Pot Stickers a la Patrick

Good Wednesday morning to you all!

I woke up to some pretty intense thunderstorm this morning, which was amazing.

I love waking up to thunderstorms. I have no idea why. I used to hate storms, was absolutely terrified of them. No joke. Like crawl into my Mom & Dad’s bed when I was 7 scared.

Now? Love them. I couldn’t dream of a better way to get some shut eye. The pitter patter of the rain outside my window almost makes me feel calm now.

But then I had to get up and go to work. Talk about a buzz kill!

My teeth seem to be doing a bit better today. The pain isn’t unbearable. Which is a most welcome, MOST welcome feeling. I have been in so much pain since last Thursday that I am glad it is started to fade.

Although I am sure it is still worse than most people would want it to be. My cheeks are still pretty swollen, which is icky-poonannie, but hey at least I have on polka dots today…

I am not sure how that makes anything better, but it does. I love polka dots. They are amazing and I seem to wear them at least once a week 🙂

What can I say? I feel girlie and cute in them, tehe

Anyways, I am still stuck on the softer food at the moment and I am restricted on my activity so it has been a little difficult for me.

There is only so much jello I can choke down! haha

My mom was a real doll and made me some risotto before she went off to DC that I ate for about 3 days. I mean the portion sizes that I can get in now are like less than half of what I normally eat and I am full.

I am sure that will change once I get back to normal, but man I think my stomach has shrunk.

Patrick was a dear and made me some food while I was really not feeling well. He made me a really good dinner during the weekend that is totally note worthy and I am going to share with you.

He did a great job and may have had a bit of help from me on the ingredients, but he did all the cooking.

He made some simple noddle soup for me with some chicken broth, whole wheat noodles, celery, and carrots. Added a couple spices nothing too fancy, but what is really the star of his meal was the pot stickers.

They were perfect for me because I could dip them in soy sauce, put them into my soup and let them get really soft and then it was like easy peasy yummy eating.

Let’s see how he did!

Ingredients for Pot Stickers:

• Mini Wonton Wrappers
• 1/2 head purple cabbage
• 4 carrots, shredded
• 2 celery sticks, sliced very fine
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 3 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
• 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon siracha
• 1 teaspoon chile sauce
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1-2 cups of chicken broth depending on how many you make

Now what Patrick did while I got the wontons ready was combined all the ingredients into a large pan with 1 1-2 tablespoons canola oil and 1 teaspoon sesame oil and cooked the veggies on medium high heat for about 4 minutes until they started to get bright in color. This helped soften them up for me a bit so it wasn’t so hard to eat. You certainly don’t have to do this step, but it does help bring the flavors together.

I put the wontons under a damp cloth until Patrick was ready. You have to let the mixture cool down just a bit before you try and put it into the wrappers. Easier to work with.

Place about 1-1/2 tablespoon filling into the middle of the wrapper and then wet the edges with water.

You can really make the pot sticker shape however you wish. Make it into a egg roll shape, crab rangoon shape, wonton shape. Whatever you like.

We went with the crab rangoon shape. Be careful with the wrappers, they can be a little hard to deal with especially when they are the smaller ones.

Brush a large pan with canola oil on medium heat. That way the pot stickers won’t be sitting in oil. Place each pot sticker into the pan and don’t move them for 4 minutes. Pour the chicken broth into the pan until the stickers are sitting in the broth and cover for another 4 minutes.

If you aren’t going to eat them immediately, place them in the oven at 200°, just to keep them warm.

Serve with the sauces you like, we choice soy sauce and chile sauce.

Look at how good he did!

I was so very impressed with how well he did. He definitely prefers it when I cook I think, but I think he did a wonderful job and maybe I will be asking him to make more food in the future.

Have a great hump day!