M & J’s Fresh Stir-Fry with a Thai Twist

To continue our ‘eat as many fresh veggies as we possibly can in each meal cleanse’ (if you really want to call it that) after our NYC vacation, we made a really tasty stir fry. No recipe, no cookbooks, just any and everything we had that would work in a stir fry. Ok, to be fair, we usually make a stir fry of sorts at least once a week, so we do consciously buy particular veggies for that when we make our grocery trips. But most of those veggies are quite versatile and can be used in a number of different dishes throughout the week. For this I sautéed some carrots and onion in a little olive oil with cracked black pepper and white pepper for a few minutes, then added the celery, green and red bell pepper, snap peas, mushrooms, green onion, Thai chili peppers, sliced ginger root and garlic. I stirred them all together constantly for only a couple more minutes (I like it when they’re still crunchy and barely cooked in a stir fry), added a few shakes of fish sauce and this great hot Thai vinegar my mom gave us, and then they were done!

At the same time, James diced the chicken and sautéed it in 2 separate batches in some oil on high heat. He picked this tip up from recipes he’s made from our Pok Pok thai cookbook and it seemed to work great – the chicken was tender, juicy, yet cooked thoroughly. We threw the chicken in with the veggies, stirred it all together, then served it with some Thai egg noodles topped with peanuts, Thai basil leaves and a little lime. It was delicious…. light, hot, flavorful and healthy. Just what we needed.

Since dark chocolate is also quite healthy in many ways, we happily finished our meal off with a couple breaks off of a Mast Brother’s Vanilla & Smoke chocolate bars. We picked it up while walking around Brooklyn last week as that’s one of our must-pop-in-to places each time we go. Their hand crafted chocolates are delicious, each one containing a unique blend of flavors. I highly recommend grabbing a bar if you’re ever in their area… and if not, they thankfully also now carry a few varieties of them in Harvest Grocery right here in RVA!