many changes, I'll let you follow the link for the recipe. My only recommendation - make extra sauce.)