Tangerine-Teriyaki Vegetable Lo Mein

I think I’ve finally brought my core body temperature up and the Minnesota cold is now just a distant memory.  Florida in February is great…but I do have a few things to learn.  The other day Steve and I took a trip to the beach and thought it would be great to pack a picnic lunch to enjoy while we sat on the beach and watched the world go by.

So I packed a couple of sandwiches and a few other treats.  By the time we got to the beach, it was lunch time and we were STARVING. We parked the car, hauled all of our stuff to the perfect spot on the beautiful white sand and sat down ready to eat and relax.  Well……about three seconds after we pulled our sandwiches out of the cooler, the seagulls were everywhere!  They were squawking and swooping down over us and kept getting closer and closer ready to pounce on our food.  After one bite, we realized this wasn’t going to work, back into the cooler went the food.

At this point, we’re still starving and clearly, lunch on the beach was not happening.  But we just spent all this time getting situated and wanted to just sit and relax.  We sat there for about 10 minutes, looked at each other and knew this just wasn’t going to work…..because we were STARVING!  So we packed everything up, went back to the car and ate in the parking lot.

Things did get better after that.  Once we were no longer starving, we walked back over to the beach and had a nice long walk along the beach.  Lesson learned….do NOT bring food to the beach.  From now on we eat before we go, or we find a beach side restaurant!

I’m loving this little town, called Gulfport, that we’re staying in.  We’re literally steps away from all kinds of locally owned restaurants and cute little shops.  There is also a farmer’s market every Tuesday, that spans the entire main street.

We bought organic spices and a fabulous tangerine-teriyaki sauce by Joy’s Gourmet.  I used the sauce to make this lo mein and the great news is, you can order it online and make this yummy dish yourself!

The veggies at the market were also fabulous looking.  Just look at these brussel sprouts, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any quite that large.

The rest of the veggies didn’t look so bad either.

 To make this lo mein, I loaded up on veggies.

This lo mein dish is really simple to make and the sauce really makes it.  It’s citrusy and has a little kick, as well, absolutely delicious!  If you don’t want to order this sauce for yourself, but you want to make something similar, I would use a teriyaki glaze.

Then I would add some fresh tangerine or orange juice (about 1/2 cup in addition to what’s already in the recipe) and some red pepper flakes to get the kick.  You also can use whatever combination of veggies that you like, I’ve just included what I used.

Tangerine-Teriyaki Vegetable Lo Mein

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 medium sweet onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup carrots, diced
• 1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 4 oz cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 inch fresh ginger, grated or finely minced
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 12 oz lo mein noodles, cooked according to package directions
• 1/4 cup fresh squeezed tangerine or orange juice
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup tangerine-teriyaki sauce

Heat oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat.

Add onions and stir fry for about 4 minutes, until onions are soft.

Add carrots, stir fry for about 1 minute, then add red pepper and mushrooms, stir frying until mushrooms are tender.

Add garlic and fresh ginger, stir fry for 30 seconds.

Stir in salt and pepper.

Add cooked noodles to the pan and toss to combine with the veggies.

Pour in tangerine juice and continue to toss.

Add the tangerine-teriyaki sauce, a little at a time, until the noodles and veggies are well coated and it’s as saucy as you’d like it to be.

ENJOY!