American mom trying to plan meals in China

Blimey love, where have you been living? All the answers are on the internet!
ENjoy your second term in China - a great place

Thanks Burchy! Yes, I figured the answers are on the internet, but I don't know where.  Can you give me some specific sites?  I don't have time to get online very much, and all the sites I've seen so far assume I can open a can of this and a package of that and have dinner ready in 20 minutes.  For example, I've seen a lot of great looking recipes that call for a can of cream of chicken soup.  Well, I'd have to make cream of chicken soup myself from scratch, so that turns an "easy" recipe into an all afternoon project.  Are there any websites that assume I don't have cans of cream of chicken soup, or any other cans or packages to work with?  If I search online for "easy recipes" I get the ones asking for pre-made stuff, and if I search for "from scratch" recipes they are usually really complicated and call for spices and things that I can't get ahold of here.  (Can you sense my frustration?)  Do you know of any websites or online communities specifically for people in areas where these pre-made and fancy ingredients are not available?  Thanks!

I can understand your frustration.
I'm a Brit, so find it difficult to get all the ingredients I want.
Anyway, a bit biased with my suggested starter site for you to explore: -
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes
Another
http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food_and_re … ee-recipes
There are some 'fireign' supermarkets, such as Tesco, Lotus, Carrefour, Metro where you can find a good selection of spices as well as host of meats, veggie, etc.
Hope that helps for starters

Oh! Another
http://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/collect … ic-recipes
A mix of recipes dinners to cakes.
But I didn't check any out. Hope it helps.

EmilyDee,

Wow, is it really that difficult to figure out what to cook for your family?

I'm 66 years old, have been cooking for 61 of those years. My Italian grandfather started teaching me the ART of cooking when I was only 5-years old.

The very first thing that he taught me was that there are two ingredients that no kitchen should ever be without - creativity and improvisation. When I asked him what that meant he told me that if you rely on a written recipe for everything you make then you've lost the battle before it has even begun. He said that you take the ingredients that you've got at hand and then start thinking about creative ways to combine them into a dish, and that dish can take many different forms. The vast majority of ingredients can serve as an appetizer, a main course or even a dessert if you use your imagination.

So you're in China, still the main ingredients that you'll find there are many of the same ones you will find in most other countries too. It's really not rocket science.

Let's look at one of the most common foods in China - rice! Well that certainly can be used to create appetizers, a tasty and diverse side dish, and a dessert.

Rice balls... mix cooked rice, wheat flour, a couple of eggs, a bit of shredded tuna, some chopped onion, herbs into a thick paste. Form it into small balls and deep fry them. You've got a delicious appetizer.

Rice Pilaf...  cook your rice with a bit of chicken stock, toss in a can of mixed vegies, some spices and viola, a quick and easy side dish.

Rice Pudding... use either pre-cooked rice or uncooked, milk, sugar, an egg (optional), cinnamon and nutmeg. Heat until the rice is cooked and the liquids absorbed to the point of forming a creamy pudding. Chill and serve.

See, it's not all that difficult you just have to use some imagination. Sounds to me like the problem is not that you can't find the ingredients, but rather that you just can't find your thinking cap. You have to think outside the box. Like the old saying goes...

If you only do what you've always done, you'll only get what you always got!!!

Was it that hard for you to come up with meal ideas back home, or did you mostly rely on prepared foods?

If you just can't function in the kitchen without a recipe, then one thing you could do is think of a particular dish and then Google it for the recipe. Look at the ingredients, and see if you can get all or most of them, and if you can't think of what you could use to substitute for what you can't get... not too hard.

Cheers,
James    Expat-blog Experts Team

Hey  James Im a 72 yr old Australian..also living in China...been here for many years.... love your reply...i ...same as you was taught to be self sufficient from a very early age... your grandfather was a wise man...
James

Some easy dishes:

1) Steamed sweet potato, or you can bake it in the oven. No need to add anything. Most kids love it, it's sweet and healthy.

2) Pumpkin Soup: Take a piece of pumpkin, steam or cook it until it's soft, and mix it together with a small 250ml bag of milk and some butter and some salt until it's creamy. You also can add a little green celery for the taste.

3) Spaghetti with tomato sauce: Fry an onion in olive oil, add 5 tomatoes ( cut them into little cubes ) and cook it until all is very soft. You might have to add some water. Add salt and sugar as you like it. Then eat it with the spaghetti. ( if you have you can add some Italian herbs. )

4) Chicken curry is also very simple, ask Google etc.

5) Chestnuts: just cut the opening and but them in the oven for 30 minutes at 160 to 180 Celsius. Finished is your dish.

6) Chinese style green vegetable: Fry some garlic in oil, add the green leaves until they are done, add salt. Finish.

7) Russian Salad: Buy frozen vegetable mix, ( usually it's peas, carrots and corn). Defrost it in cooking water, until it's hot. Cook Potatoes, and cut them to pieces. Mix everything with a  mayonnaise salad dressing, and onion which is cut in very small pieces. You can add a tin of tuna fish to make it even more delicious.

You could also try Sushi - that's rice. 
You could also try making fried noodles - here's a site for lots of Asian food - you should be able to get ingredients in China -  http://rasamalaysia.com

You could make baked rice - that's just ham and cheese - which you can substitute with luncheon meat and cheese if you can't find ham.  You can also swop the rice for pasta for baked pasta.  You can do pizza?

There's online e-grocer stores that do delivery to your place.. Where in China are you staying?

You can go online to Taobao and buy a bread maker - to make sandwiches.  And pizza dough, and cakes and jam.

hi dear,

Until now you have not mentioned which town in China you are currently staying.   I am now in Shanghai.

Be of good cheer
Shan

Hi, this is my daughter and my second year in China. My daughter is 10 years old. It's very hard planning meals in China and always on the go. I prepare chicken and rice for her, also dumplings are quick, healthy and hot like a soup. Fish is great with noodles. Beef with vegetables and rice is quick and healthy as well. I hope this helps you a little.

Towanna

shop at walmart..

I am in Beijing.  Shops like April Gourmet and Jenny Lou's/ Jenny Wang's and City Shop (here but mostly they are in Shanghai) are expensive but have some comfort food items that makes life here much nicer.  We also order food from shop.tootoo.cn and BJchano organic delivery services and utilize the local grocery store when I can to save money on distilled water, Toilet paper, kleenexes and toilet blue and cleaners, some even have great cooking, kitchen and household items. 

Because we keep kosher, we are also in the minority of "cook at home, almost all the time" families - of which there are few these days!

Some old supper standbys
Any type of curry. 
Any type of soup.  (Moosewood Cookbook, download it!) Lentil soup, Split Pea soup, Brazilian Black Bean soup, Cheesy Cauliflower soup - tried the last one recently after owning the cookbook over 20 years, kids loved it!! Moosewood cookbook has vegetarian food, lots of cool stuff.  Their polenta is too loose, though, see below.
Any type of fish.  (Paleo type (grain free) fried fish, baked fish with lemon pepper,  salmon with Mr. Magic or similar spice is our Friday night standard, Baked fish with tomato and garlic, lemon etc.)
Potato or Sweet potato wedges tossed with melted butter and garlic salt, baked in the toaster oven 1 hr or so
Baked Potatoes/sweet potatoes
Roasted vegetables.  any/all Beets, carrots, onions, garlic, pumpkin, sweet potato, tossed in butter/coconutoil/butter oil and whatever spices, cumin etc. and roasted at 340-350 (170-180 here) 1 hr or so. Try new things like Fennel Root slow roasted with oil/salt, afterward sprinkle with balsamic vinegar and parmesan cheese.
Salads.  Regular big lettuce/tomato/cucumber salads with feta cheese on top.  Easy and cheap to make own dressing with vinegar, olive oil, spices and salt, a little dry mustard.  Or asian version with sesame oil, olive oil, dash of ground red pepper, maybe brown sugar or honey or stevia.   Or Sliced Tomato/Mozzerella cheese/balsamic vinegar (or salad vinegar, Heinz is available here easily most western stores) with basil...
Raw beet salad
from my childhood: Waldorf salad (apples with mayonnaise as a dressing base, rasisns, walnuts)
Paleo Pancakes.  Grain free, mostly eggs.
Egg Frittata/crustless quiche made on the stovetop in a strong skillet and finished off in the toaster oven with handle sticking out, rotate side to side every 5 or 10 minutes. cook the onion and garlic first in the pan, add whipped eggs with coconut milk and salt, garlic salt, whatever.  Add Frozen vegetables corn/carrot/pea or chopped asparagus or bits of cherry tomato, anything, top with cheese.  yum.  I make a couple a week.  Great for sunday Brunch.
Potato or carrot Kugel
Asparagus sauteed, add garlic and lemon and a little diluted soy sauce, then add 1tsp corn starch or potato starch in couple T water for thickening sauce.
Polenta every once in a while.  Use 4 cups water for one cup of corn meal, add salt, rosemary, pour in oiled glass dish to cool, cut into slices (reheat in skillet or in toaster oven). Can add parmesan cheese, too.  Warning: spoils by 3 days even in fridge.

We don't eat meat at home, but we do eat out at the kosher restaurant occasionally.
 
If you eat meat, you have even more options, pan fried pork chops or steaks. Bacon and Eggs (for dinner, no problem!),  Pan fried chicken, Whole chicken with oil and herbs cooked in the toaster oven, etc. Organic options of chicken and pork are at tootoo.  Some German and Australian butchers in Shanghai, Beijing, etc. have imported frozen beef, I heard.

I have studied a lot the past year or so (books like Fat Chance, Good Calories, Bad Calories etc) and now believe the basis of the diet should be meat, eggs, fish, lots of veggies, a fair amount of fresh fruits, and dairy/cheese.  Limiting all grains, especially wheat, is a good idea.  Rice, Millet, and Quinoa are good grains to use but we find ourselves eating less and less of these and not missing them much.

  We use only these oils: butter from grass fed cows, butter oil that my husband makes at home, coconut oil (*) and xtra virgin olive oil for salad dressings, and nothing else.  For a long time, I used "healthy oils" : grapefruit seed oil, and sunflower oil, but giving these up was great - my cavity even suddenly healed up !!! I'm not lying.   We only made these shifts: Change of oils, Change to grass fed butter, less grains (and no wheat to speak of now).   I still eat chocolate, loads of it, actually, though I cut out drinking sugar in my coffee and now take it with just milk.  And it healed up after just about2 or 3 months after this change.  (It was a pit on the side of my tooth since I was about 15, when it started showing a tan discoloration.  I'm now 45.  A genetic defect, they said, since there was one on the other side, too.  Both turned into a black speck over the years.  That one on the right got bad enough to fill.  The left one was sticking the instrument, too, but I said, just wait, and I noticed one day the black spot was GONE.  It's white now, that was about 4 months ago....)
anyway I've gotten off track, having a keyword can help you find recipes.  I find that if I go ahead and buy something I'm more likely to look up a recipe for it, this is how I found the roasted fennel above. 

* IHERB.com has changed our lives here- free shipping to china over 40 USD box, I like the China UCS shipping option not the SF express as they add duty (sometimes).  UCS doesn't.  Use code uri094, get a 5 dollar coupon it'll put in your cart your first order there. You need a western credit card, not a Chinese bank card.  The first time only, you need to reply to shipping company's email - don't bother with the link, or instructions, those are for Chinese nationals - just send a copy of your passport for ID confirmation this first time, don't need to do it again.  Box arrives in about 10 days!  We get gluten free stuff, health food store grocery items, organic and raw nuts, vitamins, herbal medicines and homeopathics and more there!