FOOD Friday.

Hooray for it being Friday!

We are super-excited about the weekend we have coming up: Art in the Park, breakfast out, work on Liza’s room, and most definitely some cottage time (since it’s supposed to be in the high 80s and that’s hot for us)!  Plus we'll probably hit up our garden too seeing as we got some goodies from it last night...

But first, let me share with you our awesome dinner last night. We had chicken and veggie stir fry which might not sound like a huge deal, but was actually pretty awesome.  Here’s why: we had carrots, scallions, snap peas, and peas from our garden, kale and broccoli from our CSA and the only thing to come from the store (veggie-wise) was a red pepper!  Talk about knowing where your food comes from!  We also kind of followed a brown sauce recipe from Food Network Magazine (wish I could show you an exact recipe, but I can't seem to find it anywhere on their site)…but of course we added a little spice!

So here’s the recipe:

What you’ll need:

1/3 cup carrots, chopped

1/3 cup broccoli, chopped

1/3 cup snap peas, cut in half

¼ cup peas

1 ½ cups kale, chopped

¼ cup scallions, thinly sliced

1/3 cup red pepper, chopped

1chicken breast, thinly sliced

1 cup rice

2 cups water

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons ginger, minced

1 cup chicken stock

2 tablespoons corn starch

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 teaspoon Sriracha (if you like spicy, add some more)

1 ‘shake’ red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon coconut oil (or vegetable oil)

What to do:

[1] Get your rice started – if it will take 35-40 minutes to cook.  If you use instant rice, you can hold off for awhile.  Follow the directions on the package to cook. 

[2] Chop up all your veggies and the chicken breast (on a separate cutting board obviously).  

[3] Add 1 teaspoon coconut oil to a wok over medium heat.  Add the chicken, sautéing for 1-2 minutes until meat is no longer pink (it doesn’t have to be totally cooked through, you’ll add it to the heat again later).  Set chicken aside.

[4] Add rest of coconut oil to wok.  Add garlic, ginger and half of scallions and sauté for 30 seconds – 1 minute.  Then, add the vegetables starting with the ones that took the longest to cook (I did broccoli & kale, then carrots, then red pepper, then both peas and then the other half of scallions). 

[5] Mix up sauce ingredients (chicken stock-red pepper flakes) in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk.

[6] Once the veggies are close to being done add the chicken back to the pan.  Then add the sauce and cook until the sauce thickens (make sure to keep stirring)!

[7] Then, you pop some rice in a bowl and top it with some of the veggie-chicken-sauce mixture.  I garnished ours with some toasted sesame seeds I had in our pantry!

DELISH.  I just love using food that comes from our garden or our CSA!!

And, we're starting to use coconut oil more in our cooking...and as a lotion.  

Think I'm kidding?  A

fter I spooned out a few heaps last night for dinner, I got any extra from the spoon and rubbed it into my hands.  AMAZING moisturizer and I love that it's edible.  Makes me feel good about putting it onto my body and then into my body as it's absorbed through my skin!

Anybody else getting some luck with their garden?  I promised a post about drying basil soon...expect that one tomorrow :)