How To Create Your Own Takeout at Home + DIY Fortune Cookie Recipe #NoTakeOutNeeded

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My family and I really enjoy takeout food.  A home cooked meal is nice, but sometimes, I just love eating a dish that I simply do not know how to prepare myself (at least not as tasty).  Then I discovered InnovAsian Frozen Cuisine as a way for our family to enjoy all the fun of a night of takeout, only prepared right in our kitchen!  These meals contain bold and flavorful sauces, fresh tasting, crispy vegetables; plus better for you ingredients, such as all white-meat chicken, lightly tempura battered, and no MSG! What’s more is that I wondered if I could actually trick my family and create my own takeout at home!  Here’s how I did it:

First, I stopped by my local Walmart and picked up some of our takeout favorites made by InnovAsian – General Tso’s Chicken, Beef and Broccoli, and Vegetable Fried Rice.  These are found right in the frozen dinners aisle, along with other favorite varieties and sides.

Next, I gathered all of my props to pull of the prank such as the takeout containers.   You can find these online, at your local craft store, or (and this is awkward) at an actual Chinese restaurant if you have a good relationship with them.  I went with the latter.  

Then came the preparation.  

Each of the InnovAsian frozen meals took around 20 minutes or less to prepare and the instructions offer you various ways to prepare.  I went with the preferred method for each and prepared the General Tso’s Chicken in the oven, Beef and Broccoli stove top, and microwaved the fried rice.  Less than 20 minutes later, I had a meal! 

The biggest challenge I had was how I was going to pull off the fortune cookies.  While your local Chinese Restaurant might let you buy some, I thought, how fun would it be to create some of my own? That’s when I learned how easy they are to make and the fact that they surprisingly use some pretty basic ingredients that I already had around the house.

Before you actually make the cookies, you’ll need to print out some custom fortunes. I made some fun ones for my husband and kids and couldn’t wait to see their faces when they opened them. Here were some examples:

“You should clean your room every day.” “Your mother thinks you’re awesome”

“Always listen to your mother.” “Always listen to your wife.”

“Your wife thinks you’re hot.” “Buying new shoes for your
wife will bring you good fortune.”

Here’s the actual recipe for how to make fortune cookies at home:

Print

Fortune Cookies Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 egg white
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar

Instructions

1. Write or print fortunes and cut to strips of paper about 4 inches long and 1/2 inch wide.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Butter a cookie sheet. Generously grease 2 cookie sheets.
3. Mix the egg white and vanilla until foamy but not stiff. Sift the flour, salt, and sugar and blend into the egg white mixture.
4. Place teaspoonfuls of the batter at least 4 inches apart on one of the prepared cookie sheets. Roll the batter to form round shapes about 3 inches in diameter. Be careful to make batter as round and even as possible! (Start with only 2 or 3 at a time because the cookies have to be really hot to form them and once they cool it is too late.)
5. Bake for 5 minutes or until cookie has turned a golden color 1/2 inch wide around the outer edge of the circle. The center will remain pale.
6. Remove from oven and quickly move cookie with a wide spatula and place upside down on a wooden board. Quickly place the fortune on the cookie, close to the middle and fold the cookie in half.
7. Place the folded edge across the rim of a measuring cup and pull the pointed edges down, one on the inside of the cup and one on the outside. Place folded cookies into the cups of a muffin tin or egg carton to hold their shape until firm.

Recipe Notes

Tip: You can make these cookies even more fun by dipping them in some melted chocolate chips and even adding some sprinkles!

Adapted from AllRecipes.com

Well…how did I do? Do you think I fooled them?

By the way, if you love InnovAsian Frozen Cuisine, be sure to also sign up for their exclusive rewards program. Purchase boxes of InnovAsian Cuisine® and Lemon Grass Kitchen® with the Reward Yourself Icon on the front of the box and begin earning points. Learn more about the InnovAsian Rewards Program here.