{grandma’s recipes} chow mein two different ways

After Graham’s grandmother passed away, he brought home one of the things he was able to have as a keepsake…it was her recipe box.  I promised {not only to myself, but others in the family} that I would get all of the handwritten recipes scanned in and shared.

The first two recipes are for two different, yet oh-so-similar, chow mein dishes.  As you can see from the pictures of the recipe cards, most all of the recipes are void of any instructions.  I am not going to lie, it actually puts a smile on my face when I am trying to figure out what I am supposed to be doing with the list of ingredients. 

I have tried my best to come up with instructions I think were meant for each recipe, but I am sure I am missing things here and there.  So, feel free to print off the recipe cards and make up your own process.  Tip for printing:  Simply right click the picture of the recipe card and hit print!

Specifically for these two chow mein recipes, I did make a few minor changes and we actually ended up liking a finished product that basically combined the two {yes, I cooked this meal about three different times to make sure I could write possible directions}!

Chow Mein Recipe #1

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cup lean meat (veal, pork, beef, or chicken)

1 cup onions

1 tsp. salt

pepper to taste

1 1/2 cup hot water

1 can (drained) mushrooms (as large as you want)

Directions (as made up by Jen):

Melt butter in pan; cook meat and onions in pan until meat is no longer pink; add salt, pepper, water, and mushrooms and cook until thick; serve hot over chow mein noodles.

Jen’s variations:

-- Instead of mushrooms (since they are not favored in our household), we used a can of black beans

-- I cooked the mixture for about a half an hour and it was still pretty soupy, so I did add a tablespoon of cornstarch and a can of cream of mushroom to help aide in the thickening process (my mixture may not have thickened as much simply because I was using beans instead of mushrooms, but who knows!)

-- Added 1 cup of chopped celery

Jen’s notes:

The chow mein noodles get soft pretty quickly, but there is still enough crunch!

Chow Mein Hot Dish Recipe #2

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef

3 sm. onion (chopped) (I just used one large onion…at least it was large for me!)

1 cup chopped celery

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of mushoom soup

1 cup water

1 cup mushroom

8 oz. chow mein noodles

Directions:

Pan fry ground beef, onion, and celery until beef is no longer pink; add in water and cook 15 minutes; add in cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup; add in mushrooms and chow mein noodles; bake in casserole dish at 350 degrees for one hour (bake uncovered the last half hour)

Jen’s Variations:

-- Used one can of black beans instead of mushrooms

-- Saved some of the chow mein noodles and sprinkled them on top before baking

Jen’s notes:

As you can imagine, the noodles ended up puffing up and getting soft during baking, so the noddles on top helped provide a bit more crunch.  For even more crunch, do not cook the celery and onions with the meat, but instead add them in with the mushrooms.

Thanks, Grandma C!