clickinmyheels

Look closely at that picture. Zoom in if you can. I’m sorry if it’s dark and a little blurry. My daughter took it as this car drove past. We went to Meijer for a few items and on our way in, a family was trying to squeeze a very large above ground pool kit in its large box into their backseat of their car. They were trying to slam the door and finally got it. Well, on our way out of the store in the parking lot was another group of people doing the same thing. They had bought a pool that was in a very large box and were stuffing it into their backseat. The only problem with this group was there was like 5 adults. We watched and kind of giggled as we loaded our groceries in the car and when the last passenger was trying to find a spot to sit, she squeezed into the front seat. They had three adults in the front seat and two in the backseat. The poor souls in the backseat were wedged between the huge box and the front seat. The driver was laughing and smiling ear to ear as they pulled out of the parking lot and we couldn’t help but catch a picture. It reminds me of those silly (I mean scary) clowns that try to all fit in a teeny tiny car. It was pretty hot and muggy here today and Meijer must have had one heck of a deal on pools! Hopefully they all made it home safely, avoided any traffic tickets and set that baby up in the yard!

I’m on a little health kick. My family is sick and tired of it I’m sure because when momma’s on a health kick, momma doesn’t really cook tasty things. We have a menu in our kitchen where I write out the meals for the week. For the last few weeks, it might as well said “Fend for yourself, momma’s on a diet!” Sure, they could eat what I eat, but they don’t have the same love for sautéed zucchini and peppers every night like I do. They pass on the scrambled egg whites that replaced the yummy breakfast casserole bubbling in the oven on the weekend. You bet your bippy I’m not spending an hour making spaghetti and meatballs if I’m not going to eat any. That’s just torture! I did buy them ice cream drumsticks at the store tonight and told them to promise to save me one for when my week of hell, I mean healthy eating is up and I can have a few splurges before starting round two. Normally, I’m all for moderation and treating yourself every once in a while, but I had to do something drastic because this body was getting a little too comfy growing heavier and heavier. Jeans, shorts, and capris that fit last year are waaaay too tight. I want to wear workout clothes all the time because the waistband is so much more understanding and less judgmental. My goal is to lose a little weight, keep building muscle and try to retrain my body to love good for you veggies and make them more of a regular everyday food. Oh, and drink my sorrows and toxins away with a minimum of a gallon of water per day. So far, I’m learning to love zucchini and peppers. I’ve always enjoyed them, but really now they are a staple to my lunches and dinners. I’ve noticed that my self-control is improving a little bit. I still crave a burger at least a few times a day and the smell of Burger King can make me drool like Pavlov’s dogs. And I don’t even really like Burger King, but man it smells good when I drive by. I bought some new pajamas last weekend that have little cheeseburgers on the shorts and one on the tank top, if that says anything. I’m wearing them as I type this up so I thought I’d include a little photo to share the cuteness of these jammies. I may have to go back to see if the ice cream ones are still hanging on the sale rack.

So I have a long, long ways to go, and I’m sure I will mess up and fall back on bad choices from time to time, but I will survive, I will pull up my hopefully too big for me pants and I will keep moving forward. I will still eat that burger that calls my name one the hour, but it better be incorporated into a week full of good choices. For a while there, I was hitting Sonic once or twice a week. The car hops knew my voice when I ordered over the speaker. Man, that’s bad.

This recipe will surely help you increase those veggies. It’s a stir fry full of whatever veggies you like and a Thai inspired sauce to compliment it all. The sauce could be used as a marinade or to top chicken or fish. It’s really versatile and so simple to throw together. I purchased a julienne peeler online and it’s so fun to use, so really this is also a great excuse to dig that fun gadget out of the drawer.

You can just chop the veggies if you don’t have a julienne peeler or one of those fancy little zoodle kitchen gadgets that make noodles out of veggies.

My niece and her husband are healthy eaters and will substitute zucchini or squash noodles or zoodles instead of pasta with a spaghetti sauce. I haven’t taken the plunge and tried this yet, you know how I adore my pasta. But, I will give it a try sometime, pinky promise.

For any kind of stir fry, you want to prep and chop all your veggies first since they cook so fast.

Here’s all the veggies for my stir fry. I used Zucchini, carrots, onion, broccoli, celery, a few green beans and used cilantro, lime, and peanuts for garnish. I love to have snow peas in my stir fry, but didn’t have any left in the fridge. You can keep the stir fry with just veggies, or incorporate a little pasta if you want. So you can have a little combination of veggie noodles or zoodles and real deal pasta noodles too. This is still a healthier alternative to serving over rice or with a full serving of pasta. This will help to stretch the meal to serve a few more too.

I used chicken for my protein. You can use whatever protein you like, or make this vegetarian and omit the meat.

I pre chopped the meat before cooking it so it’s ready to go.

You want to set the chopped veggies and meat aside and make your sauce. I made mine from scratch, but I often keep a jar of store-bought Thai sauce on hand for those times when I’m really in a hurry or just trying to throw something together.

For the homemade Thai Sauce:

Zest and Juice of one lime (I forgot to include the lime in the above picture).

4 TBS Low Sodium Soy Sauce

2 TBS Canola or vegetable oil

2 TBS Brown Sugar

1-2 TBS Sriracha Sauce

3 teas corn starch mixed in 1 C cold water.

Directions:

Zest and juice the lime into a small sauce pan on medium heat.

Add in Soy sauce, sriracha, and oil.

Whisk in brown sugar and heat over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.

Slowly whisk in corn starch mixed in 1 C water.

Stir this on medium heat until it thickens and bubbles. Reduce heat.

Keep this on low as you prepare the stir fry.

In a large skillet or wok, heat up a little oil and cook your meat until just about done.

Remove the meat and set aside. Using same wok or skillet, begin to add your veggies. Begin with the veggies you want cooked the most (like onions, carrots etc)

Stir these on medium – high heat as they cook and add in more veggies and continue to stir and cook.

Once all or most of your veggies are almost all cooked, add your meat back in and let it cook a minute with the veggies.

Now it’s time to add that sauce in.

Turn off the heat and just carefully toss to coat all the veggies and meat with the sauce.

That’s a whole lot of veggies!

I like to garnish each serving with a little lime juice and fresh cilantro. I added a few peanuts this time since I had them on hand.