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How to Make Stir Fry Vegetables

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Are you interested in learning how to make stir fry vegetables at home? They really are a quick and yummy way to enjoy vegetables on a regular basis.

One of the good things about making stir fry vegetables is that you can use just about any vegetable that you have in the house: onions, carrots, green beans, zucchini, bok choy, mushrooms- the list can go on and on.

What I feel is the most important part of making a stir fry is the order that you cook the vegetables and what you use to add flavor to the dish.

When I say the “order” of the vegetables, I mean to be mindful of which vegetables cook faster or need longer cooking than others. Sometimes, as with carrots, if you cut up these longer cooking vegetables into small thin pieces then you can shrink the cooking times. Vegetables such as onions, carrots and peppers are great when they are cut a little bit smaller for a stir fry.

So you are asking “what are fast –cooking vegetables”? These include softer vegetables such as mushrooms, snow peas, spinach or bean sprouts. These sorts of veggies are best when added right at the end of the stir fry.

Now if you are using a frozen bag of veggies like the Trader Joe’s Stir Fry Vegetables, just pour the whole bag into the pan and start to cook from there.

Trader Joe's Stir-Fry Vegetables

Trader Joe's Stir-Fry Vegetables

Beyond the order that you add the veggies to the pan, what you are using to flavor this dish is very important. There are certain flavors that are special to stir fry or Oriental cooking in general. These flavor makers include:

  • Garlic
  • Ginger
  • Soy Sauce
  • Sesame Oil

When you add a combination of these 4 ingredients, you are going to create the best stir fry veggies.

Grated Ginger & Garlic

Grated Ginger & Garlic

So what we do to make Stir Fry Vegetables quickly and easily  is to pour one bag of Trader Joe’s Stir Fry Veggies into a sauté pan and add about ½ inch of water to the bottom. Cook on medium until the veggies are just thawed, about 5 minutes.

Now add 2 cloves of grated garlic and the same amount of grated ginger to the pan (Use the Microplane 35001 Home Series Coarse Grater, Black for best results). Also add a splash of Soy sauce ( ¼ cup) and a Tablespoon of sesame oil. Turn the heat up on the pan and “stir fry” all the ingredients together for 2 minutes or until hot and sizzling.  Taste a veggie and see if you need to add more soy sauce or sesame oil to taste.

It really is just that easy to have a delicious batch of stir fry vegetables ready to serve.

To make it even easier, Trader Joe’s sells small jars of chopped garlic and chopped ginger so that all you needed to do was add a spoonful from a jar to your pan. We used to use these items but now that Trader Joe’s sells fresh ginger root in the produce area and also those wonderful Elephant garlic bulbs right next to the ginger, I just love to use the items fresh and just grate up what I need each night.

So give these 4 super flavor makers a try and see if they don’t make your next Stir Fry meal the best you ever had. You will also see just how easy it is to make stir fry vegetables at home.

Great Snacking with Trader Joe’s

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Like we told you in previous posts, we are working towards making positive changes in out diet. For us, this means that we not only will eat more at home, but ensure that we make better/ more healthy choices about what we eat when we go out.

Enter: The Snack Zone -OK this is really just a plastic bin in the refrigerator that is stocked with a variety of items that are ready-to-eat and ready to-go standing by for us to grab when we are hungry or as we are heading out the door.

Recently we have had a nice selection in the Snack Zone: cheese and crackers and nut mixtures (Trader Joe’s Cashews, Cranberries and Almond) portioned out in small bags. We like to stock the Snack Zone on Friday’s after shopping at Trader Joe’s to get ready for the next week. (This does not always happen, but it is a goal we are working on;)

So this week, with the weather turning a bit warmer (Truthfully…. it is 80+ degrees here in Tucson today…sorry if you are out shoveling snow) we chose a couple of new snack items to add to our weekly menu mix. Two of our requirements of snacks is that they be quick to put together (especially at the last minute) and portable so that we can take them on the road with ease. Also we like to change it up, and these new snack items are just the thing after a number of weeks of cheese and crackers and nuts.

Currently our Snack Zone consists of:

Trader Joe’s Persian Cucumbers
These are petite cucumbers that sorta resemble those long English cucumbers, only smaller. The skins are tender and they are not “Waxed for Freshness” (which often happens to cucumbers-yuck!) so you can eat the peels. They are sweet and tender and simply wonderful.

Trader Joe’s Hummus
This tub of hummus has just enough garlic for a great flavor, with out being too strong and it is blended into a creamy consistency that is not watery.

Trader Joe’s Baby Carrots
What can we say? they are sweet and ready to eat right from the bag. The ultimate Fast Food for busy people.

We have sliced up the cucumbers and poured out the baby carrots into a zip-top bag, and then spooned out the hummus into a small plastic container. So now this snack is ready to go when we are ready to head out the door or just our table.

We are enjoying trying out these new, heather snack options (especially after “taste testing” all that Easter Candy). We hope you get inspired to try those Persian cucumbers or the Hummus the next time you are shopping at Trader Joe’s.

Trader Joe's Hummus & Veg

Trader Joe's Hummus & Veg

Broccoli and Garlic in pan

How to make Oven Roasted Broccoli

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Broccoli and Garlic From Trader Joe's

Broccoli & Garlic

Here is an easy recipe that we make over and over again. In fact, it is Delaina’s favorite way to eat broccoli, and THAT  alone is saying something….

What is so special about it?

Well,  when you oven roast stuff (like fish, meat,  vegies etc…), the high heat sorta “sears” in the juices inside and usually gives it  nice brown-ish crusty coloring on some edges that just taste yummy.  This way also seems to concentrate the flavors in a very pleasant way as well.

Many of us are used to eating watery vegies that have been boiled (to death usually) or steamed, I know we used to steam our vegetables all the time.  Now to be fair, we still do steam vegetables on occasion, we just have a preferred cooking method for vegetables now, and that is oven roasted.

In fact, this method of cooking (Oven Roasting) is a great way to cook all sorts of vegetables.  So try this way the next time you are cooking broccoli and see what you think.  Then try it again with asparagus, green beans or carrots (just wonderful…).

Oven roasting works best with fresh vegetables. So here is an opportunity to cook those extra vegies that you get at the farmer’s market… You know… the ones you bought and bought  and then came home and said, “why did we buy all this XXXX”??    Yes, we do that too….

Warning: This is TASTY… You will love it!

Another bonus with oven roasting vegetables…. it is SUPER EASY.  One pan, in the oven for 30 minutes (more or less).  This way you can keep your eye on other more “needy” dishes on the stove.

Ingredients:

  • Fresh Broccoli, enough to feed the number of folks you are cooking for.
  • Garlic cloves (OK this is an optional ingredient, but it just tastes FANTASTIC with the broccoli)
  • Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil

Here is How to Make Oven Roasted Broccoli:

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Line a baking pan with aluminum  foil  -as large a pan as you need for the amount of broccoli you will cook so that the broccoli  will be in a single layer).

3. Rinse and trim the broccoli. This means I usually cut off any woody steams (maybe an inch or two from the bottom) and trim the broccoli into pieces so that the stems are no thicker than 1 inch. Dry with a clean kitchen towel to remove most of the moisture.

4. Separate the head of garlic into cloves. Remove the outer paper and cut the cloves in half, the long way. (so you have flat “coins” of garlic.

5. Place broccoli and garlic into a bowl, and toss with a spoon or two of olive oil until all the broccoli and garlic have a thin coat of oil.  Sprinkle  with salt and pepper and toss again.

Broccoli and Garlic in pan

Ready for the oven

6. Pour the broccoli and garlic into the foil lined pan. Place pan in the center of the hot oven. Let cook for 15 minutes, then stir the pan, and prick the broccoli with a fork to check the tenderness. Cook for 10 more minutes then stir and  check again for tenderness.

7. Remove when the broccoli is tender and has some brownish spots… and the garlic should also be brown in places and tender as well.

Cooked Broccoli and Galic from Trader Joe's

After Oven Roasting

OK so this is NOT our best photo, but I wanted you to TRY and see that the brown patches on the garlic and the fact that the broccoli is darker in some areas….  We gobbled up the whole batch of broccoli before we realized that this picture was a bit dark…. sorry…. I guess we will have to make another batch soon to try and get a decent photo….YUM!

8. ENJOY!

We hope you get a chance to try to make Oven Roasted Broccoli … or Oven Roasted Vegies of any kind, before it gets too hot to have the oven on in the kitchen for that long.

Let us know how it went, and what you thought of this recipe….