-Stir Fry & Rice- easy weeknight dinner!
Another one of those healthy recipes. This one is for that busy weeknight and a family of 3 on a school night. I’ve been proctoring SAT’s and the last thing I want to do is come home and COOK. This is a quick and easy recipe, even if you don’t have a rice cooker!
🥕Ingredients🥬
• 2-bags of stir fry… $5.00 each. We get ours from King Soopers
• 2 10 oz bags of thawed, defined, peeled, tail off shrimp… $5.00 each. Again, King Soopers.
• 1 cup Jasmine rice 🍚. We use a rice cooker but water on the stove will do just as well. Please be sure to rinse your rice
holla at a $22 meal for 3
Directions:
1. Cook your rice however you see fit. We pop that cup in with 2 cups of water and let it cook in the rice cooker. No stirring necessary for us! Without any butter this is just about 75 calories alone
2. While rice is cooking, make sure your shrimp are thoroughly rinsed and dried before placing them in an avacado oiled pan. Your shrimp should be placed into a hot pan to give them that first zap of heat before the vegetables. The shrimp on your bowl is about another 125 calories.
3. Slowly add in your stir fry packages to shrimp pan. This will need to be stored and cooked down until you fit all two bags of stir fry mix in the pan. About 8 - 10 minutes of cooking down the vegetables, they are ready to have the sauce added from the stir fry mix package. We only add in 1 and a half of sauce packages recently. Simmer just a few moments longer or until all vegetables are at desired tenderness. The stirfry mix bring us to another 100 calories.
Season with 🧂 and pepper as desired
This meal is only about 300 calories and is filled with vitamins and nutrients. If you’re feeling super hungry, add a third bag in there and another half cup of rice. 🥢 eat up! ⬆️ #stirfryrecipes #healthydinner #newrecipe #busyweeklifemeal #familymeals
Okay, so you've seen my go-to shrimp stir fry, and it's a total lifesaver, right? But let's be real, sometimes you want to switch things up or maybe you're out of shrimp! The beauty of stir-fries for a quick weeknight dinner is how incredibly versatile they are. I've got a few more tricks up my sleeve to make sure your stir-fry game is always strong, fast, and delicious, even on the busiest of evenings. First off, don't feel limited to shrimp! While I love it for its speed, chicken breast (thinly sliced), pre-cooked rotisserie chicken, or even firm tofu are fantastic, quick-cooking alternatives. For chicken, just make sure to slice it thinly against the grain so it cooks in minutes. If I'm using tofu, I usually press it for a bit to get extra crispiness, then cube and pan-fry it separately before adding it back in with the veggies. It adds a nice texture and keeps things plant-based if you're looking for that! And those veggie bags from King Soopers? Still my favorite hack! But if you have extra time on a Sunday, spend 15 minutes chopping up some bell peppers, broccoli florets, snap peas, and carrots. Store them in airtight containers, and boom – your weeknight stir-fry prep is practically done! I also love adding some mung bean sprouts towards the end for an extra crunch and freshness. Now, about the sauce. While the pre-made packets are super convenient, sometimes I crave a homemade touch, and it's surprisingly quick to whip up. My go-to quick sauce involves soy sauce (or tamari for gluten-free), a splash of sesame oil, a bit of rice vinegar, a teaspoon of grated fresh ginger (if I have it), a minced garlic clove, and a tiny pinch of brown sugar or maple syrup to balance the flavors. Whisk it all together, and you have a fresh, flavorful sauce that tastes way better than anything from a packet! If you like a thicker sauce, a tiny bit of cornstarch slurry (cornstarch mixed with a little cold water) added at the end will do the trick. To make it an even more complete meal, sometimes I'll quickly fry an egg and place it on top of each serving – the runny yolk mixed with the stir-fry is just divine! Or, if I want to boost the protein and healthy fats, a sprinkle of chopped peanuts or cashews adds a lovely crunch and richness. Don't forget a squeeze of lime juice right before serving; it brightens up all the flavors beautifully. These little tweaks mean I can have a different 'quick weeknight stir fry dinner' experience each time, keeping things exciting and always delicious without adding more than a few extra minutes to my cooking time. Trust me, once you start experimenting, you'll wonder how you ever survived weeknights without these stir-fry hacks!
