Tonight I made a stir-fry. That seems to always be my go-to when I need to come up with something quick and easy. I've been a bit on overload lately, to put it mildly. Justin on night shift, the house finally getting wrapped up so tons of decisions to be made there, and being way over-booked at work amidst it all... that's just a few of the big things. Balancing this with Harlee and keeping up with the current household... whew. It's exhausting. But I want to still make dinner for my family - healthy options for myself and Harlee and enough for leftovers for Justin to bring to work the next night. As I was throwing a bunch of random things together from my fridge, I thought about my blog, and it made me wonder how many people think to do this when it comes to being quick yet healthy. So I decided to share my thoughts on the topic with you and give you a little inspiration for your own busy lifestyles!
Here's what I usually do:
Thaw out some chicken breasts (this usually requires the microwave since I never manage to plan ahead and have some already thawed out and ready to go)
Find veggies in the fridge
Throw them in a pan with some olive oil, spices, apple cider vinegar, and whatever else sounds good - sometimes honey, sometimes mustard, whatever.
There doesn't have to be a rhyme or reason. It's pretty simple.
Tonight I thawed out three chicken breasts and then cut them into cubes. I tossed them into my cast iron skillet (I love that thing) and cooked them up with some olive oil, a splash of apple cider vinegar, oregano, basil, and marjoram. Meanwhile I cut up whatever I could find in the fridge that needed to be eaten. This included brussels sprouts (trimmed and quartered), some mini sweet peppers, snow peas, mushrooms, and tomatoes. (Local people may recognize some of things came out of the co-op! I highly recommend signing up for that, by the way - it's a SUPER easy way to keep a good supply of fruits and vegetables on hand for a very low price!). I threw them in the skillet with everything else and cooked them up til everything was somewhat tender and cooked through. I had cooked a spaghetti squash a few nights ago but never used the noodles, instead I bagged each squash half in freezer-safe bags and stored one in the fridge and froze the other one. It freezes really well, by the way. I took the thawed one and dumped the contents in with everything else, so it'd be a noodle stir-fry. My skillet was a bit overloaded at this point, but it looked and smelled delicious! I made sure everything was heated through (and at the last minute thought a little mustard sounded good to add some flavor so I squirted some in there and mixed it in), and then scooped some in a bowl. Voila! It was super yummy! Maybe took a total of 15 minutes, too, which is always a good thing in my book.Shrimp is a good option, too, and in that case I may have omitted the tomatoes and instead added a little lemon juice and black pepper and/or garlic. If I were channeling my Catholic roots tonight I may have done that since it's Friday and all, but I tend to forget about that time in my life... :)
Beef or pork is also a good option, and you can toss in some cheese to go with it if you want to. I forgot I had some Parmesan cheese on hand too or I would have thrown that in with it. Carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, whatever you've got in the fridge that needs to be used up! It's such a simple option, and can be adapted in so many ways.
Harlee's a bit picky sometimes, so I just picked out some pieces of chicken and gave him some carrots with it, and he was happy.
Hope this helped give you an idea for something for those busy nights! I'm looking forward to the leftovers for lunch tomorrow too. I certainly made us enough to get through a few more meals!
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