Stir-Fry Baby!!

What?!  Meatloaf Again??  I know how you feel!  But since my husband is from Mexico, it’s more like, What? Black beans and salsa again?  Meatloaf I miss, fried chicken I miss, Chili I miss.  It is difficult to have so many things that I remember loving as a child, that I don’t cook very often.  But I digress.

I don’t make the “American food” very often, JJ doesn’t care for it.  He’ll eat it, but he would prefer almost anything else.  I do make it sometimes, because that is my comfort food.  But we are both starting to feel burned out on what we have been eating.

I’ve heard of people having a “dinner Schedule.”  Wednesday is Taco Night!! Ole!!  I could never live like that.  I can see the appeal, never asking what’s for dinner?  Making a grocery list, (same one every week).  But I would be bored to tears!!  I love to eat (and it shows).  I love to try new foods, now more than ever.  I’ve even developed a love of Indian Food.  For the longest time, I couldn’t over come the fact that it looks like baby vomit.  Now, I don’t care!  It is delicious, and a nice change of pace.

So as you may know, I have 4 kids, and a full time job.  I have neither time, nor money to spare.  But I refuse to eat the blue box.  Yesterday, I made a wonderful discovery.  JJ had agreed, reluctantly to tuna fish sandwiches.  We both like tuna, but it is a common fail safe at our house. 

I have been thinking a lot lately about the vegetable intake of my children.  Does salsa count, not if they don’t eat it.  I remember growing up, sitting down at the table for dinner every night.  To a real meal, home cooked by my dad.  (Was it every night?  I doubt it, but often enough that I remember it as every night). How did my dad do it?  Were we eating at 6:30?  7? I don’t think so, but that’s the situation now.  (SITUATION!!) 

So I am at Kroger, and I think, lets try a stir fry!  Some chicken, veggies, noodles and sauce Yum!  And I was right!  I picked up some green onion, cilantro, and I was trying to think about what is in a stir-fry.  As I was putting the mushrooms into my cart, I saw it!  The reason I love Kroger. KROGER!!  They had pre-cut, fresh vegetables, stir fry mix.  It had bell pepper, red onion, broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, sugar peas.  Plenty enough for 2-3 people.  $3.40.  I grabbed two.  I kept the onion and cilantro.  Grabbed a package of fresh chicken, (on sale, what!? )  Headed over to the Asian isle, grabbed rice noodles ($4 for the box ARGH!), and some stir-fry sauce.  They had spicy Szechuan stir-fry sauce, but I was feeding the kiddos.  $4  OMG, Argh!!

Total bill, $23.40 (I also got a gallon of milk).

Got home, loved on the babies for a few minutes.  Put on a skillet with about 2 inches of water.  Put on a pot of water to boil, and a large skillet for the stir-fry.  Yeah, I have a wok.  It’s in the BASEMENT!!  Sliced up the chicken really thin, like you see at the restaurants.  Salt, and pepper, and in the hot oil.  Sizzle Sizzle, stir stir.  I dumped the veggies in the water skillet, just to cook them up a bit (I hate raw broccoli).  I boiled the rice noodles in the water for about 5 minutes.  I dumped the veggie in with the chicken, added the stir-fry sauce, let that go for a minute or two, then stirred in the noodles.  After I dished out the kids dinner, I added red pepper flakes.

It was GREAT!  So easy, so quick.  It was plenty for 4 adults to eat for dinner.   Next time, I will just buy linguini noodles, I didn’t see much of a difference in the rice noodles.  Needed ginger, and garlic. And I may throw a Thai chili in there to spice it up even more for my husband, and myself. 

I would also try to find a way to make it saucy, that was much lower in sodium.  Yikes, 24% per tablespoon in the stir-fry sauce.  Was it liquid salt?  (it didn’t taste salty though).  Happy stir-frying.