Stir Fry Rice - my Go To Meal

I'm sure most people have a "go-to" meal. If you read around the blog-o-sphere, you can see it. The meal that shows up more frequently than others. Something quick and easy to put on the table.

For me, this is that meal.

I generally get home from work at 5:05-5:10 pm most days. Dinner is at 6:15 or 6:30 pm (shortly after my husband gets home). That gives me an hour. Now, it's not like I have a solid hour. I like to spend time hanging out with my son, talking about his day, coloring, and playing (usually while drinking a little wine).

That's why this meal is perfect. Get home, carry in all the "stuff" (my bag, lunch bag, his stuff). Throw the rice/quinoa mixture in the rice cooker (it takes about an hour).

Then, hang out until 15 mins before dinner.

I know that I am a member of a CSA. The CSA does not provide quite enough veggies for the family for the week. I often shop at the farmer's market or the local produce stand to round out the week. But I also have frozen and canned veggies on hand too. Costco's Kirkland brand of stir-fry vegetables is pretty good.

Here's what I've learned about Costco - different locations carry different items. For every time I've read someone wax poetical about the great frozen broccoli - I realize that mine doesn't carry it. I've learned to work around that, and usually have two bags of frozen SOMETHING in my freezer at any given time.

It takes all of 5-6 minutes to stir-fry these vegetables from frozen. During that time, I can whip up a little sauce (soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar) and grate some garlic/ginger. If I am feeling ambitious, I may press and saute tofu or fry some eggs. If I have leftover meat (which is rare), I will mix that in. Most of the time, I toss in chopped cashews or steamed edamame for extra protein.

Last night I took what was leftover from Thursday's stir-fry, and mixed the veggies and rice mixture with more stir-fried veggies. I added some oranges from our tree to the sauce and diced in a mango from the discount rack (35 cents!) It was very delicious, and took all of about 15 minutes. Today, there's almost enough for me to eat for lunch, so I'll toss in some chickpeas.

What is your "go to" meal?

Creamy Curried Cashew Greens and Chips

sorry for the fuzzy photo!

No, I'm not being "British", I mean actual chips.

You see, yesterday, we had a company meeting. They used to be about every 3 weeks, update of how things are going. They used to be at lunch time, but boy, that gets expensive. Since they moved them to the afternoon, I never go. Mostly because, I can't. I'm gone by then to pick up my kid from school. But yesterday was a school holiday and kid and hubby were home.

The snacks for these things are water, chips, and cookies. Now, I'm not a huge junk food fan normally. I don't mind salty snacks that are "natural". You know, corn, oil, salt. Or potatoes, oil, salt. But it's not something I like to keep around the house. However, I'm also not going to turn down free food.

As I grabbed a bag of baked BBQ Lays (I wouldn't recommend them...the Kettle BBQ chips I had for lunch were much better...uh...I have PMS, so sue me), my coworker Ed asked me "you going to blog about that?" I said "no, I didn't make it". You see, now there are 4 or 5 people who know about my blog at work, not just 2. So, I get some razzing now and then, but who cares really. It just means I have to think about what I post. :)

There were leftovers, so I grabbed some more for the road (as did everyone else). So Ed, this is for you.

Back to the greens...I have a new coworker (someone I've known for awhile), who is a member of a different CSA. I mentioned that I LOVE kale, and he's not really into it. Always composts it. So, I came in to work on Friday and found 1/2 dozen eggs (from different friend), avocado (from boss), and kale and a couple of clementines. Wow, it's awesome to be me.

In my attempt to work my way through my cookbooks, I found this recipe in Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair. I've had this cookbook forever, but have only made a few things. I've adjusted the recipe here, mostly because I didn't have the "curry paste" made, and I didn't want to make a couple of cups of it. So, I winged it and of course added garlic. I didn't measure much either so...these spices are approximate. This was really really delicious.

Creamy Curried Cashew Greens adapted from Feeding the Whole Family
canola oil: 0.06
olive oil: 0.11
2 large bunches greens - I used one kale, one collard: 2.00
1/2 to 2/3 c. cashews: 1.25
2 Tbsp soy sauce: 0.25
1/2 onion, diced: 0.20
3 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole: 0.15
2 Tbsp grated fresh ginger: 0.15

1.5 tsp cumin seeds: 0.10
4 whole cloves: 0.02
5-6 black peppercorns: 0.01
1/4 tsp dried mustard: 0.02
1/8 tsp allspice: 0.02
pinch cardamom: 0.01
1/2 tsp cinnamon: 0.05
1.5 tsp turmeric: 0.05
1.5 tsp coriander: 0.10

Total: $4.45 for about 5 generous servings (2/3 to 3/4 cup?), or $0.89 per serving

Grind the spices up in a coffee or spice grinder.

Wash the greens. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the greens, boil for about 8-9 minutes, depending on the type of green. Both kale and collards are pretty hardy. Drain in a colander, run a little cold water on them, and let them cool until you can handle. A metal colander works better for this, better heat transfer. But you can always take the top handful, squeeze dry, then run a little cold water on the lower hot stuff. In any event, squeeze dry and chop.

Meanwhile, cook the onion and garlic in 1 Tbsp canola oil until soft. Add the spices to let them "bloom" (heard that on Aarti Party). Here I added a little olive oil because it was too dry. Let cool a little bit.

In a blender, mix soy sauce, cashews, onion mixture. At this point, I had to add a little water to get it creamy.

Heat a little more oil in a frying pan (this step not totally necessary. You could do it in a pot without oil, but I like the crunchyness). Put in the greens and use your spatula to break up into small pieces. Because when you cook, squeeze dry and chop greens, you get clumps. I don't like clumps. Then add the cashew sauce and mix well to heat through and get that crunchyness. While you do this, wish you were either taller or stronger so that your right arm didn't get so tired from the stirring.

Serve.

Note, the only saltiness in here is from the soy sauce (I used no-salt cashews), and it was plenty flavorful.

We also made pizza. Hubby did the crust, worried that it didn't look right, looks the same as mine does. It was good.

Pasta with Asparagus and Goat Cheese

This recipe is an adaptation of a recipe in Martha Stewart's Fresh Food Fast. I have to say, it is really fast.

I adjusted the amount of asparagus (original recipe called for 2 lbs), and butter (because...this is what I do. Unless I'm making brownies or biscuits, I cut down the butter).

Pasta with Asparagus and Goat Cheese
1 bunch asparagus (approx 1 lb): 1.97 (on sale!)
3/4 lb fusilli: 0.75
5 oz goat cheese: 2.49
2 T butter, divided: 0.13
salt and pepper to taste

Total: $5.16 for 6 servings (1.25 cups each). $0.86 per serving.

Remove woody ends from asparagus. Preheat oven to 425F. Toss asparagus with salt and pepper, and add 1 Tbsp butter on top. Roast 12 minutes in a rimmed cookie sheet, stirring at 4 min and 8 min. Remove from oven and cut into 1.5 inch pieces.

Cook pasta according to package directions. Save 1 cup cooking water before you drain the pasta. After draining pasta, put it back in the pot.

Place 1 Tbsp butter and all the goat cheese in a bowl. Add 2/3 to 3/4 cup pasta cooking water and stir until well blended. Add asparagus and sauce to the pasta. Salt and pepper to taste.

Wow, for something that only took 30 min, this was surprisingly good. And plenty of time to toss a salad.

Cookbooks

I have a cookbook problem. I have a lot of them. And I love reading new ones. So when I read a review of a good cookbook, I will often put it on my Amazon wish list, as a reminder to look for it, or check it out from the library, or something.

But then Christmas comes along, and between my family and my husband's, I find myself with 7 new cookbooks for christmas. Which is overwhelming, to say the least. Yikes. I put them all on the shelf because I just went a little nuts.

But this year, I have a goal. I've decided I want to try and make at least one recipe from each cookbook this year. Now, I'm not going to promise to cook the recipes exactly as written. that's just crazy talk. And I'm totally taking credit if my spouse makes something.

Thus far, here's how I've done:
Better Homes and Gardens: buttermilk pancakes
Best 30 minute recipe: posole
Vegan With a Vengeance: falafel
Perfect Vegatables: Sauteed chard with bacon and onion
Fresh Food Fast (Martha Stewart): Pasta with asparagus and goat cheese

Turnip and Potato Gratin

See here.

Except, no collards. And half of the potatoes were substituted with turnips. Finally, a good turnip recipe! All I have to do is bury them in cheese. :)

These were quite delicious.

I'd like to tell you more about them, but...kinda busy. Go Steelers!

Posole

So, this recipe comes from "The Best 30 Minute Recipe" from Cook's Illustrated. You see, I decided to make posole. I decided to make it because my son's school had it a month ago, and when I picked him up from school he talked about it for an hour. You see, my son loves soup. He will eat anything (almost) in a soup. This comes from when he was in childcare and his babysitter made homemade soup for lunch almost every day for the kids. Well, she probably made it 1-2x a week, and served leftovers.

In any event, he went on and on about the hominy "looks like corn, but isn't exactly like it, it's a lot bigger, and it's white, and ...." So I decided to make it for him. And today, our new computer died. So I couldn't surf for a recipe because I didn't feel like booting up the laptop. And really, I have 100 cookbooks. I wish I were exaggerating. I haven't counted. I started looking through cookbooks (turns out the Mexican cookbook didn't have a recipe). Found it.

Now, I didn't follow the recipe EXACTLY. Because I never do. Mostly, I subbed the last of the leftover turkey meat from the $56 Thanksgiving turkey instead of pork.

It was delicious!! Really really a keeper recipe.

Turkey posole
1 to 1.5 lbs leftover turkey: $5.00 (this was the free range turkey, I gotta be honest)
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes: 0.60
1 28 oz can hominy: 1.39
4 cups chicken broth: free/homemade
1 Tbsp canola oil: 0.03
2 Tbsp flour: 0.02
1 onion, diced: 0.30
1 tsp dried oregano: 0.05
1/2 Tbsp chili powder: 0.05
1/2 tsp salt: 0.01
6 cloves garlic, pressed: 0.30
salt and pepper to taste

garnish: shredded cabbage (0.05), sliced radishes (0.20), lime wedges(0.40), diced avocado (free)

Total: $8.40 for about 10 cups, or $0.84 per cup.

Heat the tomatoes, oregano, stock, and drained/rinsed hominy in a saucepan. This is necessary if, like me, you use homemade stock which is frozen in a big cube.

Saute the onion with 1/2 tsp salt and the chili powder in the oil until soft, about 10 min. Add garlic and saute 1 more minute.

Add flour and cook about 5 mins on low. Slowly add the stock and stir until well blended. Add the turkey. Cook slowly for at least 10 min, but I think I did 30. Add salt and pepper to taste, but oops, I think I forgot that step. Ah well, it was still delicious.

A Couple of Links, and I love Mark BIttman

Mark Bittman's Blog this week was pretty awesome. Say it, brother! Couldn't have said it better myself.

There were some interesting comments. liza from MA:

Great points, with which I couldn't agree more; however, I can't imagine how Americans can possibly eat well until they are working less hours. Eating well cannot happen in a country where most people are working and commuting so many hours: no matter how "simple" the meal is, a healthy one - unprocessed, fresh food - takes time, time to shop more often, perhaps drive further, requires more preparation - cannot be just thrown into the microwave, etc.
As long as we put up with an economic system where so many working hours are essential to survive, we will not be able to eat well or be healthy in any way, body, mind or spirit. There are a finite number of hours in the day, and the way Americans are living now, this does not leave time, especially for families with young children (and little money) to eat well, exercise, get enough sleep, take care of all the household chores and errands, etc.....never mind smelling the roses.

Well, from a personal standpoint, I still manage to cook healthy meals, but I also don't watch the US average of 5 hours of TV per day.

Silvie from CT:

Mr. Bittman's ideas are interesting but how can we expect the government to withdraw subsidies to industries that exist because of them? The risk to known, taxpaying corporate sectors, with seriously powerful lobbies is enormous. The payoff, while probable in terms of public heath and the environment, will be very difficult to quantify.
Certainly (as we saw with the 'Public Option' fiasco in the health debates), there is no one in congress or the Presidential Administration or at the state-government level with the courage to begin to examine these questions, never mind actually back the withdrawal of subsides.
I for one will take care in my choices of where my food dollars go, will continue to marvel at how much corn sugar (up to 50% of products) is in the average supermarket, but I will not hold my breath and wait for our farcical, utterly unprincipled political class to 'save us' from the food they enable.

Sad, but true Silvie.

On another topic: working moms are the source of all evil.

In the blogosphere:

Squawkfox did a great job of cooking a lot of meals with one chicken.

This blog shows the AMAZING weight loss journey of one woman. Simply amazing.

And Cook for Good has a great recipe for Savory Onion Muffins.