What I'm obsessed with at the moment? Stir-fry. I've been hooked on it for a few months.. Even when I've fallen off Atkins and not done as well, this was still something i ate almost every single day for lunch. Full of whatever you want to put in it, so you can make it as healthy (or unhealthy) as you wish... although, this is a difficult meal to make unhealthy.. you just have to be careful with whatever sauces you use! I personally love teriyaki sauce, but I have to be really careful with how much I use because depending on the brand, one to two table spoons can have 2-3 carbs and it's easy to go overboard with sauces accidentally... I usually just use one tablespoon for a bit of flavor, because I like it but I don't like it overpowering everything else that I'm putting into it.
It's an easy dish to make, and there are hundreds of ways to make it and it's hard to mess up, however you do it... but i figured i'd show you guys how I make mine!
I start off with plenty of chopped vegetables. They make up the bulk of the meal. Use whatever you want. There are bags of frozen vegetables at the grocery store that are already pre-cut for stir fry which I have used in the past as well.. They usually consist of what I have in the picture. I just typically choose fresh vegetables because they cook a bit quicker and honestly I enjoy cutting them up. Haha. I'll cut a bunch up in bulk and store in a drawer in our fridge for my brothers and I to snack on all week, for me to make stir fry out of, or whatever else we come up with. The trick here though is to make sure things are relatively the same size.. or, that groups of things are relatively the same size (you'll see what I mean in a bit.. some things take longer to cook than others, regardless of the size, etc...)
As previously stated, you can put whatever you want in stir fry. There are numerous times I've left it at just vegetables... however I usually try to add a protein in there and my protein of choice is, has, and always will probably be chicken. It's just fast and easy to cook, easily accessible, easy to season, etc... Sometimes I have leftover pre-cooked chicken already in the fridge from a meal earlier in the week, or sometimes i'll pre-cook chicken in bulk as well and keep it in the fridge for lunches throughout the week and I"ll just toss it in the pan to warm it up after the vegetables are almost done cooking.... but a lot of the time I Just have a bag of frozen chicken breasts/tenderloins/cutlets/etc... in the freezer that I use. I just take out one piece and put it in the microwave on defrost for a few minutes... Cut it up and season it and set it aside (because usually fresh carrots take longer to soften up than the amount of time it takes the chicken to cook.)
So now you have all of your vegetables, cut up chicken, oil for the pan (I usually use vegetable or extra virgin olive oil.. I've been experimenting with coconut and canola oil, but I'm not sold on any others at least for stir fry just yet.) I usually sprinkle some salt and pepper (and by some I mean a LOT of pepper... black pepper and I are best friends.) over the vegetables and chicken before hand. Then your set! Time to start cooking. Put a tablespoon or so of oil in a pan of your choice (I've been known to use a giant pot when I couldn't find a pan large enough to make enough for my whole family... no judgment here. use whatever you can find that will fit all of your ingredients.) Then get cooking!
I always start with carrots because for some reason fresh carrots take even longer than frozen carrots to cook. Sometimes i even add a tablespoon of water or so to the pan and put a lid on to steam them a little bit, to try and get them cooked quicker. After a couple minutes, I add in onion and cauliflower because at least for me, cauliflower takes longer to soften up than broccoli and chicken and i like onions to get a bit caramelized.. if you don't like that, then just toss them in later because they do soften up relatively quick. After a few minutes with the lid on, I toss in the peppers, broccoli, and chicken. I add my tablespoon or two of teriyaki sauce, a little more black pepper, and stir it up... then leave the lid on for a few minutes, occasionally lifting it up to stir it until everything is cooked through and softened up some, but still has a bit of a crunch to it.
which leaves you with...
This!
I consciously make more than I know my stomach can hold because I have three little brothers, and one parent (depending on which house I'm at) that always like to steal bites of my food which doesn't always leave me with very much. ;) But I don't think that looks too bad! (Spoiler: it was actually really good. Although I wish I had added more broccoli. That's my favorite bit.)
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What do you all put in your stir-fry? Have you ever made it? Do you like it? What are your go-to quick meals for lunch or dinner? Let me know! Comment or let me know on Facebook!
Also! Random, but I have a question for anyone who reads this blog.. and please answer it, because I need some input! --- Videos? Yes or no? If I made youtube videos talking about things I blog about, or cooking things I reference in blog posts... (Have I told you all about the sugar free low carb mini lemon cheesecakes I made the other day? No? Because those might be in my next food-related post... They were so good!) Would anyone be interested? Do you think there's a place for that? Let me know!
I hope you all are having an amazing day and I'll be back soon! Off to make some stir fry for lunch now... :P
-Ashley<3
