Lazy girl’s guide to stir fry

Lately I’ve had very little motivation to cook anything.  Not sure what the deal is—the heat, the sleep deprivation, the lack of time, or perhaps a missing muse—whatever the case my meals sure have been lacking.

A month or so ago (while still in this cooking rut), I made stir fry for the first time.  I’m talking FOR REAL stir fry. Wok and all. (courtesy of five well spent dollars at Ikea)

I wasn’t really sure where to start with the stir fry.  So I kinda just went with what felt right.  Lucky for me what felt right was a super fast, super easy, super tasty lazy girl stir fry Surprised smile

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Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Minced garlic and or green onion (obviously I prefer both)
  • Pre-packaged stir-fry veggies (I like FRESH not frozen)
  • Some sort of meat (shrimp, chopped chicken, beef, etc)
  • Some sort of sauce (something low sugar/low sodium.. teriyaki, Szechuan, or whatever your heart desires)
  • S&P
  • Minute Brown Rice

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Ok, so first up, you get the water boiling for the rice.  I usually go with 1/3 cup of rice and then overdo it on the veggies – but it’s really your call, lazy girl.. Your call.

Cook the rice according to the package instructions (aka, dump rice in boiling water, simmer 5 min, remove from heat 5 min, FLUFF!).

Meanwhile, heat up a wok (or sauté pan) on medium high heat.  Get that baby HOT!  Coat with nonstick cooking spray, toss in your garlic and/or onions, and then cook up your meat.  I like to season the meat with some pepper and garlic salt.  When the meat is cooked through, remove it from the wok, and toss in your veggies, and season with S&P.  I use half a bag (6 ounces) of the Eat Smart vegetable Stir Fry mix for one serving.

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I use a little spatula to toss the veggies about and get them slightly crisp.  I’m still working on my wok-toss, so the spatula will have to do for now.

Occasionally add 1 tsp of water to the wok to help the veg get their groove on while simultaneously making you feel like a wok-BAMF.  The pan should SIZZLE when you do this.  I know you’ve got it in you!

When the rice is just about done, add the meat back to the wok, and add in about 2 tbsp of your sauce of choice.  Give it a nice stir (or a few tosses if you’ll feeling crazy), then pour into a bowl along with the rice.

Then eat your face off.

Schezuan Shrimp:

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Teriyaki Chicken:

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Good wok, lazy girl. Good wok. Smile

Stats on 1 serving (1/3 cup rice, 6 ounces veggie mix, 4 ounces shrimp, 2 tbsp Szechuan sauce):  300 calories, 40g carbs, 5g fat, 27g protein, 5g fiber

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Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

I’ve been meaning to post this recipe for quite a while, but am just now getting around to it.  Dang you tax season.  Dang you!

This is an incredibly easy soup to throw together, and as and added bonus it’s pretty low cal (not to mention tasty).  Boo. ya.

I searched long and hard for wild rice, but could not find any at my grocery store.  What the heck is up with that?  So, I settled on some Rice a Roni Long Grain & Wild Rice:

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I cooked the rice up according to the package directions (subbing in chicken broth for water and omitting the butter).
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Then I heated up a large pot, sprayed it down with some cooking spray, and sautéed the following:

  • 1  cup  prechopped onion
  • 2/3 cup  chopped red bell pepper
  • 1  cup  cut carrots
  • 3  teaspoon  bottled minced garlic
  • 1/2  teaspoon  dried thyme
  • 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms

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My grocery store doesn’t have “gourmet” mushrooms, but these baby bellas always do the trick:

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All the kids into the pool:
 

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Once the veggies were softened, I added in a splash of chicken stock to decaramelize the brown bits on the bottom of the pan.  Once I worked them all off the bottom, I tossed in the rest of the stock, and stirred in:

  • 2 shredded chicken breasts
  • the cooked Rice A roni
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper

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Awwwwww yeah.

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This batch made up four delicious servings, two of which I popped in the freezer.

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Cook once, eat fource…errr.. something like that.

Chicken & Wild Rice Soup Ingredients List (serves 4) — inspired by Cooking Light Magazine

  • 4  cups  fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth, divided
  • 1  box Rice A Roni wild rice
  • 1  cup  prechopped onion
  • 2/3 cup  chopped red bell pepper
  • 1  cup  chopped carrots
  • 3  teaspoon  bottled minced garlic
  • 1/2  teaspoon  dried thyme
  • 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms
  • 2  shredded chicken breasts
  • 1/8  teaspoon  salt
  • 1/4  teaspoon  black pepper

A random questions for ya’ll this evening–anyone have a Griddler?  If so, is it worth the $$$ and what model is the best? 

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Stuffed Cabbage (hold the red sauce)

When you think of stuffed cabbage, what comes to mind?  I’m guessing you think of ground beef and rice rolled up in cabbage and smothered in red sauce, right?  You probably also think of excessive gas.  Let’s try and relieve ourselves of that thought for now 😉

I’m not entirely sure why, but my mom has always made stuffed cabbage without red sauce.  I can remember going to friend’s houses as a child and getting super excited when I heard we were having stuffed cabbage for dinner.  This ALWAYS ended in disappointment because everyone (other than my mom… and my sister) makes stuffed cabbage with red sauce… and I’m not really a fan.  In my family, we like our stuffed cabbage with a side of cabbage.  And some cabbage broth.  And excessive amounts of sour cream and salt and pepper.

Stuffed cabbages has been one of my all-time favorite home cooked meals for as far back as I can remember, yet I’ve never tried to make them myself.  So what the heck, I decided to give it a shot.  My mom uses ground beef in her stuffed cabbages, but I decided to further health-it-up with 99% fat-free ground turkey and brown rice. 

First up, the cabbage:

 

I can honestly say this is the first time I have ever purchased cabbage.  I have a feeling we are going to be GREAT friends 🙂

(Guess who left her camera at work??? Yes, all photos were taken with the lovely iPhone tonight)

I cut the core out of the cabbage:

 

And dropped it hole-side down in a big ole pot of bowling water. 

While the leaves softened in the boiling water, I combined the following in a bowl:

  • 8 ounces 99% fat free ground turkey
  • 1/2 a chopped white onion
  • 1 glove garlic, minced
  • 1 cup brown rice, rinsed and drained
  • 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

As the leaves began to soften, I pulled off the outer cabbage leaves with a pair of tongs and laid them out while the remaining cabbage kept softening in the pot:

I used an ice cream scooper to evenly distribute the meat and rice mix among 9 cabbage leaves:

Then gave them a roll and lined them up in a baking dish.

Then I gave the remaining cabbage a rough chop and tucked it in between the rolls and threw the rest on top.  I used a ladle to spoon some of the hot cabbage broth onto the rolls until the water level was about half way up the dish.  Then I covered with foil and baked in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour.

When the rolls were done, I topped two of them off with a dollop of sour cream and some black pepper:

 

Andd…….  whelp… it’s wasn’t mom’s.  And it wasn’t my sister’s either.   Have you ever tried to recreate one of your mom’s famous dishes?  If you’re like me, it probably didn’t go so well.  That’s ok, nothing a little hot sauce can’t cure!

All-in-all these were OK– but I think using the ground turkey instead of the ground beef made a HUGE difference (and not for the better).  I think ground beef is the way to go.  That’s what I’ll use next time for sure!

Stuffed Cabbage Ingredients List (serves 4)

  • 8 ounces 99% fat free ground turkey
  • 1/2 a chopped white onion
  • 1 glove garlic, minced
  • 1 cup brown rice, rinsed and drained
  • 1 head cabbage (about 2 lbs)
  • Salt and pepper
  • Fat-free Sour cream (optional in your book, NOT optional in mine)

Stats on 1 serving:  237 calories, 39g carbs, 2g fat, 19g protein, 7g fiber

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Healthified Gyros & Tzatziki Saucziki

Tonight, I had a craving for gyros.  Mmmmmm…. Can’t remember the last time I had one of those.

The task at hand:  satisfy this craving as healthfully as possible.

I decided to go with ground turkey for the meat to stuff my gyro.  I combined the following ingredients and formed a meat “log” which I cooked on the george foreman grill for about 7 minutes.

  • 5 ounces 99% lean ground turkey
  • sprinkling of dried oregano, S&P, garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley, red pepper flakes

Then I sliced the meat into long strips and placed atop a Joseph’s Low Carb Pita:

And topped it off with the KEY component of any gyro:  Tzatziki Sauce!  I mixed up the tzatziki sauce about an hour before grilling the meat.  It consisted of:

  • 2 tbsp Oikos plain greek yogurt
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp grated cucumber
  • S&P, Dill weed
  • 1 clove garlic, minced

Tzatziki ingredients in the bowl:

All together now!

I used some of the leftover cucumber to make a small cucumber salad (sliced cucumber, dill weed, white vinegar):

YUM!!!  This really hit the spot!  I do want to note that the meat was a little on the dry side.  I personally didn’t really mind because I doused it in the yummy Tzatziki sauce.  Next time, I’ll either add some of the shredded cucumber to the meat or try shredded zucchini and/or onion.

Stats on the gyro:  278 calories, 24g carbs, 4g fat, 39g protein, 7g fiber

 

Despite this delicious dinner, the night did not end on such a happy note:

What’s that, you ask?  Ohhhh… that….  Whelp, that’s my iPhone, chilling in some rice, because I apparently dropped it on my way in the door and let it sit outside in the rain for three hours.  🙁

Hopefully this rice trick I found on google with do the trick and suck all the water out!

 

QUESTION OF THE EVENING:  What was the dumbest thing you did today?

P.S. to respond to this question click the little blue button that says “Leave a comment” … look right below this line… just a little further… You can do it! 😉

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Veggies–It’s what’s for dinner.

Earlier in the week, I came across a recipe for Grilled Black Bean and Rice Stuffed Peppers and decided to try them out for dinner tonight.  I omitted the oil and used brown rice, but otherwise followed the recipe and seasoned to taste.     

My pepper:     

Pepper with all the stuffings

 

 I went with a yellow pepper instead of green.  I’ve always thought that green peppers get this weird toxic taste about them when they are cooked.  I love raw green peppers but can’t stand em cooked.  Odd huh?     

All the veggies into the oven

 

Final Product!

 

 You would think the best part of these peppers would be the pepper itself — but you’d be wrong!  It’s the cilantro and lime combo!  I forgot how much I L-O-V-E that combination (could be because it SCREAMS chipotle).  All I needed was a big dollop of gauc on top.  Mmmm.     

Overall – two thumbs up on the peppers.  Next time I think I’ll make some sort of salsa or guac to go along side it.     

Stats on my pepper:  296 Calories, 62 Carbs, 3 Fat, 11 Protein, 11 Fiber  (that’s a lot of carbs… wonder if they make low-carb beans and rice?)     

First attempt at roasting veggies went ok (emphasis on ok).  I think I actually overroasted them, but despite that fact they were still super tasty.  I’ll have to play around with my roasting methods!

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