Super quick AND healthy!

So what have I been eating this week?  Plenty of vegetable and grains. Why is of interest to you? There are a couple quick cooking items I have used in this weeks meals that you might want to look for on your next trip to the store.  I love things that save on time and dish clean up.  I have two pre-packaged rice items to share that fit the bill!

Monday night I cooked Salmon the way the chef at Whole Foods prepared it (see Presentation is Everything post).  I did everything as he instructed and it was perfectly crisp on the outside, moist inside.  We had a pre-packaged Quinoa/Rice pack and veggies along side.  The hubbs and I both love this rice pack. It is much better for you than any of those "Uncle Ben's" packs because it has more whole grains.  I'm not sure if my husband knows I buy that brand because its healthier. Sometimes ignorance is bliss anyway.



I seasoned the Salmon with Blackening Seasoning and Pepper.  Makes a great crust!



Lunch?

This week I shut down my soup kitchen to make room for my make-shift hibachi grill (better known as my non-stick skillet).  After three weeks of soup I knew it was time to mix it up a bit or I would be sick of soup all together.  Stir fry to the rescue!  It's a great way to get in a ton of vegetables.  My veggies of choice are kale (yes, it's that versatile!), broccoli, mushrooms and onions. 

After cutting all the veggies into nice bite size pieces, stir fry in a non-stick pan with a tinsy-winsy drop of Canola oil.  Don't be afraid of higher heat when you are stir frying.  If you don't have heat at least medium-high, the veggies steam instead of becoming tender/crisp.  I used to make this mistake all the time until a Food Network show corrected my method.  Steamed is not the texture you are looking for in your stir fry. Keep the pan temp high and keep the veggies moving for the best stir fry! 





Kale cooks down to near nothing, like Spinach.  This looks like I chopped up enough for an army, but you can see in the pan below it wilts down.

 For a little starch and grain to go along with my stir fry I found a gem of a rice packet over in the Organic section.  This Sticky Brown Rice pack is amazing.  Most importantly for our health, it has an impressively short ingredients list and everything on it a 3rd grader could pronounce. It has the taste and textrure of good sticky sushi rice.  I microwave one dish and divide it among two days of stir fry.  It's a perfect half cup serving.

Here's the finished product.  Because I have BIG problems with portion control I use the SMALLEST plates I own at lunch time so my plate looks full, but is still keeps my portions under control.

Playing with FIRE:  For the sauce that makes my veggies Asian stir fry, I use about 1/2 Tablespoon of Low Sodium Soy Sauce, 1/2 Tablespoon of Asian Garlic Chili Sauce (cause I love it spicy), 1/2 Tablespoon of Rice Wine Vinegar and a tiny baby squirt of Agave Nectar to balance out the spice.  Mix all of that together in a little bowl and add it in at the last second before it hits your plate. 

BE CAREFUL with all these Asian sauces, they are a sodium bomb.  Watch your ratios carefully.  The sodium content in this dish can get out of hand very fast.

I'm going to save the craziest thing I've eaten this week for tomorrow's post.  I've been experimenting with something for breakfast this week that I bet most of you have seen on the selves and wondered "who buys that?" or "what the heck is it?".  I bought it, and I'll tell you all about my good (and bad) breakfasts with it this week.