VeganMoFo Day 6 - Bright Summer Stir-Fry

After yesterday's pasta dish the family is willing to try Esselstyn another stir-fry. My husband says he can always pour some rooster sauce on it, and my son says he can skip the veggies and just put teriyaki sauce on the brown rice. (sigh)

Bright Summer Stir-fry   
by Cleveland Clinic Wellness Editors
Invite all the colors of the season into your cooking.  

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:
1 medium red onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
vegetable broth, water, wine, or orange juice
2 cups broccoli, cut in small pieces
2 ribs celery, sliced diagonally (1/2 cup)
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1 yellow summer squash, halved and cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 cup vegetable broth
4 ounces sugar snap peas
1 T peeled, minced fresh ginger
2 T low-sodium tamari or Bragg Liquid Aminos
1 T fresh lime juice
2 t whole wheat or stone ground pastry flour
2 T chopped cilantro

Preparation:
1. In a nonstick saucepan, stir-fry onion, adding liquid--broth, water, wine, or orange juice--as necessary, until onion begins to wilt.
2. Add broccoli, celery, peppers, and squash and cook about 5 minutes, until broccoli begins to soften, stirring constantly.
3. Stir in broth, sugar snap peas, and ginger and bring to a boil.  Lower heat and simmer about 5 minutes, until vegetables are crisp-tender.
4. In a small bowl, stir together tamari, lime juice, and flour.
5. Remove pan from heat and stir in tamari mixture.  Return pan to medium heat and cook about 1 minute, until mixture boils and is slightly thickened, then stir in cilantro.  Serve over brown rice.

Nutrition Facts Per Serving: 60 calories, 0 g total fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 g trans fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 390 mg sodium, 12 g total carbohydrate, 3 g dietary fiber, 4 g sugars, 3 g protein, 40% Vitamin A, 120% Vitamin C

Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease
page 234
Caldwell Esselstyn, MD and Ann Crile Esselstyn
Nutritional information from this blog post from the Cleveland Wellness Editors.

To start, I'm already using more veggies than what the recipe calls for. I have a half pound of the snap peas, the celery came out to almost 2 cups, and a whole 1-pound bag of defrosted frozen chopped broccoli. I have parsley instead of cilantro, only because that's what looked fresher in the store.

I don't use the bottle of Bragg's Aminos all that much so that's what I'm using in this recipe, especially since my husband avoided salt the rest of the day. It may claim to be a lower sodium product, but it's still higher than lower sodium soy sauce.

Another day of peeling, washing and chopping veggies, but again, it gave my husband something to do to fill the hours. I can't wait until the cardiologist gives him the okay to start cardiac rehab. At least that'll get him out of the house for an hour three times a week! He's not allowed to go walking outside if it's above 80 degrees, and today is really the first day it's stayed below that for a while. We had a nice long walk down the park this morning, but we still had an entire afternoon to fill. So I got him chopping.

All chopped up and raring to go

It's a much lighter meal than the other stir fry, but with the rice is turned out to be a very hearty dish.

Diner is overcooked, but served

Oops. I kind of overcooked the veggies. After adding the Braggs with flour and stirring until thickened, I thought I turned the heat off but instead it was still on very low. Hubby decided he wanted to see the end of the movie we were watching before we ate:

(Yes, we're nearly senior citizens and still enjoy Disney movies, even the not-so-popular ones. Wanna make something of it? ºOº )

and the stuff continued to simmer for almost another half hour. By the time I served it, most of the color had been cooked out of it and all the veggies were pretty limp, but he loves them that way. I piled the veggies with sauce over a bowl of brown rice and he was in stir-fry heaven.

We were both a bit surprised at how good this meal tasted, after the not-so-great stir fry the other day. He said he wouldn't mind at all if I made this again but feels guilty because of all the chopping involved. He knows how much it bothers my back (degenerative disc disease) standing there doing it all, and even with his minor bit of helping (he peeled the yellow squash and washed the celery) it still took almost a half hour. I know I'll be needing the Max Freeze before bed tonight, but this meal may have been worth it.

Even with adding all the extra veggies, there was only about a cup of the veg mixture left for a snack or as part of a lunch. It's certainly not enough for a whole lunch, even if I did cook up more rice to go with it.

Full bellies for hubby and I (The kid opted out and made his own dinner), and a super healthy one at that!