Sweet and Sour Shrimp (with store bought seasoning)

I've posted about my love of Sun Bird products in previous blog entries. As much as love Chinese food, I am in the majority of everyone I've spoken with at least that we hate to 'make' it. It takes a lot of ingredients, cooked at a high heat, very quickly. When you are fixing dinner while talking on the phone to the local PTA, signing school field trip permission forms, answering your husband on where his blue t-shirt is, telling another child to go feed the cats and watching your cellphone ring at the same time... well, many times your mind isn't on the preparation of the Chinese food! I've forgotten to add an ingredient (sugar), I've accidently almost burned the sauce, I've forgotten to put pea's in the fried rice... multi-tasking and Chinese food preparation don't really go hand in hand.

So! My love of Sun Bird products was born. A packaged seasoning mix you'll find in your grocery store in either the ethnic food section or where they have the rest of the packaged mixes. I can personally vouch for the Beef and Broccoli, the Orange Beef (which we only make with chicken!) and the Fried Rice is my all-time-favorite and the ONLY kind of homemade fried rice I will eat. This week I tried the Sweet N Sour Pork - but since I'm not a huge fan of pork I decided to adapt it to shrimp.

We also don't care for pineapple in our family so my second 'tweak' was that I used the juice from a can of mandarin oranges in place of the pineapple. It was a hit! Our pineapple hating family loved it.


Sweet and Sour Shrimp

1 package Sun Bird sweet and sour pork seasoning
1 onion
1 green pepper
1/2 red pepper
1 carrot
1 lbs. raw peeled and deveined shrimp
2 t soy sauce
water
2 T oil
*substitute the juice from 1-2 small cans of mandarin oranges for the pineapple

Follow the directions on the package for mixing the sauce. Follow directions but substitute 1 lb. shrimp for the pork and only cook it for about 1-2 minutes or it will get tough. When you add the shrimp back in to the vegetables (per package directions) only cook it for another 2-3 minutes until the shrimp is just cooked. Again, it will be tough and chewy if over cooked.

Cooking the vegetables

This is what the package looks like
and when the sauce is mixed using mandarin
orange juice instead of pineapple pieces

Sweet and Sour Shrimp
using a 'pork' seasoning mix

I serve with brown rice and fried rice.
Delicious!