Vegan Stir Fried Rice

What is going on with this weather here in the East!  I am so tired of this rain, dreariness, no sun is no good.  I want to be outside, working in the garden, planting flowers, so my work will be done for the season.  I don't mean to complain, but really Mother Nature cut me a break.

OK,I am done my rant now, onto better things.  The hubby and I are trying to be good about eating. We are slowly easing into trying vegan fare and such. You can make practically anything vegan that's not, just by incorporating different foods and ingredients.  The eyes are tricky, but if you didn't know the cauliflower in this dish wasn't rice, you would not miss rice at all. Check it out.

Recipe below.

To print recipe click on it, highlight and print.

I use this riced cauliflower from Trader Joe's, instead of making the whole mess of breaking apart a head of cauliflower and putting it through a food processor.  Too messy for me, so I go the easy route, cut the bag open and pour! Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got to take of this recipe because my family dug into this dish before I had a chance to take any, yeah it was that good!

Veggie Stir Fried Rice

To Fry the Cauliflower

2 tablespoons vegan butter or use 1 tablespoon canola oil

3/4 cup vegetable stock or broth (stock has more flavor)

1 bag frozen riced cauliflower (I used Trader Joe's)

To Stir Fry The Vegetables

2 tablespoons canola oil or peanut oil if you like that flavor

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 sweet onion, diced

1 bunch asparagus, cut in 1" pieces (see note)

2 cups sliced baby bella mushrooms

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger (or 1/2 teaspoon ground)

3 cloves minced garlic

3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 green onions (scallions) sliced thin

1 tablespoon sesame seeds (toast them if you like)

Directions

To Fry Cauliflower:

Melt butter in a large skillet or wok, over medium high heat. Add cauliflower and stir fry until lightly browned.  Add the vegetable stock/broth and continue to cook until the cauliflower is tender, about 10 minutes.  Transfer to a bowl, set aside.

To Stir Fry The Vegetables

Heat the canola oil in the same pan, over medium high heat. Make sure pan is hot, add red pepper, onion, asparagus, mushrooms, ginger and garlic.  Stir fry until tender but crisp not mushy, this only takes a few minutes. Stir in the soy sauce and cook for a few seconds to heat through.  Remove from heat, drizzle on the sesame oil, stir it in. Serve over the cauliflower and top with sliced scallions and sesame seeds. Makes 4 servings.

NOTE: If you don't like asparagus use green beans, pea pods, broccoli, or any other green vegetable that you like, it's all good.

Pork On The Barbie!

  So now that the warmer weather is finally here everything goes on the grill outside, it keeps the house cool inside, all the mess is out there too so it's easy clean up.  I put everything on the grill, including bread, pizza and desserts, just so I don't have to cook inside.

So on my grill last night I cooked pork.  I'm not much of a pork eater, but I like to throw it in the mix of making meals every once in a while.  I try to find new ways to make it, to keep it interesting.  I made pork kebobs with my pork and added a little flair to it, with a sweet and spicy ginger marinade and fresh fruit and vegetables.  They were very easy to put together and took only minutes to grill.  Recipe below.  To print recipe, click on it, highlight and print.

I used bamboo skewers, but soak them in water in the morning so they don't burn on the grill.  I just laid them out on a baking sheet and covered them with water.  Skewer all your meat, fruit and vegetables.  Brush with marinade, place on the grill.

Cook for 8 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness of your pork.  Turn them, brush marinade on the other side and these delicious kebobs are done and ready to eat!

PORK KEBOBS ON THE GRILL

Ingredients

For the Ginger Marinade
1 cup honey
3/4 cup soy sauce
8 cloves minced garlic
3 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, more if you like heat, omit if you don't

For the Skewers

6 bamboo skewers

3 center cut boneless pork chops, cut in 1 " pieces

2 cups of fresh pineapple chunks

1/2 big green bell pepper, cut in chunks 

1/2 big portobello mushroom cap, cut in chunks
2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions
Early in the day place bamboo skewers on a baking sheet and cover with water.  This is so they don't burn on the grill.  With a whisk, mix all the marinade ingredients together in a medium size bowl.  Place the cut pieces of pork in a plastic resealable bag and pour about 1/2 cup of marinade over the pork. Mix to coat the pork and refrigerate until ready to use, reserve the remaining marinade to baste your kebobs.

When ready to grill, skewer a couple of pieces of pork (discard the marinade the pork was in, do not reuse), then a piece of pineapple, pepper and mushroom, place on a clean baking sheet.  Repeat until the skewers are full, brush with marinade. Brush the olive oil on grill plates then place skewers on, cook for about 8 minutes on each side, brushing with marinade as they are grilling. Makes 6 servings.

Chicken on a Stick

I like to try new tastes in food, spice things up, keep the flavors interesting.  I get tired of eating the same old things over and over again.   I marinated chicken tenders, in this Thai Peanut Sauce, for dinner the other night then skewered them up.  I used bamboo skewers, you have to soak them before you use them so they don't burn on the grill.

 Skewered chicken tenders and onto the grill.

Grilled French Greens Beans are soooo good....... Olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper is all it takes. Sometimes I use the Finishing Butters from Wegmans.  When you take them off the grill, just toss with the green beans and serve.

 Skewers all done, serve with extra peanut sauce for dipping.  Grilled French green beans, yum!

All together now!  And served up with an Asian inspired salad with ginger sesame dressing.

Chicken Satay

8 - 10 bamboo skewers

4 skinless, boneless, raw chicken breasts, thawed

1 bottle of Thai Peanut Ginger Sauce

Place bamboo skewers in a shallow pan and cover with water.  Trim chicken breasts of fat and any leftover skin.  Cut into tenders.  Marinate the chicken tenders in 1/2 cup of the peanut sauce in a large ziploc bag.  Put the bag in the refrigerator and let marinate for up to 4 hours.  Remove from refrigerator and using the skewers, pierce the chicken on the ends and thread on the skewers.  Place skewers onto a heated grill and brush with marinade from the bottle.  DO NOT USE THE LEFTOVER MARINADE FROM THE BAG.  Cook on one side for about 8 minutes, using tongs turn them over, brush again with the marinade, and cook on the other side for 8 minutes. Serve with warm leftover peanut sauce for dipping.

Grilled French Green Beans

1 bag French Green Beans, washed and patted dry

3 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

salt and pepper

Toss green beans with the olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper.  Put into a grill pan that you use on an outside grill.  Toss and cook until lightly browned and blistered.

Salad

Toss together:

2 heads of romaine lettuce, washed and  chopped

1 cup of Craisins

1/2 cup of sliced toffee almonds

1/2 English cucumber, sliced

1/2 cup of match stick carrots

Pour on:

Ginger Sesame Salad Dressing, Marketside is a good one

Top with:

1 cup of won ton noodles