coleslaw

There was quite a bit of cabbage, carrots and onion left over from making yakisoba.  I thought to myself "Self, what can you make with this?"  and I answered "Coleslaw!".  Pulling the reliable Betty Crocker off the shelf, I  started grabbing ingredients.

Ingredients

Once I had everything assembled it was time to start making the dressing.  All of the non vegetable ingredients went into the bowl.  

- 3/4 cup mayo

- 1 T sugar

- 2 t lemon juice

- 2 t dijon mustard

- 1/2 tsp celery seed (I only had celery salt and used 1/4 t)

- 1 t dill weed

- salt and pepper to taste

Mix it all up really well and adjust seasonings to taste.

Dressing

Put the dressing aside for a minute and start preparing the veggies.

- 1/2 head of cabbage

- 1/2 medium onion

- 1 large carrot

If you have a whole head of cabbage, take off the outer leaves and chop in half.  Slice the cabbage very, very thinly and then turn the cabbage and chop a few more times. Or, use a food processor to slice really thinly.

thinly sliced cabbage

turn and chop

Put all the cabbage in the bowl with the dressing but you don't need to mix it in yet.  Chop the onion into small  pieces, and shred the carrot either with a grater or food processor.  Dump these in the bowl with the cabbage and dressing and mix well.  

carrots and onions added

All mixed up. Yum!

This coleslaw really needs to sit for a while to get flavourfully.  Cover it and put it in the fridge for at least an hour but preferably around a day.  If it seems like the dressing has disappeared when you take it out of the fridge, add a bit more mayo.  

Some substitutions could be using half mayo and half sour cream or plain yogurt.  Betty suggests making a tropical coleslaw by adding 8 oz pineapple tidbits in with the veggies and topping with toasted nuts just before serving.  

I would love to try this with other root veggies like beets or turnips.  Sounds yummy and colourful. 

yakisoba

Japanese food is probably my favourite type of food.  It could be that my husband and I first started dating when we were both living on Okinawa.  Or it could be that it's delicious! Today, I decided to make yakisoba and luckily I had some ingredients in the freezer.  The asian food store in the town where we live has a yakisoba kit that has the noodles and sauce.  Last time I was there I made sure to stock up on it.  You can find yakisoba sauce at any Japanese food store and most asian food stores.

In Okinawa the most common ingredients for yakisoba are cabbage, onion, carrots and spam.  You can also add bell peppers, bean sprouts, water chestnuts or pretty much anything.  It's such a popular dish in Okinawa that it's what there are generally yakisoba vendors at festivals and fairs.

Today, I decided to just add cabbage onion and carrots.

I actually only ended up using one of the carrots since I only made two servings.  I used half the onion, thinly sliced and maybe a cup of cabbage, also thinly sliced.  

Saute the veggies in a large frying pan with tbsp of oil for a few minutes, until they're about half cooked.  Remove from the pan and heat another tbsp of oil with 1/4 cup of water and the noodles.  Cook the noodles until they are heated through and not sticking together.  Add the veggies and yakisoba sauce back into the pan and cook until veggies are done and sauce is mixed through.  

Yum!