Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Vegan Eating

Ever since we started eating vegan we have recieved all types of feedback, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Most people ask me "What do you even eat?" I can definetly see where they are coming from being a non-vegan most of my life, it's hard to imagine such a change in lifestyle! To those people who ask, I tell them "Everything!" In fact it has opened up a whole new variety of food and ideas to me.
     The recipe I'm going to show today isn't anything new or unheard of. But it is a great way to incorporate more vegetables in your diet as well as use the leftover rice sitting in your fridge if you have that problem. Of course it's freakin delicious and something familiar! It's simply Vegetable Fried Rice.
Chop up half an onion and sautee in olive oil with garlic and basil and shown below. I add in these little dried chiles called chile de arbols. My husband loves these because everything I make must be spicy! I add the onions in before the oil is hot to give them a more savory flavor instead of a sweet caramelized flavor.
I found these wonderful creations at Walmart. They are in the frozen section. I put one cube of garlic and basil in with the onions. They are just freshly chopped and then frozen into cubes. This really helps save time and money which is a must for me.

Once again to save time and money I just buy a bag of frozen stir fry and add it to the wok. If you are a purist and have the extra time go ahead and buy all the vegetables and chop them up. This one had baby corns, water chestnuts, sugar snap peas, red bell peppers, carrots, and broccoli. Then I add the following sauces and seasonings.

These are my main staple sauces for a lot of the Asian food I make. Yes I know nothing too fancy but trust me, it's really good! Sautee the vegetables with these ingredients for 5 to 10 minutes. You can just eyeball the amount you want. Then add the rice. This time I had some leftover coconut lime cilantro rice in the fridge that I added.
I always use jasmine rice. To make the coconut lime cilantro rice I do one cup coconut milk, one cup vegetable broth or stock, and one cup water in a pot. Also the juice of one lime and bring to a boil with 2 cups jasmine rice. Cook according to rice directions and when done add in some chopped cilantro. Anywho, sautee the veggie and rice mixture and medium high heat. I like to char the rice a little to get that fried rice flavor.
Serve with a lime wedge and bon appetite! Or I guess Gè bǎo in Chinese! I normally serve it with fried tofu and sometimes egg rolls for extra protein but did not have any this time. I know it's not any new break through in cooking and something we have all seen before but it is really delicious!
     I will be posting, hopefully, more vegan dishes that are more exciting and different soon! I realize that some of you may not agree with the "vegan lifestyle" and that's totally fine. I'm not in anyway trying to force our way of eating on anyone else, just sharing some delicious, healthy recipes!