Spicy Stir Fry

You'll see in my pictures of the dish that I don't have a very high ratio of rice to veggies.  I used a serving of rice for one but ended up making enough stir fry for my parents as well.  I'm not writing in amounts of the vegetables because in a stir fry you don't need to be exact--put as much as you want.

I love egg in my stir fry but you can easily leave it out to make this vegan and still get plenty of protein from the peanuts.

Spicy Stir Fry
Prep Time: 3 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
Minute rice
Cooking oil
Garlic
Fresh ginger
Baby corn (canned or frozen)
Water chestnuts (canned)
Bamboo shoots (canned)
Sugar-snap peas (frozen)
Egg (optional)
Peanuts
Soy sauce
Tabasco sauce

1. Cook rice according to directions on package.
2. In a wok or large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat.
3. Mince garlic and ginger.  Saute in oil until garlic becomes translucent.
4. Add frozen vegetables and several shakes of soy sauce.  Let simmer until thawed.
5. Add canned vegetables and more soy sauce.  Let simmer a couple minutes.
6. Add rice, Tabasco, and more soy sauce.
7. Clear a space near the center of the pan for the egg.  Allow to scramble.
8. Add peanuts and serve.

Pasta Primavera

After a VERY long hiatus I am back and hope to start posting on here regularly again.

I made one of my favorite summertime dinners tonight: pasta primavera.  It doesn't require standing over the stove (like stir fry or gumbo) and is a good cold dish when I'm not in the mood for a salad.  Plus, it's very versatile and good when you need to toss together whatever veggies are in the fridge before they get old.

Pasta Primavera
Cook time: about 12 minutes (depends on the type of pasta you use)

Ingredients:
Whole what noodles
Vegetables (I used artichoke hearts, olives, and tomatoes, but some of my other favorite include broccoli, zucchini, green onions, and spinach.)
Garlic powder (1/4 tsp)
Olive oil (1/2 tbsp)
Cheese or nuts for protein (I used parmesan tonight, but pine nuts or pecans make good vegan substitutes.)
Salt
Pepper


1. Cook noodles according to package instructions.
2. While noodles are cooking, chop up any vegetables that need to be sliced.
3. Drain noodles.
4. Add all ingredients in a bowl and stir.

Potato, Broccoli, and Veggie Patty Saute

This recipe is pretty versatile.  You can use a different type of frozen vegetable and any type of veggie patty will do.  Sometimes I use black bean patties, sometimes Boca burgers.  I went with a Garden burger today.  You can also add things like tomatoes, avocado, or cheese at the end.  All you have to keep in mind is you have to put the ingredients in AT THE RIGHT TIME or you'll end up with uncooked potatoes, burnt garlic, or something else that might make it inedible.  And use a bigger skillet than I did.  Seriously, what was I thinking?


Potato, Broccoli, and Veggie Patty Saute
Prep time: As long as it takes to cut up a potato
Cook time: 20-30 mins

Ingredients:
Potato
Veggie Patty
Frozen Broccoli (handful)
Oil (1 tbsp)
Salt & Pepper

Garlic (1 or 2 cloves), optional
Onions, chopped (1/4 cup), optional

1. Get a large skillet--things will cook more quickly and evenly if everything lies flat--and start warming about a tablespoon of oil.
2. Cut a potato into home fry size slices (about 1/2" cubes).  Put it in the oil and cook until the potato starts to look a little translucent.  (Probably 15 minutes or so.  I forgot to time it.)  If you are adding onions and garlic go ahead and chop them up.
3. Make space for the veggie patty in the skillet.  Follow the cooking instructions for the patty.  If you are adding onions, add them now.
4. When everything is almost cooked, cut up the veggie patty with the spatula, then add frozen broccoli (and garlic).  Put the lid on it and cook until the broccoli has had a chance to thaw and heat up.  Add salt and pepper.

Tip:
-Potatoes are like the anti-salt.  Salt them once or twice while frying them up to make sure they get salted more than the other ingredients.

Vegetable Satay

One-bowl lunch for 4 people (or 2 or 3 hungry people).

Vegetable Satay
Prep time (while boiling rice): 15 min
Cook time: 7 mins

Ingredients:
Minute rice (4 servings)
Frozen vegetables (4 cups)
Soy sauce (a lot)
Peanuts (optional)

Sauce:
Peanut butter (3 tbsp)
Lemon juice (1 tbsp/ 1/2 lemon)
Garlic powder (1 tbsp)
Dried chopped onion (1/2 tbsp)
Ginger, powdered (1/2 tsp)

1. Start boiling water for rice.
2. While rice is cooking, combine all the sauce ingredients in a bowl.  Add about 5 tbsp of soy sauce--enough to give it a consistency like brownie batter.
3. Put the frozen vegetables in a skillet and start them warming. Once they've mostly thawed add satay sauce and any more soy sauce needed to get it liquid enough to coat the veggies.  Keep cooking until everything is hot.
4. Scoop some rice into a bowl, put some veggies on top and add peanuts if you desire.

Tips:
-Put a lid on the pot when you boil water.  It saves time and a little bit of electricity/ gas (depending on what your stove runs on) because it keeps the heat in the pot.
-Leftover satay sauce is pretty yummy on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, especially with really sweet jelly.

Watermelon Gazpacho

We have a huge watermelon in the fridge so I decided to make something with watermelon today.  I made up a recipe instead of looking for one and made the mistake of putting in 2 cloves of garlic.  It had a huge kick, even for me, so I changed the recipe to one clove.  Also note that this recipe requires a blender.


Watermelon Gazpacho
Prep Time: 15-20 min
Cooking Time: 0 min

Ingredients:
Garlic (1 clove/ 1/2 tsp powdered)
Celery (1 stalk)
Sweet onions (3/4 cup chopped)
Cilantro (3 or 4 sprigs), optional
Lime juice (1/2 lime/ 1 tbsp)
Watermelon, seedless
Salt

1. Chop up the garlic, celery, onions, and cilantro.  Don't worry about getting them into even pieces; they're going to get ground up in the blender, but it goes a lot more smoothly if the pieces are smaller.  Run the blender on low to chop up the pieces some more.
2. Cut the watermelon up and toss it in the blender with the lime juice and a sprinkle or two of salt.  Blend until it's mostly liquid.

Tips:
-I know I don't have an amount written for the watermelon.  The one I used was about 8" in diameter and I cut 3 slices about 1" thick.  I suggest putting it in a little at a time until it's as watermelon-y as you want.

-The reason you put the watermelon in after the other ingredients is that watermelon is much softer so it takes much less time to blend.  Putting it in after everything else is mostly chopped leaves you a little bit of texture.
-I put mine in the fridge for an hour or so after making it to chill it, but you don't have to.
-Types of onions: The grocery store labels some onions as "sweet yellow".  Look for Vidalia or 10/15 on the sticker if there isn't a sign.

Lower-Latitude Noodles (and a quick intro)

A quick intro: My name is Sarah, I grew up in Austin, and I generally like my food spicy.  The ingredients I always have in my cabinets are garlic (fresh and powdered), red pepper flakes, cayenne, limes, cilantro, serrano peppers, comino (cumin), and olive oil.  I don't measure or time stuff very carefully when I cook and I'm pretty sure I'd have died from salmonella by this point if I cooked meat.  I hate doing dishes so I do one pot meals whenever possible.  In other words, if you're lazy, cheap, and have better things to do than spend an entire afternoon prepping a meal but don't like eating out of a can you're gonna like my blog, even if you're an omnivore.

I'll start with a really simple recipe for my first post.
I made this up when my fridge was running a little empty since all this stuff's in my kitchen all the time.  I call it Lower-Latitude Noodles because all the seasonings are stuff I keep on hand for Mexican food but the rice noodles and peanuts make it kind of Asian.

Prep time: 1 min
Cooking time: about 5 mins

Ingredients:
Rice noodles (a bowlful of cooked noodles)
Chili Powder (1/2 tbsp)
Garlic powder (2 tsp)
Cilantro (3 or 4 sprigs)
Lime juice (1 tbsp/ half a lime)
Peanuts (handful)

1. Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet.
2. Chop up the cilantro.  Add it, the chilli powder, garlic, lime juice, and peanuts to the noodles.  Stir and eat.

Tips:
NEVER use dried cilantro; it tastes like nothing.  Fresh cilantro is cheap and spending 30 seconds to chop it is well worth the time.
Juicing a lime: Roll it on its side with a little bit of pressure to soften it and make it easier to juice.  Stick a fork in it and rotate to break up the insides.  It's a lot faster and gets more juice out than just squeezing with your hand.