Some Kitchen Essentials

We had another of our potluck dinners at work the other night. This time, I made the main course. Now I work a night shift and we usually eat mid-way through which is usually between midnight and one AM. We are limited to basically a microwave or George Foreman Grill and I do not have a crockpot, but I do have an electric wok. So I decided to make a stirfry and I am really happy that I did!

With the electric wok, everything was done in less than 10 minutes and we had a fresh meal cooked right in the office. My coworker enjoyed it so much, she went on Amazon.com and bought an electric wok that evening!

Ok, now for the reason for the introduction, in order to for this to have turned out as good as it was, I discovered three things that were essential to workplace woking.
The first is the electric wok. I am convinced that this is an essential part of any kitchen. Our electric wok was inherited from my grandparents and it is probably 20 years old. It is not fancy and I am guessing that it was not a super expensive model when they bought it. I mentioned that my coworker bought one on Amazon.com and she spent about $40 on it. I would think that you would be able to find a good, inexpensive one at Target, Bed, Bath and Beyond or Kohls too. This is definitely worth the investment!

The next thing that made the meal a success was microwavable rice. Lydia uses this all the time and swears by it. So I thought it might be a good option for my dinner. I ended up buying Uncle Ben's Basmati rice that was ready in 90 seconds. It was super easy: break it up in the package, open a vent, microwave for 90 seconds, serve. I used 2 packs and it was really good! Lydia was right and I would buy this again (even if I wasn't cooking at work).

Lastly, was having a good, premade stirfry sauce. Whenever I go to the Asian section of the grocery store, I spend at least 10 minutes looking at all the sauces and trying to figure out which one to buy. Well for this, I ended up with a Mandarin Sauce and it was really good too. I find that the secret to a good stirfry is to add the sauce last, right before you serve it.

Anyway, I hope this inspires you to think about making a delicious stirfry meal at home (or at work). It takes minimal effort and you will enjoy the payoff!