Cooking doesn't have to be complicated, let alone take an eternity to make something delicious. We live busy lives, and that can get in the way of having even a half-decent meal. For the next little while, I'm going to give you 10 various meals/ideas to work with when it comes to cooking. Making a solid meal under 30 minutes is achievable whether it be for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Through these blogs, you'll see that even I don't always make everything from scratch, many ingredients that really don't take long to throw together or few ingredients that can bring anything to life! Some people may shake their head when it comes to certain items in my pantry. But even I have to be realistic - I have a busy job where days can be long and making an awesome stir-fry sauce from scratch I don't always want to do. Speaking of which, let's start with what I just ate for dinner: Fajitas/Stir-Fry...yes I said both. Basically I consider them the same thing as I don't care for rice and I end up eating stir-fry as is or wrapping it up to eat. Why do I love making stir-fry or fajitas? 1. They're easy to make 2. They include a protein and lots of vegetables 3. Healthy when eaten in moderation Most of these dishes for me contain chicken, but you an certainly use shrimp or beef or tofu. Use what works best for you! As for the gluten-free people, good news, use rice paper for wrapping! I like rice paper as it's far less filling than tortillas. They're completely different and yes I love my tortillas!
For vegetables, my staple items are sliced onion, mushrooms and peppers (both bell and habanero). But use what you want - broccoli, snow peas, shaved carrot; the possibilities are all there. Don't feel bad about buying frozen vegetables. You get a lot and they last (also quite affordable and huge time saver). You can also pre-prepare your vegetables by chopping them, blanching, and storing in the freezer in a sealed bag. When it comes to sauces to mix your ingredients with, you'd think I'd always do mine from scratch - wrong! Sure, sometimes I will, but this kind of meal for me is an easy quick meal, so I do buy the packaged sauces. Check your grocery store in both the Asian or international section or the taco isle. I've bought various flavours of sauces, which you simply add at the end of cooking for a minute. You can also use what you have at home be it soy sauce, hot sauce, peanut satay, etc. If you'd like to make your own sauces, here are a few that take only a few minutes to prepare and to add to your finished stir-fry or fajitas: spicy orange stir-fry sauce and peanut stir-fry sauce. Here's what I do for a quick night before adding the sauce: What you need: 3-4 Tbsp olive oil 2 Skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1" cubes or thin strips 1/2 Sweet onion, coarsely chopped 2 Bell peppers, sliced into strip 6-10 white mushrooms, sliced Instructions: Heat 2 Tbsp oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high. Add chicken and cook until both sides are browned and almost fully cooked (~6-8 minutes), stirring moderately. Remove chicken from skillet and set aside. Add remaining 1-2 Tbsp olive to skillet and heat. Add vegetables to pan and sauté 5-6 minutes, until mushrooms and peppers begin o brown and onion is translucent. Add chicken and sauce and stir until sauce thickens or heated (depends on what you use). Serve with some tortillas, rice or rice paper. Easy enough? There's a quick healthy meal for you!
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