Veggie Tales

Remember Veggie Tales? If you have a child between the ages of 15-22, chances are you have a soft spot for "Dave and the Giant Pickle," "Rack, Shack & Benny," Bob the Tomato, Larry the Cucumber and his alter-ego, Larry Boy.  Hilarious, sweet stories told by animated vegetables, based on bible stories, with very catchy tunes.

What's not to love? Guilt-free e-parenting that got me through those toddler years.

Was that why my kids were good veggie eaters?  I don't know.  Couldn't have hurt.  Julie taught me that me trick that, before dinner, when your kids are starving, if you put out a big plate of cut veggies, maybe with a little side of ranch dressing, they'll gobble it up.  And they did.  Veggies were never the enemy.  When Noah was in preschool his teacher told me at pickup one day that she had made a pepper rainbow - had cut strips of red, orange, yellow, green and even purple peppers arranged on a plate like a rainbow, and Noah was the only one who ate them!  Yay!

But my veggie prowess is being tested, suddenly, because Corey is now a vegetarian.  She's been talking about it for a while and finally made the jump this summer, following my niece Jackie, who recently went vegan.  Vegan to me makes cooking and eating way too much work, but veggie I get.  I looked for a cute picture of corey and jackie and I have, well, millions.

 

 

 

So cute!  So many years have passed!  Sigh.  (Girls: notice how I left out the awkward years?  You're welcome.)

ANYWAY, it's a good time to be a vegetarian or vegan in the world - there are so many more options for dining out or in now.  But cooking vegetarian?  That's not really my jam.  So I'm having to learn.

The other night I made the family a weeknight stir-fry.  No recipe, just marinated some diced chicken breasts in soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, vegetable oil, crushed red pepper & garlic.  Then I stared at that block of tofu I had bought, utterly mystified.  I knew that Corey (and Jackie) had done some tofu 'pressing' at the lake this summer - so I called her down to deal with it.

Apparently, if you want your tofu to stay firm you need to drain the excess water.  You wrap it in a towel or paper towels, put between some heavy items and leave for 15-30 minutes.  Which I did. It wasn't a raging success - still a little mushier than I think is ideal, but hey, I'm a newbie.  It's a whole new veggie world out there.

Stir fry for one and all

Cut all the veggies you have on hand into strips/florets.  I prepped a red pepper, green pepper, a few carrots, a bunch of green beans (just trimmed edges) and a head of broccoli.

I took two chicken breasts and cut them into strips then marinaded them in

1/2 cup soy sauce

3 Tbsp sesame oil

3-5 Tbsp rice vinegar

1/4 cup veggie oil 

several cloves garlic, minced

lots of crushed red pepper flakes

 The trusty beast lays in the same spot all the time, right in my way, hoping I'll drop something.

 Heat up some veggie oil in the wok.  Get it really hot.

 Add the marinated chicken with about half the marinade.  

Cook it on high heat for about 5 minutes, until cooked through.  

Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon.

 Meanwhile, cut your pressed tofu into pieces and let it marinate in the other half of the marinade while the chicken is cooking.

 Throw the whole situation in the wok and cook on med high heat until it's firm and edges are crispy. Remove from wok with a slotted spoon.

 

 Dump all your veggies in the wok, stir up and cover. 

 Stir occasionally and cook only till veggies start getting tender, about 5 minutes.

 Take some of this yumminess out and mix it with the tofu. 

Then dump the chicken and some peanuts into the wok and mix well.

Serve over rice. 

Meanwhile, I had a lovely afternoon in the city with one of my favorite carnivores, and he wisely chose a classic Chicago hot dog.  

Variety is the spice of life, yo.