Quick-and-Dirty Shrimp Stir-Fry (or, Oops, is it Lent AGAIN?)

I am feeling pretty good about my eating-out habits this week. Specifically, I haven't been doing it. And there have been several opportunities for me to do so this week. Nope! Instead I have been dutifully bringing lunch with me. I almost didn't yesterday - I had $10 on me, enough for a slice of pizza and about $7.50 left over. Instead, I made myself a ham and cheese sandwich.

Wait, it was Ash Wednesday yesterday, wasn't it? Oops. (Actually it was my mother's idea. She became Catholic several decades ago, not long before she married dear ol' dad, so she is usually on top of this sort of thing. Slipping, Mom?). I guess I should also feel bad about the delicious bacon I ate with breakfast.

At least I remembered for dinner - which, again, I narrowly avoided buying out, to celebrate the Chinese New Year (all these holidays at once). I made a none-too-pretty but still tasty enough stir fry. After putting (a little too much) vegetable oil in the wok, stirred in 3 cloves chopped garlic - I like garlic - and one chopped small onion. To that I added a few tablespoons of a sesame ginger stir fry sauce I got at Trader Joe's, some carrots and bell pepper slices from the freezer, a dash of fish sauce and (at the tail end) about ten raw shrimp. Stir fry until cooked through, and eat with some glass noodles. Put a little fish sauce and some jalapeño slices in a little bowl and let sit for a minute for an okay dipping sauce.

So back to Lent: These days, when I try to give up anything at all, it's for personal betterment and not punishment and denial, my motivation when I was a good, neurotic, closeted little Catholic boy. Maybe I should give up cookies, or snacking between meals. I'm not by any stretch of the imagination "fat" but I could stand to lose a handful of pounds. Or forgo spending (Yeah! save some money for Amsterdam, why don't you?). Or I could give up women. I know I'd stick to that!