Chinese Please!

This past week has been Spring Break for my kids. Friday night Grandma took the three oldest to stay over. Mr. Peepers and The Littlest Princess stayed home for, as Grandma reminds me, they don't sleep through the night. (Note The Littlest Princess asleep in teh background).

Date nights are few and far between but this was a perfect opportunity for an at-home date night and I like themes so it was to be CHINESE night! Grabbed some paper lanterns for $3 from Walmart and hung them over my table (It's a small town, those were my only color options) and set about preparing some of our favorite "fast" food.

Crazy Cuizine Chicken Potstickers: 240 calories for EIGHT. Super tasty and a great portion size for the calories. These are pre-cooked so just heat & eat.

 

 

 

Tai Pei Chicken Egg Rolls- 120 calories for one. Considering most fast-food restaurant egg rolls can top 200-300 calories, these are a bargain. Just bake & serve

 

 

Finally, prepared salad mix. This pic isn't exactly what we had but I couldn't find the appropriate picture. Ours was a cabbage Asian salad mix. First thing to do- ditch those fried won ton skins and the included dressing.

 

 

This is a much more reasonable dressing option and one of my favorites. Only 50 calories for 2 Tablespoons

 

 

 

I dumped the entire bag of mix in a bowl. Then cut up 4 oz. (raw weight) of chicken and sauteed it with some non-stick spray just until it was just golden brown and cooked through then tossed it with a pinch of ginger and 1 tbsp of the Kraft Light Asian Toasted Sesame dressing. I added the chicken to our salad mix and topped it off with some sliced green onions and 1/2 c. LaChoy Chow Mein Noodles for some crunch (Fewer calories than those fried won ton strips). This will make approximately 4 1-cup servings. Top each serving with an additional 1 tbsp dressing. If you are going to have leftovers of your salad, I recommend topping your individual portions with 1/8c. chow mein noodles instead of adding the entire 1/2 c. to your salad as they will lose their crunch in the fridge overnight.

 

 

 

1 Egg Roll       120 Calories

4 Pot Stickers   120 Calories

 1 c. salad mix   15 Calories

1/8 c. Chow Mein Noodles 32 Calories

1 1/4 Tbsp Dressing 32 calories

 (this accounts for the salad topping & that mixed with the chicken)

1 oz. Sauteed Chicken Breast 31 calories

1 Fortune Cookie 35 calories (not pictured)

 

Total : 385 calories

 

You can have "Fast" food. This was almost as quick as the local drive through and much healthier as well as more tasty. To top of our date night, we watched "Tangled" and then released Wish Lanterns. Date night - and even Chinese Food- can be fun and healthy!