Mmmmm Stir Fry!

Back in not so reformed fattie days, I LOVED to cook. And I was very willy nilly about what I would cook. If I found a recipe for it and it sounded good, I cooked it. I think I developed this love of cooking right around the time hubs and I moved into our house, about 5 years ago. Until very recently, I wasn't giving much thought to what I was cooking. I know that pretty much anything you cook at home is going to be healthier than eating out, but there were still many improvements I found I could make. We used to eat a lot of red meat, processed white flour, refined sugar and starchy sides. Vegetables were there as accompaniments, not as a main part of the meal. Now that the GI Diet has taught me that half of my meal should be fruits and veggies, the focus on meat and starch has diminished tremendously. I no longer cook potatoes with each meal.

Tonight I knew I wanted to make something with those chicken boobs from last night, and got inspiration from www.cleaneatingonline.com. This is a FANTASTIC resource. I have found that clean eating, which is a new phenomenon to me, is very similar to the food plan I am working hard to follow. I decided a stir fry was in order, as I had stocked up on veggies last night at Hy Vee and had some little bitty bell peppers to use up as well. So, here's my chicken stir fry recipe. It rivals anything I have had at a Chinese food restaurant , with nothing fried and no msg. Enjoy!

Chicken Stir Fry with Brown Rice

1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts cubed

2 T soy sauce

2 T olive oil

5 shakes hot sauce

2 tsp. garlic powder (you could also use fresh garlic minced, I just ran out of time to mince it all up)

1 tsp ground ginger (ditto on the fresh ginger, again I ran out of time)

1 head fresh broccoli florets

3 whole carrots cut into small pieces

8-10 mini bell peppers or 2 large bell peppers, any color, cut into thin strips

4 green onions finely diced

3 cloves garlic, finely minced (or garlic powder)

1 small can water chestnuts, drained

1 T soy sauce

5 dashes hot sauce

2 or 3 shakes sesame oil

1 cup brown rice (not instant)

2 1/2 cups water

Place chicken breast cubed and next 5 ingredients in a large ziploc bag and marinate for at least an hour.

Place water and rice in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, covered, for about 30-40 minutes.

While rice is cooking, chop up broccoli, carrots, peppers, green onions and garlic. Heat a large sautee pan or a wok on medium heat. Add in all the chopped vegetables and the garlic, along with about 1/4 cup of water. Place lid on pan and allow the veggies to steam to desired consistency. Don't let the get too mushy or you will lose some of the nutrients in them. When the veggies are almost done to your liking, add in the chicken pieces and the marinade from the bag, and the water chestnuts. Allow the chicken to cook with the vegetables, and the marinade to come to a boil and boil for at least 5-10 minutes. When almost done, add in the additional soy sauce, hot sauce and sesame oil to create more sauce. Serve hot over brown rice.

I pretty made up this recipe on my own, but I did take some hints (mostly for the marinade) from www.cleaneatingonline.com and more specifically the chicken and rice recipe. Enjoy!

Grocery Store...My Love!

I used to look SO forward to Wednesdays because that's the day my new Hy Vee (that's my local grocery store) ad came out. And god bless those people over at the Hy Vee, they put the thing online so I can peruse it at my leisure when I'm supposed to be doing boring things like filing bankruptcy cases and poring over tax returns. I would get all giddy with my lined legal pad and my pen and make a whole long list of all the yummy things I was going to buy on sale at the Hy Vee that week. Seriously, yes, I was a dork (well I still am, but just not in this fashion anymore).

So now that I have started this new "eating plan" (it's not a diet it's a lifestyle change dammit!), I don't so much look forward to the Hy Vee ad anymore. One, because most of the stuff I can and do buy for my house now isn't listed in there, and two because everything I WANT to buy for my house but can't is in there! Cake mixes, ice cream, butter, steak, bakery fresh bread, cupcakes, cookies, pizza, WINE, juice, anything Pillsbury that comes in a tube, and on and on and on. So, now on Wednesday I sheepishly log onto the Hy Vee's website and browse the health mart ad, and that's it. It's sad, I know. BUT IT'S WORTH IT! (I think)

So last night we ventured over to Sam's Club (blech, ew, evil Wal Mart!) because I found out at work last week that apparently I am entitled to a card there through my company. Some perk right? Screw life insurance or dental insurance, you can march your happy ass over to the Sam's Club. The hubs and I are loyal loyal loyal Costco peeps. We love that place. We plan our Sunday around going there. However, the closest one to us is about 30 minutes away in midtown. And the closest Sam's Club is like 3 minutes down the street. So while we will remain very loyal Costcoers, we will probably take advantage of the free Sam's Club card once in awhile. Oh, and they have a fantabulous booze department there. Yep. Mmmmmm. Booze............................. Sorry, got sidetracked.

Anyway, so at the Sam's Club last night I was very impressed to find boneless skinless chicken breast for $1.97 per pound. That's really cheap! The lowest Hy Vee ever goes is like $1.99, and Costco is always close to $3.00 per pound. So I scooped up a package. Of course, you can't just buy a pound or two you have to buy like 317 pounds or something. Actually, I think the package I got was about 6 lbs. So off home I go with my chicken boobs and my pears and my V's Spaghetti Sauce (yes I checked the label first, no high fructose shit). Oh, and then we stopped by the Hy Vee also b/c we did need some stuff there.

And I must say, grocery shopping now is MUCH easier. I get to avoid almost all of the "inner aisles". I go mostly for produce, meat, dairy, some frozen stuff and just a few things on the inner aisles, last night it was spices, rice and water chestnuts. I also find myself going grocery shopping around once a week instead of the 2 week huge load up trips I used to do. I am going once per week now because I am using a lot more fresh produce and fish that doesn't stay good forever or freeze well. We do buy a lot of produce at Costco, but things that we need small amounts of we get at the grocery store. I also buy some meat at Costco, but the majority at the grocery store. We don't yet have a deep freeze, so finding space for all that meat you get at Costco is kind of difficult. And while I may be spending more money now than I was when I was buying a lot of processed stuff that I thought was healthy, I feel SO much better, and am so much happier knowing I am truly cooking a healthy yummy dinner for my family.