Food Lovin' Friday- Vegetarian Stir Fry

Hi! Happy Weekend!  Two things:  1)This week really flew by, didn't it?  (Not that I'm sad about that.  I hope the next 8 go by equally as quickly) and 2) I kinda suck at blogging.  I mean, I love it and all, but I get so sidetracked during the course of any given day and by the time I'm about to get in the shower and crawl into pjs I realize that, "yikes! I totally forgot to post today!" So for that I am sorry.  I'll try to do better.

So anywho (I really hate that fake word.  I hereby promise to never use it again), let's kick the weekend off with another fantastic recipe.  I really love that a bunch of people both here and on Pinterest seemed to like my Farmer's Market Pasta, so I will start sharing some other random creations more regularly.   In fact, I think I'll start doing it on Fridays.  Yes.  From here on out, tune in on Fridays for a healthy dinner you can easily recreate for yourself or your family.  Happy Birthday to  Food Lovin' Fridays!!! 

This week, I made a pretty amazing stir-fry.  And here it is in 5 pictures or less.  It's SOOOO easy.  I mean, seriously easy.  Make it this weekend for yourself.  And then share this post with everyone you know so they can enjoy some healthy deliciousness as well. 

Oooohhh... stir-fried non-chicken and vegetables. 
Lookin' good!

If you're not in love with soy "chick'n", you can use
steak or chicken. I for one, LOVED this though.

Here's the steak version for the Hubs. This
picture isn't blurry.  It's just hot and steamy.

This is the sauce I used. Aww, you don't have
a Wegmans near you?  I'm sorry.  You can
use another kind. I'm sure it'll still be good.

For those of you who enjoy a list of ingredients instead of a group of random pictures, this is what went in to my stir-fry:

Chopped up mixed vegetables (I used a package of frozen stir-fry veggies: broccoli, water chestnuts, baby corn and carrots)

some sort of protein (lean steak, tofu, chicken...)

Stir-Fry sauce

White Rice or Lo-Mein noodles

It's super easy:  Just heat a little bit of oil in a large skillet and heat everything up.  Make sure you stir it frequently.  Add the sauce and reduce the heat.  Serve over rice or noodles immediately. 

Question: What do you like to put in your stir-fry?

Have a healthy day,

J 

Organic Bandwagon

One of my friends on Facebook just posted a video, which in his opinion, pretty much sums up why he is a vegetarian. Why in the world I thought to watch it is beyond me.  I will forever be scarred.  But, as I always say, now I know.  Ughhh... I wish I didn't....

This video was put out by PETA, which always highlights extreme situations, but to think that these sorts of things are happening to any animals anywhere is really disturbing. And I'm not even an animal lover! But how any decent human being can watch a video like that and then bite excitedly into a nice piece of steak is beyond me. 

Ok, I'll stop.  This is in no way my plea to get you to become a vegetarian.  Meat can provide our bodies with lots of protein and iron.  All I'm asking you to do is become more aware.  Because after all, once we learn about it, we can make more informed decisions, right?

The *very little* research I've done has pointed out tons of reasons why organic meat and dairy is the way to go.  Here, in random order, are the top 5 reasons why you should consider spending the extra cash on these things next time you are in the grocery store:

1. Organic animals are given access to grass pastures with room to walk around.  This may sound like a no-brainer, but is unfortunately not the case on many large-scale farms (Awww, poor cows...)

2. Organic animals are never injected with artificial growth hormones (Oh, so you mean the chickens can actually stand up? And my children won't go through puberty at the age of 7?  Cool!)

3. These animals are not treated with antibiotics.  (So next time your kid gets an ear infection, the prescribed medication will actually work!!!  Hooray for not building up an unnecessary tolerance to antibiotics!)

4. The meat from grass-fed animals is lower in fat and bad cholesterol than the meat from factory farm animals.  (A low-fat burger? Yum!)

5. Organic farming takes care of the earth.  No harsh chemicals getting poured on the plants means no harsh chemicals seeping in to the soil, or getting blasted in to the air we breathe, or ultimately ending up in the water we need to drink. 

So here's my last plea: Find out where your food is coming from!  Pay attention to what you are putting in your body!  Read labels!  Educate yourself! Trust me, meal time will be a thousand times more enjoyable for you if do.

Have a healthy day,

J

PS- The stuff I wrote about is pretty easily accessible with a quick Google search, but in case you want to see it firsthand, here are some of the sites I've looked at:

 http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/
http://www.stonyfield.com/why-organic/humane-animal-treatment
http://www.novativemedia.com/green-articles/organic-milk.php
http://eatwild.com

Farmer's Market Pasta

You guys- I made the BEST dinner ever over the weekend. It was fresh and healthy, and I didn't even follow a recipe!  So so so good!!  (And I'm totally getting hungry right now just thinking about it. Not kidding.)

Anyway, it has been so beautiful around here lately that I decided to pack the boys up on Saturday morning and head to our big public market to see what we could find.  The highlight of their time there was watching a live chicken go crazy as a woman pulled it out of its cage by the feet.  If you see my children any time soon, please tell them the lady was taking it home in the box, cutting the duct tape off the feet, and keeping it as a pet.  Now... on to the best VEGETARIAN meal I've ever made...

Among some other culinary treasures, I came home with asparagus, onions and broccoli. The thing about the Public Market is that while the food is fresh and cheap, it also needs to be eaten within approximately 5 minutes because it's not contaminated with all of those crazy pesticides that you'll find on the stuff at the grocery store.  So I needed to come up with a plan, stat. This is what happened:

Oh yeah, I added some carrots, too.  Are you salivating yet?

And then this:

Yep, just threw some cooked spaghetti right in there. Cuz, you know, why wouldn't I?



Voila!!

You too can recreate this meal of fresh deliciousness.  Here's the recipe:

Farmer's Market Pasta

Olive Oil

Garlic

A sliced onion

Some sliced carrots

A bunch of asparagus (cut each stalk in half)

Some broccoli (cut in to large bite-sized pieces

cooked spaghetti (or other kind of macaroni)

A couple pats of butter (optional)

parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

1. Cook the asparagus and broccoli until they are tender-crisp.  (Put them in boiling water for about 2 minutes, then quickly place them in ice water to halt the cooking process)

2. Heat the olive oil and garlic, add the carrots first since they take longest to cook

3. Add the onion, broccoli, and asparagus. Coat all vegetables with the oil and garlic.  Saute until heated through, yet still a little crisp.

4. Stir in the spaghetti, add the butter if you'd like for a little flavor

5. Coat the vegetables and pasta with a generous coating of parmesan cheese and add a little salt and pepper

6. Serve immediately. You will probably want to eat this right out of the pan because it will look and smell so good.  Try to make it in to a bowl.  Because, you know, you're classy.

Let me know what you think of this dish.  I loved it so much that I made it again last night. This time I omitted the butter, used farfalle instead of spaghetti, and only added asparagus and broccoli.  It was still amazing.

Hi! I just got home from the gym, and now I'm about to stuff my face!





Have a healthy day,

J

Sacrifice

Hi! How's your day going? How's your week going? I just got home from a really fun playdate with my kids. One of the boys was turning 5, so we were celebrating. I met his mom when I was interviewing babysitters before my oldest could even walk, (almost 5 years ago!) We used to talk about baby foods and potty training, and now we're talking about choosing the perfect kindergarten. It's so cliche, but so incredibly true: this really does go by so fast...

Anyway, today is a pretty big religious day for all of us Catholics.  I use that term totally loosely, by the way.  My Church is the most liberal "Catholic" church ever.  (Haha, told ya I love a good oxymoron!) So without getting all churchy on you, I'll just sum it up- there are officially 40 days until Easter.  So for the next 40 days, I will be sacrificing something.  And that something should be something meaningful.  Something that will be replaced with another, better alternative. 

I have chosen to give up meat. 

Yep, that's right, for the next 40 days, (maybe longer depending on how it goes), I will be a vegetarian. 
I'm hoping that this decision, along with this blog, will be exactly what my body needs.  That my health will be the reward.  You see, I'm carrying around too much weight.  I'm not totally FAT, but I definitely have extra meat on my bones.  And it's spilling over more than just the waistband on my jeans.  My extra weight is holding me back from being the totally happy person that my family deserves, and that I desire to be. 

So starting today, no meat.  Period.  I can totally do this. (I'm even looking forward to trying out some of those delicious looking recipes that are all over Pinterest.)

What are you giving up (for Lent or just because)? 

Have a healthy day,

J