Easy Stir Fry
This is a quick meal you can throw together on a busy night. I recommend using pre-cooked rice you can just microwave to heat up, either from the store or from your own freezer. Often, in the produce sections of grocery stores, there are bags of pre-cut stir-fry vegetables. Some bags of vegetables also include a sauce packet. These are so helpful on a busy night when you don’t have much time to cook but you still want to eat a vegetable-rich meal. You can also find bags of frozen stir-fry vegetables if there are none in the fresh produce section. There is a misconception out there that frozen vegetables are less nutritious than fresh, and therefore aren’t worth eating, but that is not the case. Most frozen vegetables are picked at the peak of freshness when they are most nutrient-dense, and then frozen immediately. The freezing process causes only minimal loss of nutrients. So if you need to use frozen, do it! Also, if your stir-fry vegetables don’t come with a sauce packet, then you can look for a bottle of teriyaki sauce in the Asian food section of your grocery store.
Serves: 4
Time: 20-30 mins
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- 1 large bag (1-2 lbs) fresh precut stir fry vegetables
- Sauce of choice (sauce packet in vegetables or bottle of teriyaki sauce or homemade sauce)
- 1-2 chicken breasts, diced OR 14 oz extra firm tofu, drained, pressed and diced
- 2 cups precooked rice
Method
- Prep the Pan: Pour ~2 TBS olive oil in a large frying pan or wok and spin so that the full bottom of the pan is coated.
- Cook the Protein: Add the chicken and cook until it’s white all the way through and reaches an internal temp of 165°F. (If using tofu, coat drained, pressed tofu pieces in 2 TBS olive oil and 2 TBS cornstarch, plus salt and pepper to taste. Then fry in the pan, flipping until all sides become crispy. Or, if you have an air fryer, air fry for about 10 mins at 380°F).
- Cook the Veggies: Remove the chicken (or tofu) from the pan and add more oil to coat the pan. Cook the vegetables, with a cover on top of the pan, for about 7-8 mins, stirring frequently.
- Combine: Add the chicken or tofu back to the pan with the vegetables and add the sauce.
- Serve: Serve on top of the rice and enjoy!