Good Food Doesn't Always Have to be Made

     My main goal of this blog is to inform you about good food at good prices. How to cook things right and make yourself feel good. Today I'm going to continue that. I normally talk about home made meals. About how packaged food is normally a lesser option when it comes to your health. I'm going to talk today a little about some packaged food. For good deals as well.

     Find some gems in your local area. It can be something as extravagant as an entire Asian market place where most of the labels don't even have English on them. To something as simple as an Hispanic woman selling fresh tortillas and Elote out of a small cart in front of her house. Fine a place like that. Try it once, make sure it's good. I know some of you are going to be a little shy about the random cart, but trust me. Keep your eyes on it, see how many people go there. Normally things like that don't last long if they arn't good.

     I love when we go up to Chicago and adventure all around. You find little shops like that. In my area I never thought there would be so many. I was wrong. Recently a small Asian shop popped up between my best friends house and mine. They sent out coupons for a free gift on your first visit. What did we have to lose? I headed out there with an open mind, our current Asian section of grocery stores was never very impressive. Sure enough we walked in and it was a small mom and pop kind of shop. The man working there was super friendly and still had a full accent. We browsed around a bit and some of the prices were super low. Like it was kind of crazy low.

     I ended up buying some Chicken pot stickers and a bunch of other things. The pot stickers were only about $4. I didn't think there would be a lot in there. So the other day I was home alone and decided to cook some up. The directions were in both English and Other various languages. I pulled out a hand full, thinking that would be half of the package at least, only to look back in and see that I hardly touched it. There are so many stuffed into one bag.

     This is what I made and it turned out to be a meal fit for two, I couldn't even finish the last rice ball. The meal maybe cost me a dollar? If that? I haven't gotten back into the pot stickers, but now they are looking good again. I'm going to have to go steam some up now. 

     Tips:

          *For sticky rice, make sure to use short grain rice, and Rice Vinegar (you can see it in the picture above)

         * For the sauce I mixed, water, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and some sugar together.

          

     Feel free to share some neat little local places you have with me, I'd love to hear about your adventures!

~Skadia, the steaming panther