Last night’s healthy, tofu-topped stir-fry took 15 minutes — with some good planning.
I believe good health and eating right takes planning. And lately, ‘doing the right thing’ has become quite a challenge with the demands of this microbiology class.
What I feel like will be somewhat of a solution is preparing a few things in advance — and being super organized. Like yesterday, for example, I saw the following items in the fridge and wrote them on a sheet of paper under the listing:
‘Things I have in fridge:’
– block of firm tofu (need to do something with)
– grilled broccoli (leftovers from previous evening)
– chopped onions (already food processed)
– box of sliced mushrooms (will go bad if I don’t cook it up soon)
– cooked brown rice from the Whole Foods ‘take-out’ bar.
– soy sauce, Sesame-Terriyaki Marinade from Organicville (agave-nectar-based), and sesame oil.
I knew the tofu block would help me generate about five lunches. I went ahead and cut seven even rectangular slices. Then I pat-dried them with a dish towel, dumped those babies in a mixing bowl, and covered them with marinade.
I figured I’d pan fry them later and place at least one rectangular slice on my stir fry. (The other could be used in salads during the week or used as a topper for pretty much anything else.)
I went back to my list because by then I decided I’d do a stir fry with the other ingredients.
I listed items I needed like:
– red pepper
– snap peas
(Of course the list grew because while I was gone for a few days on vacation we ran out of toilet paper, trash bags and all those household items you need but actually don’t want to buy. ha!)
Off to the store I went, and returned with the remaining items for the stir-fry.
Then I sat out to make the dish by cutting the red pepper in strips.
They were tossed into a super hot frying pan with the onion and mushrooms. I make sure to cook those babies enough that the red pepper strips still have a little snap. (I use just a light spray of oil on my pan and sometimes I don’t even use oil.)
After a few minutes I throw in the rest: the pre-cooked broccoli, the cooked brown rice and snap peas.
Meanwhile, in another hot pan, I lay out all the marinated tofu. And I cook them on both sides until I can see that the marinade has left a little carmelization.
The veggie concoction goes on the serving plate first and then a strip of tofu on top. And voila! A wonderful, quick, healthy meal for this busy pre-med 🙂
(George ate a different kind of wonderful dish at our friend’s house, who is an amazing cook! Yep, I heard about the apple enchiladas!! After all, it WAS SUNDAY FOOTBALL WATCHING DAY.)
